SolFor isociadl ownershaip of the rbanks iand itndustryy No 395 24 February 2016 50p/£1 Inside: Junior doctors YES TO EUROPE step up fight YES TO SOCIALISM

Junior doctors have made plans for escalating strikes in the junior contract dispute. See page 3 Are we all savages?

Solidarity reviews ‘The Revenant’, in cinemas now. See pages 6-7 Librarians plan strikes to save services

Ruth Cashman, Lambeth Unison, reports on library workers’ plans to strike. NO BREXIT! FIGDavHid CameTron’s negFotiatioOns with Rthe EU : and the referendum now set for 23 June were See page 9 designed to woo UKIP voters back to the Conservative Party. • MIGRANT RIGHTS Most of big business oppose Brexit because they think (rightly) that it might disrupt flows of Join Labour! investment, trade, and labour. Maybe not much, since a capitalist Britain out of the EU would probably try to negotiate a deal similar to Norway and Left-wing activists • OPEN BORDERS Switzerland, which apply almost all EU regulations without having a say in them, but it might disrupt. expelled from As socialists, our concern is not what is “good for business”. Labour! Join the Solidarity is for a vote to remain in Europe for the • LEVELLING UP exact opposite reason that the Tory right and Ukip are for Brexit. We support workers’ rights and open anti-purge campaign borders. We dislike the existing EU regime because we want more workers’ rights, and more open borders, than it includes. • EURO-DEMOCRACY More page 5 See page 10 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Cause to be grateful to “an erratic Marxist”

Matt Hanley reports from line Lucas, Mayor of Barcelona Ada be developed to strengthen Eu - Berlin Colau, Irish Labour MEP Nessa rope’s integration “from below” by Childers, Slavoj Žižek, some bringing people together who want Podemos MEPs, and members of European integration on a demo - The queue on 9 February went all Germany’s Blockupy. And Brian cratic basis. the way around the block for a Eno, as only one of a large number Time will tell if anything comes ticket-only political rally that had of artists and people from the out of this, but it is refreshing that nevertheless been sold out for world of music and theatre who someone seen as being of the left, months. have put their name to DiEM’s yet is not a nationalist demagogue It was standing room only in an - launch documents. People from — and is well-known across the other part of the Volksbühne the - “the world of work” are noticeable continent — is willing to launch atre at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in by their absence — even big names, such an initiative, without putting Berlin, where the event was shown let alone the rank-and-file. himself forward as a “saviour”, de - simultaneously on a video screen For all of the reasonable criticism spite a clear ego and a good televi - — the launching of the “Democ - made by Varoufakis and others that sion manner. racy in Europe Movement”, DiEM, the EU is controlled by unelected This approach is diametrically by “erratic Marxist”, game theorist bureaucrats who claim to be apolit - litical “erraticism”: “Some of my swered “to my friends in the Com - opposed to that of French social de - and ex-finance minister in the ical — technocrats — yet are any - greatest political friends, associates munist Party and radical parts of mocrat “saviour” Jean-Luc Mélen - Greek Syriza government, Profes - thing but, it is hard not to criticise and collaborators are people who the left who are articulating the po - chon, or German ex-finance sor Yanis Varoufakis. his apolitical protestations that the would be described in Britain as sition that disintegration, going minister and former leader of Die “What’s his game?” is surely the major problem with the European Thatcherites and neoliberals, those back to our national currencies, to Linke, Oskar Lafontaine, whose question to ask. A recent Solidarity Union is one of a lack of democracy who are incensed at the lack of our nation states and so on, is our “Plan B” for Europe amounts to lit - editorial thought the event would and transparency, when he does democracy in Europe”, claimed the solution, I remind them that... in tle more than a retreat back to na - be more of a “personal vehicle” for not offer any alternative pro - Professor at the press conference the 1930s, it was not humanism, it tional currencies and the nation Varoufakis than a movement. Yet gramme (yet). before the rally. Are these the peo - was not the left that benefited. It state. (And Lafontaine has some - DiEM has only just been launched. Would the EU be fine if it had the ple he seriously wants to work was the fascists, it was the Nazis. what unsavoury positions on the Varoufakis may well have been same policies as now, but they were with? Hardly. And Europe fell into a terrible trap refugee crisis.) centre stage, as the biggest name in - legitimated by the “people” of Eu - And would these “great friends” with immense human costs. Do we DiEM offers the possibility to volved, but he didn’t completely rope? Of course not, and surely want to join him in quoting Rosa want the same? I certainly don’t.” get the message that “another dominate the event, which was in - Varoufakis does not really believe Luxemburg on bureaucracy in the Refusing to retreat into nation- Europe is possible”, without tended as the starting shot of a this. For all his claims that DiEM is young Soviet Union? Probably not, stateism and instead democratising wishing for the total destruction broad-based, explicitly not left- not to be a leftist movement, but in - though I wouldn’t put it past the European Union — and its na - of the European Union, out to far wing, pan-European movement to stead an “alliance of democrats”, Michael Gove. tion states — is a fine aim and a de - more people than would other - democratise the EU. the speakers were clearly of the left When asked if he should, like the mand which needs to be made, and wise be thinkable. For this alone, Others speaking in Berlin, who and far-left, even if not especially to KKE, the Greek CP, not want coun - carried through. DiEM aims to we may have cause to be grate - were involved in the discussions the taste of this writer and probably tries to withdraw from the EU and spend the next two years organis - ful to Europe’s probably most which led to the launch of DiEM, many readers of this paper. argue for its break up — like his ing events across Europe, online well-known Marxist politician, included British Green MP Caro - This was not the only point of po - Thatcherite associates — he an - and analogue, in which policies can “erratic” or not. Strikes and boycotts in Iraqi Kurdistan

Aso Kamal, Kurdish socialist The people have not accepted it, 25% minimum wage cut. They also bani families. Nobody knows gion, like Gulf and General Energy, they have said that the KRG rulers want the money that has been where the money goes, how they hold shares in the oil of Iraqi Kur - activist, spoke to Solidarity about class struggle in Iraqi have a lot of profits being put away stashed by KRG leaders in foreign spend it, and so on. People are ask - distan. They have a share in the ad - Kurdistan in European banks and so on. banks to be returned to Kurdistan,; ing for clarity on this question. ministration of the oil, and they The KRG wants to use religious and for money that has been si - They know that if KDP and PUK have power there. leaders in their battles. There is a phoned off by corrupt officials to be are still in power, it is because they The cheap oil in Iraqi Kurdistan There is a recession in Iraqi Kur - religious ministry in Iraqi Kurdis - returned to the public coffers. have militias and they are ruling on is going to international compa - distan, and there are strikes and tan, paid by the government. At There is a lack of clarity about in - the basis of a militia system. nies and to Turkey. And income demonstrations happening all Friday prayers, the preachers pro - come from oil. The oil revenue is It is clear that the oil is going is going straight to the KDP and the time. mote the government’s decisions controlled by the Barzani and Tala - cheap. Other companies in the re - the PUK. Since 2006, Kurdistan has had a and arguments. They tell people to share in the world oil market. From wait and be patient, to end the boy - 2013, the oil price fell and the cotts and strikes, and work without budget of the Kurdistan Regional pay. For that reason, people are Government (KRG) has fallen. The turning against the preachers. Making solidarity on Iran’s “revolution day” price was $100/barrel but now it is These are the methods that the more like $30/barrel. So there is a government is using to keep the On 11 February activists in London gathered at the Iranian currency crisis and an economic cri - people down. regime’s embassy to protest sis. Now the KRG is $22 billion in There is a political crisis in Iraqi against the usurpation of the debt. They are selling one million Kurdistan. The [ruling] KDP won’t glorious revolution of 1979 by barrels of oil a day, from work with the Change Party (Gor - the most blood-soaked section Suleimaniya, Kirkuk, Erbil, Dohok. ran, the official opposition, a split of Iran’s bourgeoisie — the For the last six months, the KRG from the PUK), leading to deadlock reactionary Shia hierarchy. has not paid any wages to its 1.5 in the parliament. The crisis came 11 February is the official million civil servants. There are about after Barzani, having served strikes and boycotts everywhere. celebration of “Revolution Day” his term, refused to step down. Par - Public services are collapsing. Doc - in Iran but the fact that the liament is not working, the minis - tors, teachers, workers and every - revolution was driven forward ters have gone home. The people one who is owed pay from the by Iranian workers, fighting not and the representatives of the government is on strike. only against the corrupt strikes and demonstrations have Liz Lawrence, National President of the UCU (left) and activists outside the Iranian In February, the KRG said that monarchy but also against the lost faith in the leaders of Change Embassy (right). they had to cut wages in order to capitalist system. They were and other opposition parties, in - manage their way out of the eco - robbed of their gains in the cluding Islamist parties. Freedom’s meeting about the Trade workers. Union leaders took nomic crisis. The civil service min - revolution and then savagely Teachers, doctors, electricity and Union Bill and collected petition “selfie” pictures holding a signs in imum wage is £100 a month for repressed for over 35 years. water workers, are demanding signatures on a petition against the solidarity with Iranian unionists. most government departments and In the evening activists attended their wages from the last six arrest of Iran’s Khatoonabad copper • http://iwsn.org the KRG wants to cut this by 25%. the Campaign for Trade Union months and they are against the Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty NEWS 3 Junior doctors fight imposition of contracts

By Pete Campbell, British Medical Association Junior Doctors Committee (p.c.) The BMA has called three 48- hour strikes over the next two months against government plans to impose a new contract on junior doctors from August 2016. The strikes will take place on 9- 11 March, 6-8 April and 26-28 April. The new contract would mean a substantial pay cut for many junior doctors, changes to working pat - terns by introducing non-resident on-calls and increases in the hours designated “plain time” (rather than unsociable hours, and thus paid at a reduced rate). The con - tract and its imposition has been widely condemned by junior doc - Make banks public utilities! tors and the wider medical profes - some doctors working single night sion. shifts then immediately returning In a letter to junior doctors, the to day shifts, and doctors working By Colin Foster tially trigger many trillions of ad - Chair of the Junior Doctors’ Com - consecutive weekends. This last ditional costs to society”. mittee, Johann Malwanna, high - change was something junior doc - Banks should be public utilities, Kashkari also suggested the lighted the BMA’s argument that, tors were told would not happen or at least so closely regulated Sanders alternative — “breaking in pursuit of the a “7-day service” by the Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary that they must behave like pub - up large banks into smaller, less agenda, the government is at - of State. lic utilities. They shouldn’t be connected, less important entities” tempting to impose a contract The labour movement must free to do whatever brings most — though he did not explain how which asks doctors to do more for stand up and support junior doc - profit to their bosses and share - that would help decisively. (If less. tors in the forthcoming action, as holders. hundreds or thousands of smaller While everyone is in favour of they fight for decent and fair terms If you’re a regular reader, you banks go bust, as happened in the increasing services within the will know that’s Solidarity’s view. 1930s, that has knock-on effects as NHS, the Tory austerity agenda and conditions. We must oppose imposition of You may not be surprised to hear bad as a few bigger banks failing). stops these changes from being that in 2012 the TUC voted for He said that changes in regula - funded. The imposed junior doctor contracts upon any worker; it is public ownership and democratic tion since 2008 have been insuffi - contract will not help provide the clear that if this government control of the banks. cient. “The financial sector has services, as junior doctors already feels it can impose contracts, it You may be disappointed that lobbied hard to preserve its cur - provide 24-hour 7-day a week will not stop with junior doctors. the new Labour Party leadership cover, and the government is not We must not allow the govern - rent structure and thrown up end - of Jeremy Corbyn and John Mc - proposing to train any more doc - ment’s political desires to de - less objections to fundamental Donnell has not yet taken that tors. stroy a key workforce within our much capital that they virtually change”. TUC demand into their economic The government and NHS em - NHS. can’t fail (with regulation akin to Kashkari restates much of the policy, or that Bernie Sanders in ployers came in for more scorn that of a nuclear power plant)”. basic socialist case for a whole the USA calls only for the big when new model rotas were sup - • Petition: Labour Party should economy which runs as “a public banks to be broken up, not for His scary experience in 2008 has plied to junior doctors. These call a demonstration in support of utility”, rather than as whatever them to be made public utilities. shaken him up. showed no more doctors working junior doctors — the rival profit-greedy efforts of a But you will probably be sur - The nuclear reactor analogy at the weekend than previously, bit.ly/labourNHS holds, he said, because “the cost to small minority of business-owners prised by the latest news from the make of it. USA. society of letting a reactor melt On one level, he misses only Neel Kashkari, a US financier, a down is astronomical. Given that two points. First, that his argu - Migrant solidarity activists gather lifelong Republican, on his own cost, governments will do what - ment applies to other giant capi - description “a free-market Repub - ever they can to stabilize the reac - tor before they lose control”. talist enterprises as well as banks. aid to refugees. He reported how lican”, has called for the banks to By Ollie Moore be made public utilities. Big banks, he said, are the same. If the big US car corporations, for much of his work involves tending When they get into trouble, it’s not example, had gone bust in 2008-9, to refugees injured by the French He worked for Hank Paulson at Anti-racist and migrant solidarity the US Treasury on the $700 billion the idealised picture of the won - rather than being bailed out by the activists met at London’s School police or by the gangs of racist, far- derful free market firmly but fairly government, that would have right activists who now regularly bank bailout program (TARP) to of Oriental and African Studies stop the financial crash escalating ensuring that all economic enter - brought huge knock-on damage on 20 February. raid the camp. prise is trim and efficient. too. Other sessions discussed the in 2008. He has recently become This was a summit organised by “Even with the 2008 bailouts, And second, that these giant migrant and refugee crisis in the the president of the Minneapolis “London2Calais”, a solidarity net - the costs to society from the finan - capitalist enterprises do great context of imperialist conflicts in Federal Reserve Bank. work involved in building links cial crisis in terms of lost jobs, lost harm — exploiting and abusing the Middle East and elsewhere, He is as pro-capitalist, as eco - with and providing practical sup - income and lost wealth were stag - workers, misdirecting invest - and how migrant and refugee nomically conservative, as you port for migrants in the “Jungle” can imagine anyone being. gering — many trillions of dollars ment, recklessly running up so - solidarity work fits into wider camp in Calais. But in a speech in Washington and devastation for millions of cial and ecological costs — anti-racist and anti-fascist cam - The opening plenary featured a on 16 February he proposed families... We had a choice in 2008: when they are doing well in their paigning. harrowing report, via Skype link, “turning large banks into public Spend taxpayer money to stabilize own terms, as well as when from Shakir, a Pakistani resident of utilities by forcing them to hold so large banks, or don’t, and poten - they are doing badly. the Jungle, who provides medical • Facebook.com/london2calais 4 COMMENT Email your letters to [email protected] Brexit will not be “left”, but a step backwards leave us with a profoundly undemocratic for their rights and against racism! THE LEFT British capitalist state, with a monarchy, an We should not fatalistically accept the “ir - unelected second chamber, and a wholly un - revocable” or “irreversible” nature of the By Michael Johnson accountable state bureaucracy — not to men - EU’s commitment to neoliberal capitalism in tion its police, army and “secret state”. This order rationalise a relapse back into national A statement arguing for a “left exit” from would be Britain committed wholly, as now, capitalist states — which will be no less rapa - the European Union (EU) appeared in the to austerity and to trade agreements such as cious in their attacks on workers and thirst Guardian on 17 February, signed by sev - Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partner - for profits. Rather than roll history back - eral trade unionists, a smattering of Stal - ship (TTIP). In what sense is this a step for - wards, we need to push through the capital - inists and a number of others. ward for workers? ist semi-unification of Europe towards a The statement contains a collection of Exit will not be a blow for democracy. Just genuinely democratic workers’ europe. mostly true claims about the EU. It is true as the British working-class fought the rul - We are agree on a the need for “a positive that the EU is an undemocratic institution ing-class over two centuries for the very real vision of a future Europe based on democ - wedded to neoliberal capitalism and com - yet still limited democratic rights we have racy, social justice and ecological sustainabil - plicit in attacks on workers’ rights and social today, the workers’ movement across Europe ity, not the profit-making interests of a tiny conditions. It is true that “Fortress Europe” needs to unite to extend democracy across elite.” But it just does not follow that the left discriminates, often murderously, against the continent. Pulling out of the EU is to seek should therefore advocate “a vote to leave the non-European migrants, and that the EU has the short-cut of national solutions and can Mick Cash, General Secretary of the RMT EU in the forthcoming referendum on UK imposed brutal austerity on Greece and other only cut us off from our potential allies in Eu - membership”. This will take us further away, European states. union and one of the signatories to the “left rope. exit” statement not closer, from the Europe that we need. Yet, as is often the case, a collection of true Worse still, the shameful “Fortress Europe” We should call for a vote to stay in the or half-true statements can be used to paint a we have today will be augmented by a ity, migrants will be prey to hostile xenopho - EU, and argue for an independent labour skewed picture of reality — and to draw con - “Fortress Britain”, with the residency status bic forces with or without the Schengen movement campaign to defend migrant clusions which are radically false. of European migrants in Britain placed under agreement”. It fails to explain why the solu - and freedom of movement, and fight All the claims made against the EU are also threat. The statement rightly says that “with - tion is to erect more borders and not to unite for the levelling up of wages, conditions, true about Britain. Pulling out of the EU will out labour rights and an alternative to auster - workers across Europe to fight collectively services, and rights across Europe. The metamorphosis of Andrew Gilligan

surprise me were that to recur this time lied here. Clue: it isn’t hapless Blairite MPs. DAVID OSLAND round. I’m not one of those lefties who makes Let us be clear, nobody has been caught counterproductive calls for state intrusion in Andrew Gilligan, it should not be forgot - red-handed running Kalashnikovs for Is - what still counts as a free press, even in ten, once saw better days. lamic State, or dangling kittens over bunsen broadsheets owned by tax exiles with their Thirteen years ago, the BBC reporter’s role burners as sweet little Sunday School kiddies own private Channel Island. Vindication will in making clear that the Blair administration look on aghast. come through the success of the Labour left purposely sexed up the first of the two The targets for Gilligan’s venom have done project, if it comes at all. dossiers advanced in fraudulent justification no more than to engage in the democratic But Andrew — a guy I used to know well for the invasion of Iraq should rightly have process, and given up more Saturdays to sit enough to be on first name terms — really won him every journalistic prize going, not in committee meetings than anybody reason - needs to rethink this tawdry little vendetta to mention the plaudits of the entire left. ably should. and recall that the best traditions of the inves - Predictably, the New Labour machine re - Gilligan’s latest epic appears under the tigative journalism in which he once excelled sponded with all the brutal fury it alone headline ‘The radical hard-left Momentum do not run to kicking seven shades out of the could muster. ‘Scuse French if I quote verba - activists mounting a ruthless purge of defenceless. tim the party’s then director of communica - Labour’. It’s all a long way down from rocking tions Alastair Campbell, a thuggish Purge? My, how wonderfully evocative of governments, isn’t it, mate? adversary with rather better claim to the ep - the USSR in the 1930s that term is, and en - ithet “Stalinist” than the incumbent, who tirely deliberately, of course. But Momentum openly averred his determination to “fuck has ‘mounted a purge’ how, exactly? Gilligan”. Since Corbyn’s election to the Labour lead - Fuck Gilligan Campbell proceeded to do, ership last September, not one single MP has Bernie Sanders: a socialist and fuck him most royally, come to that. For been deselected, and, to the best of my the crime of reporting a story that was pretty knowledge, not one single party member has President in the USA? much on the money, Andrew lost his job, and been expelled on ideological grounds. The dramatic rise of avowed socialist was subject to some spectacularly salacious ingstone. Some of those at the sharp end were If some MPs are not chosen again as candi - Bernie Sanders’ campaign for President innuendo about his solitary sexual practices friends of mine then, and some of those who dates in 2020, that will be through the mech - has shaken American politics, pushing in Private Eye . For many years, his name was have not subsequently passed away I am anism of trigger ballots rather than the the limits of the corporate liberalism rep - unfairly upheld as synonymous with sloppy glad to call friends still. mechanism of triggers. No-one will be shot resented by Hilary Clinton and Barack journalism. Today, it seems only the names have in the back of the neck and the family pre - Obama. All that, of course, was in 2003, and the changed. Andrew Fisher, James Schneider, sented with the bill for the bullet. Can Sanders still win? If he doesn’t years immediately thereafter. Fast forward to Christine Shawcroft, Simon Hewitt, Michael Old uncle Lavrentiy Beria would no doubt win the Democratic nomination, what the current decade, and he has now sadly re- Chessum, Frankie Leach, Louise Whittle, be thoroughly ashamed of those of us now should the left advocate? What does emerged as specialist in churning out mere - Marshajane Thompson, Jackie Walker and Jill branded his spiritual children for wimping Sanders represent politically? How does tricious ostensible exposés of Labour activists Mountford, to name but a few, have all been out, but hey, that’s the way it is with the new his rise relate to the rise of Corbyn in for the benefit of politically prurient Telegraph hung out to dry by sections of the rightwing kinder, gentler politics. We’re just too damn Britain and movements like Syriza and readers. mass media. nice to our opponents. Podemos? He’s hardly Britain’s sole purveyor of vin - Spent convictions — and shamefully, even The suggestion in the subhead that ‘the dictive high-octane Corbynista bashing. Far the criminal records of people’s parents — identities and backgrounds of those control - from it. But the regularity of his broadsides are plastered all over the public prints. Past ling Momentum can be revealed for the first Speakers: do make him stand out, even at a time when political follies and asinine Tweets are relent - time’ is equally daft. Anyone could readily Traven Leyshon, Vermont socialists are being exposed to a level of vitu - lessly brought to light. If there is no dirt, what have ascertained the identities and back - Teamsters/AFL-CIO leader and peration unprecedented since the heyday of the heck, these guys are fair game to be grounds of everyone mentioned via an expe - organiser for the Sanders campaign Bennism. named and shamed anyway. dient no more strenuous than entering their (by Skype) In the 1980s, the victims were the likes of This sort of treatment comes with conse - names into Google. Eric Lee, “London for Bernie” Joan Twelves and Greg Tucker, Linda Bellos, quences. Most obviously, job prospects may Of course, people who engage in politics at Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, Derek Hatton, suffer. There will be strains in family life. And any level should be subject to scrutiny. But re - I know for a fact that some comrades that hit peated corrosive attacks in mass circulation Thursday, 17 March 7-9 pm Mandy Mudd, Pat Wall and the man the Sun - Lucas Arms, 245A Gray’s Inn Road day Express (27 October 1981) memorably the headlines in the 1980s paid a price in newspapers, with no means of redress, raises branded “IRA-loving, poof loving” Ken Liv - terms of their mental health, and it wouldn’t the obvious question of just who is being bul - London, WC1X 8QY Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 Yes to Europe, yes to socialism!

David Cameron’s negotiations with the EU and the 23 June referendum were de - signed to woo UKIP voters back to the Conservative Party. However the concessions he has won are relatively minor; instead he has infuriated large numbers of Tory MPs and deepened the division in his own party. As the Financial Times put it: “Eurosceptics would have preferred the prime minister to be ‘battling hard’ over the repatriation of EU employment law, scrap - ping the Common Agricultural Policy or as - serting British supremacy over EU law, not child benefit payments for Polish plasterers.” “Repatriation of EU employment law” here means enabling the British government to scrap the laws deriving from EU rules which limit working hours, give rights to agency workers, require consultation on re - dundancies, and protect earnings when a job is transferred from one contractor to another. That’s what right-wing Tories and Ukip want, as well taking rights away from EU- origin people now working in Britain, and making it more difficult for workers to move across borders to get better jobs.

CUTS Cameron couldn’t get that, and settled for mean-spirited and reactionary — but, in the large picture, minor — benefit cuts. Thus the Daily Mail has claimed that 140 Tory MPs now publicly support leaving. Nearly 100 still have to declare. Seven Cabi - net members, including Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, and the shameless oppor - tunist Boris Johnson, have declared for Brexit. Most of big business oppose Brexit because for the exact opposite reason that the Tory solidarity of workers across Europe to win Yet the SWP, Socialist Party and CP-backed they think (rightly) that it might disrupt right and Ukip are for Brexit. We support more workers’ rights, more open borders, Morning Star newspaper think they can build flows of investment, trade, and labour. workers’ rights and open borders. We dislike more social levelling-up, more migrant a “left-wing” campaign to leave the EU. Maybe not much, since a capitalist Britain out the existing EU regime because we want rights. There are many faults with the EU: we will of the EU would probably try to negotiate a more workers’ rights, and more open bor - The Labour Party is officially committed to vote “in” to get a better basis for a fight for deal similar to Norway and Switzerland, ders, than it includes. campaigning for an in vote, and only a few democracy across Europe, not because we which apply almost all EU regulations with - The Tory right and Ukip want to use Brexit Labour MPs are lining up with Ukip and the like the present undemocratic structures. out having a say in them; but it might disrupt as a springboard to turn Britain into a mini - Tory right. But how can building higher barriers be - business relations. mal-workers’-rights, low-regulation, low- Jeremy Corbyn responded to Cameron: tween countries improve the prospects for As socialists, our concern is not what is or wage, low-social-provision, offshore site for “The prime minister has been negotiating for working-class cooperation and joint indus - isn’t “good for business”. the multinationals. We want to use a vote to the wrong goals in the wrong way for the trial and political effort at the European Solidarity is for a vote to remain in Europe stay in as a springboard for greater unity and wrong reasons. level? It can’t, particularly in a climate where “He should have been talking to other Eu - a major plank of the “leave” rhetoric is anti- ropean leaders about action to save our steel migrant. industry; about how to stop the spread of low The bosses are uniting across Europe. So pay and insecure jobs, and end the undercut - must we! We should not seek to retreat to the Cameron’s EU deal ting of wage rates and industry-wide agree - situation that prevailed before European in - ments through the exploitation of migrant tegration: competing and often warring cap - What Cameron demanded from the ne - passed, and to all workers in the EU from 1 workers. He should have been focused on the italist states. gotiations and what he got: January 2020. Applied now, this would af - scandal of the refugee camps in Calais and A really “left-wing” leave campaign is im - 1. He wanted a freeze to EU migrants’ in- fect 34,000 children of EU migrants work - Dunkirk and how to deal with Europe’s mi - possible where the “leave” camp is domi - work benefits, e.g. tax credits and housing ing in the UK, and the actual saving to the gration crisis in an equitable way. nated by Little Englanders and xenophobic benefit. What he got: If it wants and if it UK would be just £25m (or maybe nothing, “He could have been using Britain’s lever - migrant-bashing or scapegoating. meets certain criteria, the UK can in future once the extra admin costs are factored in). age to stop the threat to our services and We support the campaigns Another Europe apply an “emergency brake”. This would The measure is nasty and will be financially rights in the secretive Transatlantic Trade and Is Possible and Workers’ Europe. The Work - mean EU migrants working in the UK significant to some families. Its purpose for Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations; ers’ Europe Facebook page and blog provide would not be eligible to the same benefits Cameron is symbolic. to build human rights and environmental campaigning resources, including up-to-date as other workers, for up to four years. 3. Protection for countries outside the eu - protection into future trade treaties; and halt articles and comment, and model motions to Cameron conceded that the changes would rozone against regulation made by those in - the pressure from Brussels to deregulate and put to your union/Labour Party branch or not apply to EU workers already in the UK, side: Cameron won the right of privatise public services. He could have been student union, supporting these vital ideas: only to new arrivals. Once the brake is ap - non-eurozone states to force a debate arguing for an end to self-defeating austerity • Vote against UK withdrawal from the EU plied, these rules can remain in place for among EU leaders about “problem” euro - and for the strengthening of workers’ rights • Defend migrants’ rights and oppose seven years only, although repeat applica - zone laws. That does not amount to a veto. across Europe…. racism tions are allowed. It only delays matters. “Cameron’s Tories want a free-market cor - • Campaign for a workers’ Europe 2. Stopping EU migrant workers sending 4. Cameron wanted a declaration that the porate Europe. We want a social Europe of based on solidarity between working peo - child benefit to their children living outside treaty motto of “ever closer union among decent jobs and equality for all.” ple. the UK. Before the EU summit Cameron the peoples of Europe” did not apply to the That was more promising than the so-far stepped back to the demand that child ben - UK. uninspiring official “Labour In for Britain” Contact Workers’ Europe: efit should be indexed to the standard of He got this reassurance: “It is recog - campaign, run by right-winger Alan Johnson. www.facebook.com/ForAWorkersEurope living in the country where the children nised that the UK ... is not committed to The “Brexit” camp includes much of the @workers_europe live. Cameron got that. It will apply to new further political integration in the Euro - Tory Party (and the worst parts of it); Ukip; campaign.workerseurope.net arrivals to the UK, once legislation has been pean Union... References to ever-closer forces to the right of Ukip; and charlatans [email protected] union do not apply to the UK.” such as George Galloway. AEIP: www.anothereurope.org More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Returning to But the USSR’s statist planning and mobilisa - ership of the Revolution. Others would find tion of ‘labour armies’, including forced the assertion empty. labour in the Gulag, its “socialist primitive ac - cumulation” may be considered, as Martin INTERNATIONAL Thomas argues, not as a leap out of the capi - It is harder still to associate “orthodoxy” talist world at all. It was “a compressed, in - with the main Fourth International, figures tensified version of the use of direct such as Ernest Mandel or Michel Raptis, extra-economic force’ in the ‘historic genesis charged with apostasy by the same James of capitalist production’”. In other words, the P Cannon in the 1953-4 split in the Fourth mode of production was not really trans - International, accused of straying from formed by the Bolshevik Revolution at all. If Trotskyism for their support for Third- this was an oddity, normality eventually re - World movements of national liberation, asserted itself. 1 not to mention the 1970s controversies on Stalinist imperialism is not just a bone of guerrilla warfare, to today’s discussion contention or an historical issue. New Left cir - about ecology and globalisation. cles influenced by Isaac Deutscher argued The claim that the various ‘orthodox’ that the USSR was a progressive international French Trotskyist parties led by Pierre Boussel force through its support for national libera - (‘Lambert’) indulged Stalinism ignores their tion movements. There are those who con - intimate association with the American sider that Russian President Putin and a host funded post-War break-away from the Com - of other non-Western powers represent today munist led trade union federation, the CGT, a kind of necessary “counter-balance” to the Force Ouvrière, not to mention their actual US-led Imperium. This might be considered, writings — virulently hostile — on the East - recalling Alex Callinicos’ words, as a theory ern Bloc. 2 designed to be adapted to the needs of local There are other ways of describing the di - lefts, desperate to discover some “resistance” visions within Trotskyism. Bensaïd called the to the American hegemon. Trotskyists’ splintering into mutually antago - The Two Trotskyisms presents a view of the nistic tendencies, in the aftermath of the Sec - history of the Trotskyist movement. Any ac - ond World War, the “scattering of the tribes”. count on this topic, by the rules of the genre, At the Second Congress of the Fourth Inter - framework of the former Soviet Bloc, the sev - has to be controversial. national in 1948 the Workers Party and Matgamna succeeds in demonstrating that Andrew Coates reviews The Two eral decades of Trotskyist, reflection and de - Shachtman were still present. In a protest at Trotskyisms confront Stalinism , edited bate, orthodox and heterodox play an there is a value in looking at the critical stand the lack of clarity and democracy during the by Sean Matgamna. Part one of the essential part in the effort to develop a social - of the “Heterodox” towards the SWP leader - conference he united with one faction, repre - review was printed in Solidarity 394. ist alternative today. ship, and the orthodoxy associated with Trot - sented by Cornelius Castoriadis. The Franco- Differing stands on these issues, examining sky. Yet it is a mental wrench for the reviewer, Greek theorist’s subsequent history went The debates in this volume are about the Trotsky’s and many other views, is explored politically brought up on British and other beyond heterodoxy — designating the USSR armed foreign policy of the USSR. But be - more widely in Marcel van der Linden’s West - European left-debates, including Trotskyist as “bureaucratic capitalist” — to rejection in hind this is the issue of the nature of that ern Marxism and the Soviet Union (2007). In this ones, to enter the political and cultural world the name of workers’ self-management of all regime. context the clash between the “Orthodox” of the 1940s American SWP. This was Trotsky - the main tenets of Trotskyism, except Revolu - Some might consider that arguments about and the “Heterodox” Trotskyists is only one ism with a capital T. This is a group that tion. This indicates that post-War there was the character of the former Soviet Union — of many, more or less intense, debates. The George Orwell described in 1945 as having “a not one group, The Heterodox, but a nebula whether it was a workers’ state, a degener - “heterodox” Trotskyists produced evidence of fairly large number of adherents” with a of “Heterodoxies”. 3 ated workers’ state, state capitalist, bureau - Stalinist totalitarianism sprung to life and “petty fuehrer of its own” with an “essentially French Trotskyism is significant in the cratic collectivist, a “new class society” — ready for – defensive – expansion in the first negative inspiration.” European left culture, events leading up these divisions. During the resemble discussion on the Trinity. If some years of the Second World War. On the wider while influenced by a few organisations of the German occupation the policy of “revolution - Trotskyists have sunk into religious venera - theory of bureaucratic collectivism judge - same stripe, had and has much broader ary defeatism” was put into practice, in dif - tion for Trotsky a more common fault is ments are mixed. Were these forms a “freak” sources. From social democrats, Communist ferent ways by its already dispersed forces. scholasticism — “proof” of any view by ap - of history, as Shachtman sometimes argued? thinkers, democratic socialists, autonomists Trotskyist histories of the period glorify ef - peal to the authority of quotations from the The idea that these societies were, as Linden and anarchists, Western Marxists, non-Trot - forts to convince German soldiers to unite Old Man, Marx, Engels and Lenin. But when summarises, arranged in a sequence from skyist Leninists, not to mention activists and with French working class and other interna - it comes to working out what was wrong capitalism to something new, whatever we writers from the trade unions. Some of these tionalist actions. They tend to look with sus - with Stalinism, the economic and social label it, also seems to have outlived its use. would challenge Matgamna’s claim to own - picion on any “nationalist” support for the Reviews and critical commentary on The Two Trotskyisms confront Stalinism

“This book is an amazing textbook ... [it] “There are some who, for whatever rea - “Trotsky and to some extent Trotskyism presents the material in such a way as to sons, do not think there is much (or any) did their best to make sense of what must show the whole dialogue between two importance to such history ... To deny that have seemed utterly senseless, like the pri - species of socialism — crudely, between there is anything useful to learn from such oritised mass murder of millions of quite in - Shachtman and Cannon — as it developed excavations and explorations is inconsistent nocent people, but they were somehow too and, through the critical years, the devel - with a serious attitude toward the discipline close to the phenomenon to do it justice. Yet opment of the ideas of bureaucratic collec - of history, as well as toward political theory, to see how hard they tried, how valiantly tivism and the Third Camp theories. It not to mention Marxism. Sean Matgamna they struggled, how readily they sacrificed keeps track, not just of Trotskyism, but of has performed a genuine service for schol - their own futures for the sake of some basic Marxism, of socialism ... This book gives ars and activists.” understanding, there is no better place to us material to think about what socialism Paul Le Blanc start than here.” really is.” Robert Fine Ed Strauss Available now in both print and as an e-book. Order yours online today! Read more reviews: bit.ly/twotrotsreviews Buy your copy now bit.ly/twotrotskyisms HISTORY 6-7 How Trotskyist “orthodoxy” the sources scrambled Marxism Resistance — that is when a small number of marked by the Greek experience — refused Trotskyists joined the armed resistance. 4 any compromise with the Communist Party. By Sean Matgamna ism had reached its historic end was used in Yves Craipeau — an early “bureaucratic Some groups were equally hostile to the PCF, the spirit of utopian socialists who felt they collectivist” — recounts a key episode in that the Socialists and, to Trotskyists who could By around 1950, neo-Trotskyism had had discovered “the last word”. That Stalin - history. When the Allied forces landed in see any merit in calls for joint activity. Yves stood on its head the Communist Mani - ism was replacing capitalism was suppos - Normandy his faction, probably the largest, Craipeau left the Fourth International. Like festo and its basic ideas, that is, the edly proof of this proposition. 3) The idea that the proletarian revolution published in its underground paper, La the title of Peter Jenkins’s pamphlet he foundation of Marxism as it was in 1917. is made by the proletariat and cannot be Vérité , a headline, “ils se valent” — they’re thought that Trotskyism had got “lost”. Crai - 1) Marx and Engels made socialism “sci - made for them had been displaced by the the same. (June 1944) It went on to read, “En peau gauged that there were forces on the entific” by converting it from a moral idea of a locum acting to create, if not social - réalité, la libération de Roosevelt vaut tout left, outside the PCF and the Socialist SFIO, scheme, counterposed to capitalism, into a ism, then the first decisive step towards so - autant que le socialisme de Hitler’. (In reality who could form an independent left party. logical, although revolutionary, dialectical the liberation of Roosevelt means as much as development from material preconditions cialism — the creation of a “workers’ state”. The long story of efforts to create one, up to Working class rule was seen to inhere in the the socialism of Hitler.) The long-term effects the radical “new left” democratic socialist created by capitalism. In neo-Trotskyism of this declaration, which Craipeau opposed, (that is, mainstream revolutionary socialism, forms of bureaucratically nationalised prop - Parti Socialiste Unifié (PSU), in which Crai - erty. A totalitarian economism — a fetish of were such that those hostile to Trotskyism peau played a significant part, indicate yet for a whole era) a pre-Marxist sectarian re - would continue to cite it for decades – jection of capitalism on a world scale, and nationalised economy, separated off from all another direction, “post” Trotskyist, that though not apparently Trotskyist historians. an identification with Stalinist states as a the social and political conditions that might “heterodoxy” could take. 6 The divisions within the Greek Trotskyists progressive alternative (because they were give it a working-class socialist character — Is the study of Trotskyist heterodoxy the were even more severe. One wing, already in anti-capitalist), had replaced this idea of the was substituted for the traditional politics of best way to look at this complex past? Per - Marxism. The “revolutionary process” led conflict with the other, refused the “defence” relationship of capitalism to socialism. haps there is another way to return to the by Stalinist forces was the first and immedi - of the USSR and spent the War violently hos - The idea that capitalism (and even on sources of the left. Pierre Broué, once an Or - ate stage of the socialist revolution. Workers’ tile to the other. The Stalinists physically liq - some levels imperialism) is progressive was thodox activist in the French Lambertists rule would be a second and subsequent uidated some of them, though estimates give excised from Marxism. So was the idea that stage. the total at 50 (both groups together) not the who became respected historian of the move - to reject and negate the progressive work of 300 – Matgamna asserts. 5 ment, left this statement in his Memoirs . Re - capitalism (technology, bourgeois civilisa - Post-war the French Trotskyists briefly flecting on the fall of the Soviet Bloc and the tion, the creation of the working class) is sec - DEMOCRACY united in the Parti Communiste Internation - faults of the organisation which expelled tarian and backward-looking. Marxists The old communist centrality of democ - aliste (PCI). But one can easily imagine that him, he wrote in conclusion, “We must return reverted to the spirit of those who in the racy — even during the dictatorship of given this background during the conflict to our sources, become again the ‘party of mid-nineteenth century wanted to go back - the proletariat — went. Trotskyists would disunite again, on a basis communists’ which only marks itself out wards from industrialism and of those Democracy was a desirable extra. It could with deeper roots than the US SWP’s ideolog - from the mass of people with whom we live against whom Lenin polemicised for their be done without in the “workers’ revolu - ical disputes. The majority view, set out much by our devotion, our continuous thinking, “petty-bourgeois” desire to unscramble im - tion”, at least in the first and immediate later by Ernest Mandel was that they related our openness to the world, our capacity to perialist concentrations of industry back to stage. The idea of socialist revolution was to the electoral strength of the Parti Commu - struggle, our will to clarify, to help the masses an earlier stage of capitalism. detached from Marx’s notion of the organ - niste Français (PCF) and, one hopes, with see things through their own eyes.” 7 Even reactionary alternatives to capital - ised, self-aware working class as the force some due modesty, they recognised the By its democratic and serious thought ism, and not Stalinist ones alone, were seen that could make it, and reduced to millenar - ianism, the hope for a superhuman agent of legacy of the Communists’ role in the Resist - on some of the most serious issues of the as progressive, even though they destroyed liberation. ance. Part of the “scattering of the tribes”, 20th century has the fruits of world civilisation since the Ren - The Two Trotskyisms Again, Stalinism was central; it was the was a result of that effort. Castoriadis – contributed to these generous aims. aissance. World history was seen teleologi - cally as a process with an outcome — world prototype of the non-proletarian force which References: moires d’un dinosaure trotskyste . L’harmattan. socialism — mechanically fixed in advance, nonetheless, through a perverse twist of his - 1999. For an apologist’s account of Trotsky - tory, becomes the agent of proletarian (1) Shachtman and his critics’ views are cov - irrespective of what living women and men ism in the war, which ignores, amongst progress. ered in: Chapter 3 From Stalin’s ‘Great Leap did or failed to do. other incidents, this headline see: Pages 164– 4) Marx and Engels in the Communist Forwards’ to the ‘Great Patriotic War’ (1929– 2) The patently false notion that capital - 5. Revolutionary Marxism Today . Ernest Man - Manifesto saw the development of the or - 41) Marcel van der Linden Western Marxism del. NLB. 1975. This total and the tangled ganised, conscious communist political and the Soviet Union . Brill 2007. “Three Tra - history of Greek Trotskyism: Alexis Hen. party as integrally interlinked with the self- ditions? Marxism and the USSR”. Martin “Les trotskystes grecs pendant la seconde development of the whole working class. Thomas. Historical Materialism . Vol.14.3. guerre Mondiale” Cahiers balkaniques 38-39 The communists would “represent the fu - 2006.. (2011) ture of the movement in the movement of (2) On the Lambertists see the hostile ac - (6) Further material on Craipeau in English: the present”. This was replaced by the no - count, in great, if contentious, detail: Les The Third Camp in France. Workers’ Liberty tion of a “party” self-defined by the posses - Trotskistes . Christophe Nick. Fayard. 2002. 2#2. This, a small but important part of the sion of an esoteric doctrine and revelation. (3) Strategies of Resistance and ‘Who are the majority view on Stalinism was given by The Marxists were those who could see Trotskyists?’ Daniel Bensaïd. Resistance Ernest Germain (Mandel) Stalinism – How to the hidden and secret process leading to a Books. 2009. Max Shachtman. The Congress Understand it and How to Fight it . April 1947. socialist future within the horrors of Stalin - of the Fourth International. An Analysis of Marxist Internet Archive. On the wider rev - ism. Having once discovered that truth, the Bankruptcy of “Orthodox Trotskyism” olutionary expectations in France in this pe - their job was primarily to gain enough (October 1948) Marxist Internet Archive. riod amongst intellectuals – a significant forces, anyhow, to present themselves as Chapter 6. From the Second World Congress constituency for French Trotskyists — see “the leadership” to the elemental working- to the 1953 Split. The Long March of the Trot - this useful study: La Révolution rêvée. Pour class revolt guaranteed by the decay of cap - skyists , Pierre Frank. Marxist Internet une histoire des intellectuels et des oeuvres révo - italism. Archive. Francois Dosse. Castoriadis Une Vie . lutionnaires. 1944 – 1956 . Michel Surya. Fa - Neo-Trotskyism, rationalising from La Découverte. 2014. yard. 2004. Stalinist reality and building its “revolu - (4) Ian H. Birchall. “With the Masses, (7) “nous devons revenir à nos sources, être tionary perspectives” around it, re - Against the Stream. French Trotskyism in de nouveau ce ‘parti des communistes’ qui gressed back behind the political level the Second World War” Revolutionary His - ne se distingue de la masse où il vit que par attained in 1848 at the dawn of Marxism. tory , Vol.1, No.4, Winter 1988-89. See also: son dévouement, sa réflexion permanente et Ernest Mandel. A Rebel’s Dream Deferred. son ouverture au monde, sa disponibilité à • From the introduction to The Fate of the Jan Willem Stuje. Verso. 2009. The Meaning lutter, sa volonté d’éclairer et d’aider les Russian Revolution, volume 1: Lost Texts of of the Second World War . Ernest Mandel. masses à voir de leurs propres yeux.” Mé - Buy copies of volume 1 of The Fate of the Critical Marxism (the first volume of the Verso. 1986. moires de Pierre Broué . Circulated as text Russian Revolution online at: series of which The Two Trotskyisms is vol - (5) See Pages 174 – 175. Yves Craipeau. Mé - 2014/5 www.workersliberty.org/frr ume 2). 8 FEATURE More online at www.workersliberty.org Comments on the US Civil War role of the progressive, plebeian forces. Of wanted a fight. And, anyway, by 1863 the rul - By Mark Osborn course, it would have been much better if the ing classes clearly had no intention of fight - This article was prompted by an advert for slaves had liberated themselves, as Marx had ing the North. an AWL public meeting about Sacha Is - hoped, and that the British workers had been There were three well-known attempts at stronger. But we should not manufacture his - slave rebellions in the US in the first part of mail’s pamphlet, Workers Against Slavery . One sentence read: “When the war began, tory according to what we would like to read. the 19th Century: Gabriel’s rebellion in Rich - both sides, North and South, said they Even if it could be shown that the British mond (1800), the Denmark Vesey conspiracy would preserve slavery. What changed? workers were solidly for the North, and the in Charleston (1822), and Nat Turner’s rebel - One thing was mass action by the slaves ruling class solidly for the South, that would lion in Virginia (1831). There were many themselves, forcing their way into the still not amount to showing that the workers other lesser known, smaller-scale events. conflict and helping to transform it into a were the force that prevented Britain joining Turner’s rising was the most important. battle against slavery.” the war against the North. And even if it was Nat Turner and five followers started an up - This idea is mysticism. Lincoln was obliged possible to demonstrate the British ruling rising which had no clear goal. After twelve to re-set the Northern war aims in late 1862, classes were for the South, this is not the hours 80 slaves had joined the rebels and 60 declaring a war to abolish slavery, because he same thing as being willing to go to war for white people had been killed. The uprising felt that was necessary in order to win. The the South. was eventually repressed by 3000 armed slaves played no role in Lincoln’s policy shift But anyway, at the start of the war, the whites. whatsoever. They were slaves after all. And British workers’ movement, was not solidly All three conspiracies were led by people those former slaves, who had managed to for the North. And the British ruling classes influenced by the Bible, who had some edu - reach Union lines were politically margin - were never unanimous for the South. Palmerston: disliked radical democracy, but cation, and took place in areas (cities, vil - alised, oppressed, largely unorganised and According to Phillip Foner in British Labour no friend of slavery either lages) that offered more freedom than the powerless. and the American Civil War , for nearly a cen - plantations. tury, up until the late 1950s, there was con - Sacha Ismail made a similar statement in North it would have done so in 1861 or 1862. In the aftermath of the Nat Turner rebellion sensus among British and American an exchange of letters in Solidarity in 2013. By the end of 1862 several factors had shifted the Virginia legislature tightened the slave Following a film review by Eric Lee, he historians who accepted that the British rul - against siding with the Confederacy: the codes, limiting further the movement of wrote, “I am not denying the role of the US ing classes were for the South and the British South had begun to suffer serious military slaves. In 1832 in Alabama it became illegal army in the US Civil War. Nonetheless, workers backed the North. In the late 1950s setbacks; Lincoln issued the Emancipation to teach a slave to read, write or spell with a American slaves played a central role, per - this view began to be contested by pro-South - Proclamation in September 1862, coming into fine of $250-500; meetings of five or more haps the central role, in their own emancipa - ern revisionists. Despite the political bias of force on 1 January 1863, which put the North - slaves became illegal. A similar law was tion.” Sacha cited Marx who reported a slave those who attacked the consensus a useful re - ern war on a new, explicitly anti-slavery passed in Virginia against educating slaves. rising in Missouri and claimed more gener - sult was discussion on the facts of the matter. basis. The clear anti-slavery basis for the Black gatherings, including church meetings, ally that, “more and more slaves escaped At the start of the American civil war the North’s war meant a great increase in popu - were prohibited without the presence of their masters and pushed their way into British ruling class was divided, as were the lar support for the North in Britain. white people. Northern lines [and] forced the US army to workers’ leaders. At the top of government However, before the Emancipation Procla - Across the South the slaves were to be kept Palmerston was for the South, although less accept them, first as workers and then as sol - mation, the most serious crisis was the Trent ignorant and atomised. By 1865 only 5% of clearly than Gladstone and the Foreign Sec - diers.” Affair, at the end of 1861, when the North Black Americans could read and write. retary, John Russell. A group of about twenty In my view Eric Lee was completely correct seized two Confederate representatives from Mass rebellion became almost impossible. in the Commons were active for the Confed - at that time to claim, “It wasn’t Black slaves a British ship. “However much he blustered In fact the basic methods of resistance to slav - eracy and most of the aristocracy was for the who brought down slavery... [but] a mostly Palmerston knew that it was important to ery were smaller acts of resistance – slow South. (though not entirely) white army led by a avoid a real conflict,” ( Palmerston — a biogra - work, damaging property, running away. white man.” And I responded in Solidarity , phy , by David Brown) and a fudge settled the During the civil war anti-slave repression supporting Eric, by noting that, “many slaves PALMERSTON dispute. in the South became even more severe. Tens were able to run away. But they were able to However, also in Cabinet were the Duke We’ve seen, recently, at the time of the Iraq of thousands of slaves crossed to Union lines. do so because of the power of the Northern of Argyll, Charles Villiers and Thomas Mil - war, that a million people on the streets, But there were no mass risings. The condi - state, and the pressure of the Union armies. ner Gibson, who supported the North. The thousands of protest meetings, substantial tions of life made mass conspiracy very diffi - And running away from a master is not the manufacturers John Bright and Richard parliamentary opposition and many sympa - cult. same thing as a mass, armed slave rebellion.” Cobden vigorously denounced the South thetic editorials in the national press were all In that debate Sacha defended the idea that in Parliament. unable to stop Blair going to war in Iraq. It the British workers had a role in stopping the Palmerston disliked the radical democracy takes a lot to stop a government determined BLACK SOLDIERS It became legal for Black troops to enrol British government from joining the war on of the North and considered the North’s vast to fight. in mid-1862. the South’s side: “Faced with a government armies a threat to Britain’s interests in For the British workers to have been a force that wanted to intervene militarily in favour Canada. However Palmerston was no friend capable of stopping (or being “a factor” in Lincoln finally agreed to include Black re - of the slave-owners, thousands of British of slavery. He had played an active part in the stopping) an allegedly war-hungry Palmer - cruits in the Union armies not because of workers across the country mobilised in mass suppression of the international slave trade. ston and Gladstone, they would have had to pressure from former slaves, but because the protests against intervention and against And he had been one of the most prominent make massive mobilisations. And yet in the numbers of white recruits was slowing slavery.” He declared that the British workers public figures to welcome Harriet Beecher early 1860s British workers did not have the down, and he was beginning to understand were “a factor” in stopping the government Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin , when vote, or a political party of their own. Their he had to use every possible resource to win intervening. she visited England in 1853. unions were relatively new, weak, and craft the war. Black slaves crossed the lines, but I wanted to make three clear propositions Mainstream biographers of Palmerston based. The London Trades Council had been mainly towards the end of the war, especially for the purposes of a new discussion. write that he had no intention of going to war founded in 1860, but the TUC was not set up as the Union armies smashed through the • There was no “mass action” by slaves with the North: “Though Palmerston’s sym - until 1868. The International Workingmen’s South in 1864. “forcing their way into the [US civil war].” pathies were with the South, he did not wish Association was not founded until 1864. Eventually 179,000 Black men joined the There was a very important mass Black to go to war with the North.” ( Palmerston , The ruling class had seen off the Chartists Union’s army, or 9% of the total. movement in the South, but only after the Jasper Ridley). Ridley quotes a memo from more than a decade before. In total 360,000 men died fighting for the civil war, among freedmen, during Recon - Palmerston from October 1861: “Operations On the other hand the government was North, 110,000 in battle. Around 37,000 Black struction. of the war have as yet been too indecisive to strong — not invulnerable against American soldiers died, 26,000 from disease, 3000 died • The military impact of Black troops was warrant an acknowledgement of the South - power, but nonetheless strong and confident; in battle. 15 000 deserted. Black troops were late and marginal (although the Black troops ern Union.” Palmerston was pragmatic; he their Empire stretched across the world. used less often — because of racism — than were much more than of marginal political did not want to back the losing side. Philip Foner quotes academic research on whites. importance). The slaves were freed by a If Palmerston had recognised the South the number of pro-Union meetings held by About half of the 179,000 Black recruits white President and (mostly) white armies and gone to war, he calculated, large grain British workers during the US Civil War. were former slaves from the South, a quarter and a bourgeois revolution from above. imports from the North would be cut off and There were five in 1862, fifty-six in 1863 and were from pro-Union border states, and the • The British workers did not stop the serious damage would be done to sizable eleven in 1864. final quarter were free Black men from the British ruling class joining the war on the side British financial interests in the North. So the high point of the British workers’ North. of the South. The British did not join the war Britain’s possessions — in particular Canada mobilisation for the North was in and after The 1860 census shows 3.9 million slaves because Palmerston calculated that, on bal - — would be vulnerable to Northern military 1863, by which time the pro-Southerners in and 488,000 were free. So, proportionately ance, war was too risky. The British workers power. So Palmerston moved 11,000 troops to our movement had been marginalised; this many more free Black men signed up than had nothing to do with Palmerston’s calcula - Canada in 1861 as a defensive measure. Such was an important moment in the British former slaves. Necessarily most former tions — certainly in 1861 and 1862, when war a number of troops could never be anything working class’s political development, but slaves signed up in 1863, or after. was considered. Palmerston was concerned other than defensive, against enormous and fifty-six workers’ meetings in 1863 was noth - The shift in the North’s policy was from by Northern power, not British workers. rapidly expanding Union armies. ing like the scale required to force the British direct necessity, not pressure from former So, I am arguing against overestimating the If Britain was going to go to war with the ruling class to back down from war if it really slaves. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATURE 9 On est tous des sauvages? Daniel Randall reviews ‘The Revenant’ film’s credit that this is not something I feel I (dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2016) will be able to do easily. Finally, a note on DiCaprio. Arguably the finest Hollywood leading man of his genera - The Italian futurist Filippo Marinetti, who, tion, he looks set to finally secure an Oscar like many of his contemporaries, became for his role in ‘The Revenant’ (this is his fifth a fascist, wrote that “any work of art that nomination). If you’re a Hollywood leading lacks a sense of aggression can never be man, one supposes Oscars matter, and few a masterpiece.” could begrudge DiCaprio this accolade, par - Although a film set in the American ticularly given the physical extremes to wilderness in the 1820s might seem a world which he obviously had to push himself to away from the hyper-modern, industrial pre - craft the performance. But for my money occupations of that movement, something of there’s a strong case to be made that, on a that idea is suggested by ‘The Revenant’. technical level, his roles in his previous nom - It is a difficult film to watch, and not only inations, ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’, in its bloodier, flesh-tearingly violent mo - ‘Blood Diamond’, or ‘The Aviator’ (or, in - ments: it is frequently disorienting, the shots deed, ‘The Departed’, for which he wasn’t jumping from close ups of snails’ shells, plant even nominated) were better performances, stalks, or the eyes of horses, to sweeping more deserving of the prize. The Academy landscape shots or kaleidoscopic geometries moves in mysterious ways. of tree branches. In the entirely legitimate furore around the The sound editing is jarring too, with its Oscars’ lack of diversity, and given the sub - film”. It can indeed be read as such, an explo - Here is nature red in tooth and claw for sparse musical soundtrack punctuated with ject matter of this film, one is reminded of ration of the human will to survive, to over - sure, and savages we all may be, but, as Or - the amplified buzzing of a fly, or the rushing Marlon Brando’s decision, in 1973 to turn come any obstacle to simply go on living. well might have put it, “some are more sav - of the wind. Much of its climactic sequence is down his Oscar for ‘The Godfather’; having But it also, and perhaps more fundamen - age than others”. Reading the film against the overlaid with a constant, high-pitched, pierc - become involved in the American Indian tally, uses the backdrop of the dispossession historical period it depicts must resist a “lev - ing whistle. It is, at times, a genuine physical Movement (AIM), Brando asked activist of the indigenous peoples of America by Eu - elling out” of the savagery: the “savagery” of challenge for a viewer. Sacheen Littlefeather to turn down the award ropean settlers to explore the nature of sav - an indigenous people resisting systematic That, undoubtedly, is the point. Director on his behalf, in an attempt to raise the issue agery. It almost feels as if we’re being asked robbery and quasi-genocide cannot be Alejandro G. Iñárritu brings the audience of the representation of native Americans in to decide what is most savage — the wild equated with the “savagery” of those carry - into the gruelling struggle of the film’s char - film. bear who literally savages DiCaprio’s Hugh ing it out. acters, placing us within the action. At one Could DiCaprio do something similar? Glass; or the Arikara (“Ree”) Indian war - The true story of Hugh Glass, upon which point, a character’s breath clouds the lens of Progress has been made since 1973, but in - bands who scalp their enemies; or the white, the film was based, was spun into the leg - the camera. At another, it runs wet with melt - digenous Americans still face myriad strug - colonial-racist trappers and traders, “shoot - endary fabric of early American nationhood: ing snow. gles. Perhaps such gestures are meaningless, ing civilisation” into the natives. the indomitable spirit of the frontier, over - “Masterpiece” is too big a word for an am - even patronising, but it would at least be in One might conclude that human life is an coming the elements to build a civilisation. ateur film critic writing reviews in a Trotsky - keeping with the mission of ‘The Revenant’ intermeshing net of competing savageries, all Iñárritu uses that story to confront, rather ist weekly to deploy, but ‘The Revenant’ to jar, disrupt, and aggress. unquestionably has “a sense of aggression”. set against the savagery of the natural world. than affirm, that legend. He reminds America Given the “Oscars So White” row, and It goes beyond aggression, into visceral bru - When a group of French trappers capture that its nationhood is built on brutality, on America’s ongoing failure to meaningfully tality. and execute a Pawnee Indian, they attach a savagery — and not, in the first instance, address the racist foundations of its mod - Many mainstream reviews of ‘The legend to his corpse which reads “On est tous from the alleged “savages”. ern state, no-one could deny that such Revenant’ have described it as a “survival des sauvages”: “We are all savages”, or, “we To say more about ‘The Revenant’, I would disruption remains necessary. are all wild”. have to watch it again. It is perhaps to the The patriotic traitor French nationalist point of view was the vic - ERIC LEE tor of Verdun) can turn bad. Bad guys (the thoroughly unlikeable de Gaulle) can be The title of Jonathan Lynn’s new play ‘The transformed into heroes, at the right moment. Patriotic Traitor’ could refer to either of In the case of Pétain and de Gaulle, the sim - the play’s two protagonists. ilarities between the two men seem greater One, Marshall Philippe Pétain, betrayed than the differences, even if they eventually France to the Germans in 1940, while believ - found themselves on opposite sides in the ing all the time that he was doing so in order Second World War. to save the country. The other, his disciple In this thoroughly intelligent play, written Pétain and de Gaulle: similarities greater than their differences? and close friend Charles de Gaulle, was by the author of the “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, branded a traitor by the Vichy regime and Prime Minister” television series, there is a guys in this story. The problem is that they ratic, unbearable as a human being. But he is sentenced to death when he fled the country powerful exchange between the two men set didn’t exist. absolutely right, and it is a moment in the for exile, to take on leadership of the Free after the war. Pétain is in prison, awaiting The “third camp” in France in 1940 con - play — and in history — that one never for - French forces. his sentence for treason. It will be de Gaulle sisted almost entirely of supporters of the gets. The play, which just opened at the Park who decides whether he lives or dies. Communist Party — a party which enthusi - At the end of the play, de Gaulle tells his Theatre in Finsbury Park, is a tour de force. astically collaborated with the Nazis during wife that he’ll be retiring from public life. She The venerable Tom Conti is so good as Pétain Pétain explains that when he took over the the first year of the occupation, until Hitler is shocked, cannot believe what he’s saying. that he completely dominates the stage country in 1940 following a military defeat invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. There But he tells her that once again, history will whenever he appears. One wonders if Pétain for which others were responsible, he was was no significant independent left force in have need of him, and he will return as Pres - himself had that same charisma and intelli - fully supported by the French people. Earlier the country. The choice for French people was ident of France, with a new constitution cre - gence. As for de Gaulle, played by Laurence in the play, de Gaulle becomes furious upon either de Gaulle or collaboration with the ated just for him. And this is precisely what Fox, he comes off as a thoroughly unlikeable learning that in a referendum, 90% of the German fascists. Most, including the Stalin - happened following the disastrous war in Al - character, even if history were to prove him French supported the German-imposed ists, chose the latter option. geria more than a decade later. right. armistice. Pétain uses the crude democratic There is a moment in the play when de The history of twentieth century France is Does this nuanced view of the two men excuse that he represented the will of the Gaulle is placed in a BBC studio in London, full of characters like de Gaulle and Pétain, and their relationship, this sympathetic por - French nation. De Gaulle answers that a na - about to make his first address to the French unlikely and unlikeable heroes and villains. trayal of Pétain as a tragic figure, make the tion is more than its people, that it is an idea, people. De Gaulle seizes the moment and ‘The Patriotic Traitor’ tells the story of play somehow unacceptable? I don’t think and that above all, it was this idea that Pétain says what needs to be said about the struggle those two men as we’ve never seen it told so. betrayed. continuing, calling on the French to rally be - before. First of all, history is not a Marvel Comics Some leftist purists might be appalled at hind him. Yes, he is arrogant and undemoc - adventure. Good guys (and Pétain from the the whole idea, looking for genuine good Where we stand More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. Scrap the Compliance Unit! The capitalists’ control over the economy and their relentless a London delegate, elected her to being ‘closely involved with and drive to increase their wealth causes poverty, unemployment, LABOUR the organisation’s Steering Com - supporting the Alliance for Work - the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction mittee; and expulsion by the Com - ers Liberty’. The rules that support of the environment and much else. By Gerry Bates pliance Unit followed soon after. expulsion are hideous and need Against the accumulated wealth and power of the capitalists, Jill stood against Harriet Harman scrapping; the desire to expel peo - “I’d like to scrap the Compliance in the ultra-safe Labour seat of the working class must unite to struggle against capitalist ple because they have socialist Unit completely”, Shadow Chan - Camberwell and Peckham in 2010, views is scandalous and has noth - power in the workplace and in wider society. cellor John McDonnell told a while calling for the return of a ing to do with building a radical al - The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty wants socialist revolution: 300-strong Momentum meeting Labour government. Since then she ternative to the bosses’ party and collective ownership of industry and services, workers’ control, in Barnet on 22 February, “and I has supported Labour candidates their austerity politics. Ironically I and a democracy much fuller than the present system, with want people automatically ac - and only Labour candidates. received my letter by post while cepted into membership when out canvassing on a local estate for elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to they first join”. bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. EXPELLED Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for He wants a fair and democratic Jill was expelled the same week Mayor of London. We fight for trade unions and the Labour Party to break with process for membership disputes, that Richard Barrett, the only “Socialist ideas important at the “social partnership” with the bosses and to militantly assert and he’s right. UKIP councillor in Hull, elected founding of the Labour Party more working-class interests. Two weeks ago it looked as if ex - in a high profile defeat for Labour than 100 years ago. And they pulsions by an unelected body with in 2014, defected directly to the should remain so now. We need to no place in the rulebook, the Com - party. In workplaces, trade unions, and Labour organisations; build a truly democratic Labour pliance Unit, had come to an end, So nationalist bigots who stood among students; in local campaigns; on the left and in Party that fights for a working-class with none since November. Now against Labour and advocate vot - agenda. We have to fight against wider political alliances we stand for: there are new expulsions and ing against it two years ago are • threats of expulsions. welcome, but class-struggle social - every expulsion and exclusion of Independent working-class representation in politics. socialists and other radicals from • A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the That includes two friends of ists who stood while calling for a Workers’ Liberty in Lewisham, Jill Labour vote everywhere else six the Labour Party or we’ll just get labour movement. Mountford and Tom Harris. years ago are thrown out? more of the same from Labour. • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to Nick Wrack, a well-known left- The left should step up the cam - “I have every intention to fight strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. winger in south London, has had a paign to “Stop the Labour Purge”, this as hard as I can. If Shaun • Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, letter from the Compliance Unit and Momentum should get on Woodward, Richard Barrett and saying that he will be excluded if board. a myriad of other people from education and jobs for all. the right can be accepted into • his CLP wishes (no reference to the Jill Mountford said: “Just what A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. CLP having to give any reason). are they afraid of? I’ve been ex - the broad church we call the Full equality for women, and social provision to free women Jill was denounced in the Daily pelled as a member without any Labour Party, then socialists can from domestic labour. For reproductive justice: free abortion on Telegraph after the Momentum Na - hearing or any evidence presented too! I call on other socialists to demand; the right to chose when and whether to have children. tional Committee, to which she was against me. The stated grounds join that fight.” Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity against racism. • Open borders. Build real local Young Labour groups! • Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have more in common with each other than with Rida Vaquas, a member of the ties. Currently to be involved in sympathetic and agrees with the their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. newly elected Young Labour Young Labour usually requires left position, but a Parliamentary • Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest national committee, spoke to travelling miles across a city or party which is hostile. These issues even across the country. That’s dis - will be hotly contested by the workplace or community to global social organisation. Solidarity in the run-up to the • Equal rights for all nations, against Young Labour conference on engaging. We need genuinely local Labour right. Supporting the junior 27-28 February groups. Campaigning on issues doctors is also an important prece - imperialists and predators big and small. that affect young people, being dent for showing solidarity with in - • Maximum left unity in action, and present in community campaigns, dustrial action, crucial in a time of We shouldn’t understate the vic - openness in debate. these are all things that affirm trade union repression by the state. tory of the left slate. Young Labour’s relevance. Previously we had a minority of If you agree with us, please take regional representatives who regu - How should the Young Labour some copies of to sell — What should Young Labour be left organise? Solidarity larly organised with the left. We campaigning on? and join us! now have won every position. I Absolutely in a democratic and To start with, on issues democrat - open manner. Socialism can never think my campaign, on a firmly so - ically decided by conference! Cur - cialist and democratic basis, went sneak in through the backdoor, it rently what happens is that we pass announces itself proudly. To build well (I won!), but out of 3000 young motions deciding our position… members in my region only 141 a sustainable Young Labour left, we but no action is taken. For example: need formalised structures, in votes were cast. How does the left 45% of 25-34 year olds privately Events which people discuss ideas and develop a truly mass democratic rent, up from 24% in 2004. Rent learn how to organise. We need movement? controls, tenants’ rights and the Saturday 27 February Tuesday 8 March everyone to feel confident in doing Stop Trident National Set her free! International building of social housing are organising work and debating their Demonstration Women’s Day protest in If the left wins at the conference, therefore critical policies. The cru - ideas out. Momentum Youth and 12 noon, Marble Arch, London solidarity with migrant women. how much difference will it cial point is that we need to take bit.ly/stoptrident 1pm, Home Office, London, SW1P make? policies seriously. A perfect political Students can play a role, but only if This depends on the work we do. 4DF programme means nothing unless it evolves from its current state, and Socialists have to be extremely cau - Saturday 5 March bit.ly/setherfree we organise to win it. calls a democratic conference open March against Lambeth library tious of a new inert left bureau - to all of the Young Labour left, in cracy replacing the bureaucracy of cuts 9-11 March What changes are needed in the which constitution, structures and the right. Socialists should put in 10.30, Brixton Library, London, Junior doctors’ strike Young Labour structures? principles are decided, as a well as the work of grassroots mobilisa - SW2 1JQ Across the country One member one vote is a neces - an elected committee. tion, of organising across the coun - bit.ly/LambethLibrariesMarch sity now. A policy-making confer - try. A combative youth wing does Saturday 12 March ence every year, in which motions What should the left do about ex - not just come about by good people Sunday 6 March Taking back our NHS: Sheffield can be submitted on any topic, not pulsions of Labour activists? winning positions, but through the Stop Turkey’s war on the Kurds! Save our NHS dayschool just on policy commissions decided Publicly oppose them, support utilisation of those positions to fa - Break the silence! National 10-2, Roco Creative co-op, S10 centrally. NEC representatives comrades in fighting them. There is cilitate action. demonstration 2HW should be mandated, by conference a strong historical tradition of rev - 1pm, Trafalgar Square, London bit.ly/SSONHS and by the National Committee. olutionary socialists in the Labour How can Young Labour increase bit.ly/kurdishdemo Party, but also a strong historical participation and particularly Saturday 13 March tradition of witch hunts. working-class participation? What are the policy debates com - National housing demonstration Expulsions of people who have More work in trade unions, defi - ing up at the conference? 12, Lincoln’s Inn, London, WC2A supported and worked for nitely. Also Young Labour needs to Trident and free education. In Got an event you want listing? 3TL both of these cases, we have a Labour victories is an attack on bit.ly/HousingDemo be embedded into local communi - [email protected] Labour Party leadership which is the left as a whole. REPORTS 10-11 Scottish unions need to Librarians plan more strikes confront SNP cuts By Ruth Cashman, Lambeth Unison (personal capacity) By Dale Street controlled councils which vote for cuts! We have lost access to 14 million The Scottish Labour Party or - Unison Scotland has produced a library books and 400 libraries in ganised a lobby of the Scottish “Combating Austerity Report and the UK since 2010. Government Cabinet meeting in Toolkit” which proposes a series The Tory’s assault on local gov - Clydebank last week to protest of (worthwhile) financial meas - ernment has meant brutal cuts in against the SNP government’s ures which councils could imple - our local library services that aca - cuts of £350 millions in local au - ment and, claims Unison, thereby demics, professional bodies, unions thority funding. avoid the need to make cuts. and user groups agree is an existen - Glasgow Council Labour Group Unite’s focus is to demand that tial threat to the national library will stage a lobby this week to the UK Treasury write off an esti - network. protest at the SNP’s cut of £133 mated £2.5 billions worth of pre- With four more years of the Tory millions in funding for Glasgow, devolution debt owed by councils. costing around 3,000 jobs. The GMB, despite its right-wing This is progress compared to Scottish leadership (anti-Corbyn, muttering about underfunding pro-Trident and pro-fracking), is and but getting on with “manag - already carrying out a consulta - ing” local authorities on a reduced tive ballot of its members in Glas - government, library campaigns brary workers’ strike by holding a budget anyway. gow City Council and its and unions must unite to fight back consultative ballot for strikes across But there is a lack of coordina - arms-length company Cordia over against these cuts. the entire council workforce in sol - tion between the Labour Party proposals to cut jobs and terms Some industrial action is already idarity with library workers. Shop and unions. This week’s lobby by and conditions. underway. February saw strikes in stewards across Unite and Unison Glasgow Labour Group is on At the same time, the GMB is the Lambeth, Barnet and Green - have begun to discuss how to sup - Wednesday morning. The trade also backing the call for a 1p in - wich library services. This is port each others’ action and are union lobby is Wednesday after - crease in income tax rates and mo - spreading and deepening. This calling for a demonstration in Lon - noon. bilising for anti-SNP lobbies at week Lewisham library workers in don, bringing together campaigns Pointing the finger of blame at Holyrood. Unison have announced a ballot for from across the capital. the SNP government in Holyrood, By contrast, those sections of the strikes against cuts in their local Given there will soon be live in - which is what the Scottish Labour Scottish trade union movement service. Lambeth Unison is set to an dustrial action ballots on five Party campaign currently who have effectively signed up to announce a strategy of escalating London boroughs, trade union - amounts to, is certainly justified. social peace with the SNP govern - strikes in their library service and ists should push for coordinated But it is not the same as organising ment now seem to flinch and are seeking to strengthen the li - action in London library services. a fightback to defend jobs, work - sneer at the idea of criticising and ing conditions, and services. mobilising against SNP austerity. Labour-controlled councils Nor is there a coordinated local- have a straightforward choice: government trade union strategy. Campaign with trade unions FE college workers strike over pay Trade Unions for Scottish and community groups on the Labour, unsurprisingly, is pinning basis of no-cuts budgets, or the blame on the SNP govern - By Peggy Carter fight against trade unions and ment: “The real divide: imple - community groups to try to menting austerity versus On Wednesday 24 February, as push cuts through. combating austerity.” But while it Solidarity goes to press, workers is true that the SNP is implement - in Further Education (FE col - ing austerity, so too are Labour- • Full article: bit.ly/24n2lWR leges) in England will strike over pay. University and College Union (UCU) members struck in Novem - ber but this time they will be joined More Unison corruption leaks by workers who are organised by reading is the new whistleblower Unison. The dispute is in response By a Unison member reports to Private Eye . “Team Dave” to the imposition of a pay freeze by the employer organisation, the As - As the returning officer report emails sent out by Cliff Williams sociation of Colleges. about the Unison general secre - (Unison assistant general secretary, Further action will be needed thing, but a confidence in members by the huge funding cuts to post-16 tary election is published, more whose boss is Prentis) were leaked. after 24 February if the tide of cuts own ability to act. Workplace-level education. Action should be coor - leaks have shown the level of Williams was organising the cam - to FE is to be stopped. Workers organisation needs to be rebuilt, dinated between the unions. corruption inside Unison. paign for Dave Prentis in defiance need to be given confidence from learning the lessons of public facing We need emergency confer - Prentis was re-elected general of the rule that staff should not play such a roll. The email was sent to 50 their unions that there will be an or - campaigns like that of the junior ences, uniting all the unions in secretary of Unison on a tiny turn- ganised fight, as opposed to single doctors currently. post-16 education, to begin this out of 9.8%, an incredibly dimin - people including 45 unison re - gional secretaries, full time union days of action that win nothing. But The National Union of Teachers work and we should call on and ished vote, and with allegations of that confidence should not just be is currently balloting workers in unite with the new forces of anti- union staff campaigning for him staff in regions, and national offi - cers including Roger McKenzie, trust in the leadership to do some - sixth form colleges who are also hit austerity in the Labour Party to against the rules of the union. stand with us. A report by the returning officer who is leading the investigation report was due out on 10 January, into the London region allegations but was published five weeks late. and National President Wendy It makes very dull reading. Al - Nichols, who is charged with en - Tube drivers and DLR balloted for strikes though some of the very many al - suring investigations and Return - legations were upheld, no decision ing Officers reports are published sult, some progress was made over employed by Interserve for strikes was made on the allegation that and acted upon. By Ollie Moore the issues and LUL gave commit - over job cuts and unilateral Of course there is no evidence London Regional Staff and London Drivers in the RMT union on Lon - ments regarding the above which changes to their contracts and shift Regional Secretary were instru - that Dave Prentis knew any of this, allowed us to await the outcome of patterns. Interserve is one of the but how could he not know? Apart don Underground’s Piccadilly mental to winning votes across Line will be balloted for strikes in further discussions in the hope that main contractors providing clean - London, because there is an ongo - from those in the London region, a resolution would be reached. ing services across Transport for there is no evidence that full-time a ballot lasting from 22 February ing investigation on that. The re - to 8 March. “However, since this time there London, and is notorious for abus - port argues that because Prentis’ staff campaigned during work have been further breaches of the ing its staff, including by routinely time, but staff should not campaign RMT says Piccadilly Line man - vote in London at 46% was lower agement has abused disciplinary disciplinary procedure and a lack short-paying them. for candidates — in work time or In December, Interserve work - than other regions, even if the in - procedures. Drivers previously of consistency by local manage - vestigation proves wrongdoing it out! ment dealing with issues on the ers and their supporters demon - We hope that the next revela - voted for strikes in October 2015, wouldn’t significantly alter the re - line.” strated outside the company’s tions come through Unison over similar issues. An RMT state - sult. So never mind! On the Docklands Light Railway, offices to demand an end to channels and not just through ment said: “Following the strong What makes more interesting RMT will ballot cleaning workers short-payment and job cuts. Private Eye . ‘yes’ vote in the [October] ballot re - SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 395 24 February 2016 50p/£1 TRIDENT: TAKE THE FIGHT INTO UNIONS AND LABOUR By Gerry Bates cuts to the NHS and other vital the Campaign for Nuclear Disar - services adds absurdity to im - mament: Unison, PCS, CWU, On Saturday 27 February Labour morality. RMT, FBU, TSSA, ASLEF, NUT, leader Jeremy Corbyn will be A big demonstration will not and NUM. among the speakers at the budge the Tory Party now. The But the big GMB union stri - demonstration calling Britain’s way to stop Trident replacement is dently supports Trident replace - Trident nuclear weapon system to win the Labour Party to oppose ment, on saving-jobs grounds, and to be scrapped and not re - it. A Labour government could the Unite union is equivocal for placed. then stop it: even short of a Labour the same reason. And so far only This demonstration should be government, a solid Labour vote PCS has made a strong call for the biggest nuclear disarmament against Trident, which would be members to march on 27 February. joined by Welsh Nationalists, Scot - protest for many years. The Tory Things will be changed only by tish Nationalists, and probably the government will try to get a defi - tens of thousands of activists as - Lib Dems, could chip off enough nite decision through Parliament siduously attending their union this year to start construction of Trident-sceptic Tory MPs to stop it. It will be a battle to win the and Labour Party meetings, pa - the hugely expensive Trident re - tiently arguing with and convinc - placement program. But the Labour Party. The old bloc of right- wing Labour MPs and officials ing the other people there, and Labour Party now has a leader, calling MPs and union leaders to and hundreds of thousands of new who became entrenched under For years opinion polls have The baseline case against these account. members, committed to nuclear Blair and Brown are stubbornly re - found that if the question men - nuclear weapons is that they could sisting the call for change which It’s a battle which will inter - disarmament. tions the cost of replacing Trident be used for “defence” only by came from the rank and file with twine with the general battle to The PCS civil service workers’ — more than £100 billion over the killing millions of civilians, that is, Jeremy Corbyn’s landslide election transform our labour movement union is calling on its members to years, maybe as much as £170 bil - by making a catastrophic war even as Labour leader. into a force capable of shaping march — noon from Marble Arch, lion — people are almost always more catastrophic. Spending so Many unions support nuclear a new society of peace, solidar - London. The union says Trident against it. many billions on them at a time of disarmament, and are affiliated to ity, and democracy. “should be scrapped, with the money saved to be reinvested in our public services and infrastruc - ture, generating thousands of jobs in the process. Those people cur - MARCH FOR HEALTH, HOMES, JOBS, EDUCATION rently employed to work on Tri - dent should be given re-training and re-employment as part of this Saturday 16 April 2016, 1pm, Gower Street/Euston Road, London process”. Contingents will also include a Join the national demonstration, organised by the People’s Assembly “Care, not Welfare” bloc. That bloc will highlight the fact that scrap - Against Austerity. ping Trident replacement would save enough money “to fully fund Information about transp ort: bit.ly/PAAtransport A&E services for 40 years, employ Health bloc on the march: bit.ly/healthbloc 150,000 new nurses, cover tuition fees for 4 million students or build Student bloc on the march organised by the NCAFC: bit.ly/studentbloc 1.5 million affordable homes”.

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