For a Solidarity workers’ government For social ownership of the banks and industry No 325 21 May 2014 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org Tax the rich! Equalise wealth! Eight per cent own all the loot Super rich John Caudwell, founder of Phones 4u (worth £1.5 billion), in his £90 million house • Financial wealth as unequal as if 8% owned it all see page 7 • Review of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century see page 10 • Danny Dorling on housing inequality see pages 11-12 2 NEWS What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Remembering Jersey under the Nazis Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to By Deputy Sam Mézec futile once news of Hitler’s JDM found it difficult to entertainment in St Helier, a another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to increase their In the British Channel Is - death reached the island). gain employment and some group of around 100 is - wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the lands on 9 May this year, In 1943 the JDM illegally had the Hammer and Sickle landers attended a cere - blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the islanders celebrated the distributed copies of its first painted on their houses by mony to remember the destruction of the environment and much else. 69th anniversary of their manifesto. It set out a clear vandals. slave workers held in the is - Against the accumulated wealth and power of the liberation from Nazi occu - vision for a post-war Jersey A JDM rally in the capi - land during the occupation. capitalists, the working class has one weapon: pation at the end of the based on what would today tal, St Helier, descended Many of those attending solidarity. Second World War. be considered basic social into chaos when wealthy is - had been members and ac - The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build democratic principles. Such landers from the country - tivists for the JDM and solidarity through struggle so that the working class can overthrow The occupation of the propositions like introduc - side turned up with their Communist Party. This in - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership of Channel Islands should be ing a minimum wage, a so - Bentleys filled with boxes of cluded Chris Wakeham, industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller intriguing to anyone inter - cial security system and an tomatoes that they encour - who is well into her 90s than the present system, with elected representatives recallable at any ested in working class poli - equitable divorce law aged detractors to throw at now, and organised Jersey’s time and an end to bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. tics for two reasons. would been as totally un - attendees of the rally. first ever rent strike. Sadly, We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” The first is that the is - controversial today, but Unsurprisingly, the JPP as time takes its toll, their and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. lands were the only part of were bitterly opposed by defeated the JDM in the numbers are dwindling and Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, Britain occupied by the Ger - the island’s conservative es - elections. Having achieved the stories of the Jersey supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping mans during the war. tablishment at the time. their primary purpose, the Democratic Movement are organise rank-and-file groups. Once the war was over JPP disbanded, but its prin - difficult to research. We are also active among students and in many campaigns and The second, and perhaps and islanders looked for - cipal members remained in However, also in atten - alliances. more interesting, is that they were the only occupied ward to free elections, the power, with the current dance at this memorial were JDM’s membership rose to government in Jersey un - three elected members of We stand for: territory in Europe that had over 2,000 in the space of doubtedly being the JPP’s Jersey’s parliament, Independent working-class representation in politics. the same government be - ● just a few months. ideological successors. Deputies Nick Le Cornu, A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour fore, during and after the ● Since 1945, virtually all of Montfort Tadier and my - movement. occupation. HEGEMONY the JDM political pro - self, representing a new po - A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to On Jersey, the largest of ● The prospect of a JDM gramme has been imple - litical party “Reform picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. the Channel Islands, the victory scared the island’s mented as its principles Jersey” as the ideological Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education only real resistance to the ● establishment who re - became mainstream. Nor - successor to the JDM to and jobs for all. Nazi occupiers was con - mained comfortable dur - man Le Brocq was eventu - continue their struggle. A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full ducted by the Jersey Demo - Ordinary working peo - ● ing the occupation and ally elected to the island’s equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden cratic Movement, a ple in Jersey are sub - were determined to pre - parliament in 1966 and be - of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, coalition of democrats, the jected to the same cuts to serve their hegemony came very highly regarded, bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity largest faction being the Jer - public services, exploita - post-war. even by the island’s estab - against racism. sey Communist Party, led tive zero-hours contracts lishment, despite being a Open borders. by Norman Le Brocq. A counter-JDM party was and a pitifully low mini - ● Communist. However, the Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have Unsurprisingly, the JDM formed, ironically called the mum wage that workers ● island continued to lack a more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist (along with all trade “Jersey Progressive Party”, in the UK face. Only when real organised party repre - rulers. unions) was outlawed by which the island’s only organised labour forms a senting the interests of Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or the Nazis. Yet, as the occu - newspaper overtly sup - strong political voice will ● working-class islanders. community to global social organisation. pation went on, its member - ported and subjected the these problems begin to On 9 May, whilst thou - Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all ship grew. JDM to a McCarthy style be solved in Jersey. ● sands of islanders were en - nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. They sheltered escaped witch hunt. Soviet prisoners of war, dis - joying food and ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. Known members of the tributed pro-democracy lit - ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! erature and liaised with German sympathisers to en - courage a mutiny amongst Contact us: the occupiers (something which eventually became ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG. ● Printed by Trinity Mirror Get ready to fight the frackers! By Andy Forse Get Solidarity every week! possibility of an immediate in the law to allow private string of activists — includ - transition to nuclear or re - companies to drill for gas ing Green Party MP Caro - Trial sub, 6 issues £5 A recent report from the ● o House of Lords Economic newables, citing the eco - on private land without line Lucas — have been ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o Affairs Committee has nomic benefits of the permission is being strongly cleared in the courts of any extraction of shale gas. opposed by the public and wrongdoing in their efforts £9 unwaged o urged the government to Another recent report several prominent charities. to halt the exploratory ● 44 issues (year). £35 waged o go “all out for shale”, en - couraging the exploitation suggests there is little or no For socialists however, drilling. £17 unwaged o of UK gas reserves environmental benefit from this is a troubling line of de - In the past, innovative ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o through the technique of using shale as a so-called fence; we should be op - ways of galvanizing the en - or 50 euros (44 issues) fracking. “transition fuel” — all the posed to fracking on the vironmental movement o benefits of shale are shared basis that our fragile envi - Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: around socialist concerns The dash for extreme en - by the alternatives like ronment is the foundation have been found through 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG ergy is implicitly linked to wind, solar and nuclear. But of all life on earth, owned actions such as the workers’ Cheques (£) to “AWL”. the dash for short-term there is no intrinsic mecha - by no individual or com - occupation of the Vestas nism within capitalist pro - pany, not because the sanc - Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. profits. Previously, extract - wind turbine plant on the duction that enables tity of private property ing fossil fuels like shale gas Isle of Wight. destructive profiteering might be breached in the While there is a popular Name . from the ground has been too costly, but with peak oil from the environment to be process.