& Workers’ Liberty SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 522 23 October 2019 50p/£1 ≫Second public vote ≫Remain & Transform Get the Tories out! ≫ A workers’ More: p. 3 answer to climate crises Perspectives for the move - ment p.8-9; the XR action fort - night p.3; geothermal energy p.2 P. 2, 3, 8-9 A socialist against Trump? Eric Lee reports on the Bernie Sanders cam - paign P. 2 Credit: Gemma Short The hijab in schools DEMOCRACY Continuing the debate P. 12-13 Renew Labour vs Labour Campaigns Together JOHNSON P. 7 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Bernie Sanders: The road to Iowa there is actually only one candidate won’t take corporate money either styles herself as a policy wonk with voters who like and trust Biden Sanders running on the issue of class, and – during the primary campaign. plans to solve each individual often see Sanders as a good second campaign that is Sanders. But once the Democrats have cho - problem. choice. Though Warren is a favourite of sen their candidate, she says that if Sanders says that as president The biggest test for Sanders and By Eric Lee many progressives, and would cer - she wins, she’ll consider accepting he’d be the “organiser in chief”, all the others comes on Super Tues - tainly be the second choice for corporate donations. with a strong focus on strengthen - day – 3 March 2020 – when 13 many Sanders supporters, both her Warren is a supporter of free uni - ing grassroots social movements states hold their primaries. In addi - Bernie Sanders has 100 days to record and her proposals fall far versity education to a point – but and the trade unions in particular. tion, on that day Democrats change American politics for - short of what socialists want. believes in means-testing. Sanders His campaign slogan reflects this: Abroad holds its Global Presiden - ever. Warren proudly proclaims her - considers education a human right, “Not me. Us.” tial Primary in which any Ameri - In a little more than 14 weeks, the self a supporter of capitalism – a like health care. For the next 14 weeks, Sanders can citizen can vote. Here in the voters of the small, largely rural, modified, more humane capitalism Sanders and Warren both sup - will continue criss-crossing the UK, there will be polling stations in state of Iowa will choose who they to be sure – and rejects the label of port a Green New Deal to battle cli - country, with a focus on the early London and several other cities, want to be the Democratic Party’s socialist, which Sanders embraces. mate change, but only Sanders says primary states – Iowa, New Hamp - and people will have the chance to candidate to run against Donald It’s not a question of semantics; that nationalising the fossil fuel in - shire, Nevada and South Carolina. vote remotely as well. Should Sanders win the nomi - Trump in November 2020. there are genuine differences be - dustry should be part of that. In all of them but the last, he’s nation – and then the presidency This is the first of a series of pri - tween the Sanders and Warren There are many other examples polling well. – it will mark a seismic shift in mary elections to choose delegates campaigns. of policy differences, on all of The leading candidate remains American politics towards one for the Democratic National Con - For example, Sanders rejects which Sanders is on Warren’s left. former Vice President Joe Biden, based on social class, ending up vention which will be held in Mil - large corporate donations, full stop. Their biographies too are radi - but he’s increasingly seen as out of with a pro-working class leader waukee in July. He has raised more money than cally different – Sanders having touch and not a viable alternative who grew up on the socialist left While the mainstream media has any other candidate, from more been a socialist since the late 1950s, to Trump. He has been steadily sitting in the White House. divided up the candidates into donors, without taking gifts from while Warren until 1996 was a Re - slipping in the polls. Those same “moderates” and “progressives,” the wealthy. Warren has said she publican. Like Obama, Warren polls indicate that working class Free Catalan political prisoners! By Phil Grimm with the police is something new. Catalonia has a fiery history of A wave of unrest has swept working-class rebellion, but the na - through Catalonia following the tionalist movement, traditionally harsh sentencing of pro-inde - dominated by a Catalan bour - pendence leaders by the Span - geoisie which likes to project itself ish Supreme Court. as a modern, business-like alterna - 12 politicians and civil society tive to a dysfunctional Spanish leaders were found guilty of crime state, has until now prided itself on including sedition, misuse of public peaceful protest and decorum. The Groundbreaking ground-breaking funds and disobedience following new explosion of anger reflects the their involvement in the 2017 refer - way in which the Spanish state has frustrated what many Catalans Indeed, less-deep geothermal endum on and subsequent declara - view as a legitimate attempt to de - wells, and combined heat-and- tion of Catalan independence from Climate cide their own future. power from nuclear (or combus - Spain. CDC, the long-term governing tion power) would be a big step That referendum had been de - SUPPORT party that opportunistically swung By Misha Zubrowski, forward. clared illegal. The Spanish constitu - in favour of independence as a Anger at the conduct of the means of deflecting anger about That will require a higher level tion contains undemocratic vetoes Spanish government far exceeds of integration of heating systems, on any region declaring independ - austerity and capitalist crisis. In Cornwall, the deepest well support for separation. Solidarity does not think that sep - yet drilled in Britain now pene - with significant upfront invest - ence without the consent of Spain Despite there being no majority aratism is the answer for workers trates 5.1km into the earth’s ment – but is necessary, and as a whole. Defendants were sen - in Catalonia for independence, 60% in Catalonia or the rest of Spain. We crust, burrowing into fiery would reduce costs overall. tenced to hefty fines, bans from believe the nationalist leaders are against new borders except depths where the temperatures This geothermal well is impor - holding office and lengthy prison should have been pardoned. Com - where necessary to give an op - can reach 195C. tant as a test project. Drilling on sentences, including 13 years for the well was started in November the former Vice-President of Cat - parable majorities are angry with pressed nation space to breathe, This – literally – groundbreak - last year, and completed this Sep - alonia, Oriol Junqueras. the way in which the police shut and we believe that working-class ing well will soon be the UK’s first tember. This makes the timeframe The sentencing sparked new life down the referendum in 2017. unity across regional and national genuine functional geothermal for construction of the whole into an independence movement Rioting is new, but so too is the borders is the best way to force the power station. power station likely under a year that had begun to deflate in the last growing division between the pro- bosses into conceding to workers’ Water will be pumped down and a half – significantly shorter year. Shortly after the sentences independence demonstrators and interests. But in order to achieve into the Porthtowan fault, a geo - than many power stations. were announced, direct actions the leaders of the Catalan govern - that working-class unity, it is neces - logical formation through which it On Monday 14 October, it was took place to disrupt transport and ment. Demonstrations took place sary that national questions are can be circulated, flowing in a con - announced that a second geother - infrastructure in Barcelona and outside the regional government’s dealt with democratically and tinuous cycle. This water is heated mal power station will be joining other Catalan towns. Ministry of Home Affairs, protest - without coercion. up by the hot rocks, and pumped this first, also in Cornwall – built Thousands of protesters de - ing against the actions of Interior We are against Catalan separa - back to the surface where – as in the Eden project. The initial scended on Barcelona-El Prat air - Minister Miquel Bluch, who autho - tion (as are a majority of Catalans), steam – it powers turbines. £16.8 million funding for this was port, only being dispersed by rised aggressive action by the local but we condemn the Spanish state The final power station will be 60% from the EU, 40% from “insti - violent police intervention. Roads police force against demonstrators, for jailing people for organising a referendum. small, discreet, produce no green - tutional investors” and 10% from were blocked, railways sabotaged, even while officially encouraging We condemn, too, the actions house gases, and be very low-cost Cornwall council. workers went on strike and sub - the protests. of courts and police to squash to maintain. It will produce three Previous geothermal projects stantial fighting took place as Similar anger has been directed the nationalist movement by megawatts of electricity, continu - have been shelved when govern - demonstrators clashed with police, at Catalan president Quim Torra, force. ously, which is the average energy ment funding has been pulled. not just in Barcelona but in Girona who simultaneously seeks to use consumption of around 6,000 Privately owned projects, as many and Tarragona. street protests as a pawn to pres - homes; providing “baseload” en - of them are, siphon a lot of money An enormous demonstration sure the Spanish government, Corrections ergy to the national grid.