Solidarity & Workers’ Liberty Volume 3 No 184 4 November 2010 30p/80p For a Workers’ Government! HELP US GO FIGHTING ON WHY ARE WEEKLY THE WE ALL PAGE 7 FRONTLINE HERE ? New book by Stephen CENTRE PAGES PAGE 14 Hawking Benefit cuts in next four years: £18 billion Cuts in education and local services in next four years: £16 billion Bank profits this year alone: £28 billion See page 3 MAKE THE RICH PAY! NEWS YEMEN TOWER HAMLETS US plan Lutfur Rahman is no socialist BY STUART JORDAN would struggle to organise 10. We any demands on Tower Hamlets council - should oppose the Executive decision, lors because they want to “involve them won’t utfur Rahman’s election as the but we need to rally the trade unions for in the campaign”. They hope that diplo - first ever mayor of Tower a fight to reclaim the Labour Party from macy and unctiousness will stop the Hamlets on 21 October — on a right-wing political opponents (includ - cuts, rather than class struggle. record low turnout — is a bad ing Islamists). During the election THHOOPS result for the working-class population The injustice of his expulsion from remained quiet and inactive but Socialist stop of this deprived East London borough. Labour gathered Rahman some support, Worker positively supported Rahman. Rahman is not, as the SWP and others but his victory also points to powerful Unite Against Fascism has acquired a Lclaim, a socialist. His supporters include forces working behind the scenes. new affiliate — the Islamic Forum of wealthy Brick Lane restauranteurs, During the campaign, a free sheet called Europe — making it even more of a pol - George Galloway’s Respect party and Bangla News was delivered to every door itics-means-nothing “popular front”. the political Islamists of the Islamic Forum in Tower Hamlets with the unsubstanti - Tower Hamlets, the borough of Cable of Europe. ated claim that Abbas was a “wife-beat - Street, Brick Lane and the Poplar Cynical manipulation of race, religion er” and a “racist”. A mysterious organi - Council, was once a bastion of working- and cults of personality — all that is rot - sation called the Domestic Violence class self-assertion. Now politics has ton in a national politics devoid of a Forum East advertised a demo outside descended into bad farce. Leftwingers violence working-class political voice — were all Labour Party offices to protest at Abbas’ inside and outside of the Labour Party present during this local election. crimes against his wife (and then failed are right to feel concerned about rising Rahman won the mayoralty as an to turn up). A meeting of the local anti-Muslim racism. But the would-be- BY DAN KATZ independent but originally wanted to be Muslim clerics (except the moderates in left often treats Muslims as a homoge - the Labour candidate. He won the poll of the Brick Lane mosque) endorsed nous mass of passive victims who if Labour Party members convincingly Rahman and denounced Abbas. offered a bit of token support for any old he plague of crazed Islamist convincingly. Rahman’s election has split the Labour “militant sounding” political project, as violence and threats has con - The third placed candidate, Helal Party and the broader left. Eight Labour Islamism often is, will embrace “the rev - tinued with an apparent Abbas, presented a dossier to the Labour councillors (some ex-Respect) have been olutionary party”. And the left often attempt to bring down planes Party Executive, accusing Rahman, expelled for supporting Rahman and ignores many other political voices and with explosives. No-one will be sur - among other things, of organising an forming his cabinet. socially conscious people in Muslim prised that the conspiracy seems to Islamist entryist project. Without having In another twist Ken Livingstone’s communities. have begun in Yemen. time to read the dossier, Labour imposed supporters joined Rahman on the cam - Now more than ever we need to unite TBy any standard measure of freedom paign trail and denounced Labour’s Muslim and non-Muslim workers on a Helal Abbas as their candidate. The sec - and well-being Yemen and its people ond placed candidate, John Biggs, was decision. Livingstone is a longtime common programme based in working- fare poorly. ignored. friend of Islamist personalities and class politics. Reporters Without Borders ranks The Islamic Forum of Europe, based at groups, though of course here it is also a And, whatever happens, trade union - Yemen at 170 of 178 countries for press the East London Mosque, is a big player democratic stance. Labour Party activists ists and community activists cannot put freedom. Transparency International in local politics and is probably sending should should oppose any punishment faith in either Rahman or the Labour puts it at 131 out of 179 countries for people into the Labour Party. However, Livingstone might get from Labour. group to take a principled stance and corruption. this does not make Labour’s decision This story is made still worse by the refuse to pass on the Tory cuts. We need National Income per capita is $950 democratic. It is simply a sad fact that stance of the local anti-cuts campaign, to build a working-class force to assert per year; 45% live below the official Islamist organisations can organise 200 Tower Hamlets Hands Off Our Public some rational politics and slough off the poverty line while a tiny minority live people to join the Labour Party at a time Services. THHOOPS is controlled by the bourgeois scum. very well indeed; there is at least 35% when the local trade union movement SWP, who have argued against placing unemployment. Nearly half of Yemen’s rapidly grow - ing population of 23 million is under 15 (UN figures). Life expectancy is 63 Action needed on welfare cuts years; literacy rates are 35% for women. Yemen’s meagre oil reserves will be dry by 2017, as will the aquifers which BY MATTHEW THOMPSON supply its capital, Sanaa, with drinking means-tested and can only be claimed by pension age from 65 to 66, albeit by 2020 water. those on low incomes. rather than 2016 as previously Yemen has no normally-functioning he coalition’s announcement in Even in its own terms of cutting public announced. The last Labour government state. The central government has direct last month’s Comprehensive spending, the new Child Benefit scheme had already decided to increase it to 66 authority over only a minority of the Spending Review of cuts to has already run into trouble. Unlike the by 2024 and to 68 by 2046. The Coalition country. social security benefits, togeth - straightforward task of paying benefit has said that the rise to 68 is now likely Elsewhere it has to bribe, haggle and er with planned job losses of 15,000 in for all children, means testing payments to be brought forward as well. negotiate to achieve any goal — a the Department for Work and Pensions will introduce another layer of bureau - Like the parallel review of public sec - process that the president, Ali Salih, has over the next two years, represents the cracy as well as increasing state investi - tor pension schemes being conducted by Tclearest attack yet on the structure and gation of claimants’ personal circum - ex-Labour minister John Hutton, the described as “dancing on the heads of snakes.” principles of the welfare state created stances. Where for example the father is rationale behind these changes to retire - Ali Salih has co-opted many of the by the 1945 Labour government. the top rate tax payer and Child Benefit ment age is that “everyone is living Yemeni mujhadeen who fought the The cut that has attracted most media is claimed by the mother, HM Revenue longer.” This argument ignores the dif - Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s attention — withdrawing Child Benefit and Customs will either have to write to ferences in age expectancy based on and returned in the 90s. from children with a parent earning the former asking whether their partner social class — men in Glasgow die on He now faces a new wave of jihadists enough to pay the top rate of income tax has claimed Child Benefit, or the latter average at 78 compared to 87 for their aligned with al-Qaeda, based in the (currently just under £44,000 a year) — asking for details of what their partner counterparts in Kensington and Chelsea south and east of the country. Al-Qaeda had already been trailed at the Tory earns, information which they, respec - — and the fact that even those who live have been routed in Saudi Arabia and party conference. tively, may not. There is also the problem longer may not be capable of working till have now regrouped in Yemen. Child Benefit was introduced in 1946 of self-employed people with fluctuating nearly 70, especially in manual jobs. However, Yemen is also being pulled as a low but universal payment to reflect income who do not know into which Taken together with attacks on inca - apart by a simmering rebellion in the some of the costs of bringing up chil - band their earnings will fall until the end pacity and disability benefits, the choice north, run by a minority Shia sect, the dren. Its withdrawal from the better off of the tax year. for many working-class people in the Zaydi, and, additionally, by a southern has caused problems for the Coalition The confirmation that Housing Benefit future if the Tories and Lib Dems get secessionist movement based on those government on its own backbenches. will be also be restricted to £250, £280, their way will either be working into who look to re-found the old south Many Tory and Lib Dem MPs fear it will £340 and £400 per week for one-, two-, their 70s in low-paid manual jobs and Yemen state.