Solidarity 506, 15 May 2019

Depths of denial

Keith Kahn Harris’s book sets out to be a short analysis on what drives a lot of conspiracy theories: denial. People deny climate change, the effectiveness of vaccines, or the Holocaust. Kahn Harris explains succinctly where some of these conspiracies are driven from — helplessness in a world that leads the less informed to believing the conspiracy of someone with an alternative agenda. But the book is short in length and short on answers. Kahn Harris makes a distinction. “Denial” is the act of denying something, for example, claiming that you can smoke just one more cigarette and quit easily...

Say what is, then find your tactics

More debate on the right of return here. Daniel, Daniel — what a sloppy mud-pie of a polemic! You mix abuse with evasion, self-admiration, and demagogy! Most of what you have newly written ( Solidarity 505 ) is a senseless rant. I asked someone if my earlier response to you was too fierce and impatient. He replied that it was out of key with the “sensibilities of the time”. Whatever about the sensibilities of the time, having read your new article I think I’ll manage to forgive myself. Your second article has not a great deal to do with what we are arguing about, or what I have said about...

Why students are depressed

A recent survey of university students has found alarming rates of anxiety, self harm and substance abuse. Of the 38,000 students surveyed by the Insight Network, 87.7% said they struggle with anxiety, 50.3% have thoughts of self-harm, and 44.7% use alcohol or drugs to deal with their problems. Rates of mental distress are highest among second and third year students. There are some reasons that we can rule out as being the cause of this mental distress. Students are under pressure, but not any more so than students in other countries. In fact, British universities tend to be generous with...

PCS Independent Left wins against “status quo” left

On Thursday 9 May, the PCS civil service union announced that Independent Left candidate John Moloney had won the election for Assistant General Secretary. John Moloney spoke to Solidarity. I believe that standing on a worker’s wage, rather than taking the on-offer wage of £91k, was of decisive weight in the outcome. Certainly many people said it was the reason why they voted for me. Another thing that helped is that most of the voting took place during the strike ballot for pay, so reps were already taking to members. This might account for turnout increasing from 8% to over 10% this time —...

Hitting dark kitchens

Deliveroo couriers struck in Cambridge on Sunday 5 May, targetting Deliveroo’s “dark kitchens”, storage units from which restaurant chains prepare food for a dedicated Deliveroo service. We have not yet established contact with riders there, and do not know exactly why they are striking. The strike seems to have been organised by, and predominantly attended by, motorbike couriers. They seem to have had good turnout. The weekend after, Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May, Deliveroo gave couriers increased pay all evening. In most places where we have got members of the IWGB, or are in contact with...

Industrial news in brief

Tube win against cuts Cuts had been planned by London Underground to train maintenance schedules, to reduce the frequency of train safety checks, from 24-hourly to 96-hourly, or up to monthly or more on some lines. Fleet maintenance workers in the RMT union had set strikes for 17-20 May. RMT had also planned to demonstrate outside London’s City Hall on 16 May, highlighting Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s failure to resist Tory cuts to Transport for London’s budget. RMT reported on 14 May that the maintenance schedule cuts had been withdrawn, and has suspended action. Union general secretary Mick...

Protesting for "two states"

Activists from Workers' Liberty, the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan, and others, held a protest for "Two nations, two states" in Israel-Palestine alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstration in London on 11 May. We displayed banners and placards, distributed leaflets, sold papers and pamphlets, and sought discussions. Quite a few PSC demonstrators stopped to photograph our banner and placards as the only ones around clearly demanding "two states", and expressed agreement with us. Their response to the official slogans of the official PSC demonstration was generally a shrug -...

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