Reviews

Labour Parties in the USA

Paul Hampton reviews True Mission: Socialists and the Labor Party in the US by Eric Chester (Pluto 2004, £14.99) The debate about working class representation in the United States takes place in very different conditions from those we encounter in Britain. However, discussions on the US left over the last hundred years are very instructive — both for our concerns in Britain and for American comrades today. True Mission discusses the history of third party efforts in the United States over the past 120 years. It has chapters on Henry George’s campaign for New York mayor in 1886, the Socialist...

At the end of the tunnel?

Tony Byrne recommends a new pamphlet about the privatisation of London Underground The fight against Tube privatisation lasted for almost five years. It started with a demonstration on 13 February 1998 to mark John Prescott’s official announcement of the Labour government’s plans for privatising London Underground’s (LU) infrastructure, under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme. An official RMT circular accepting defeat signalled the end of the dispute on 20 December 2002. Ultimately it was an unequal struggle: the labour movement failed to rally to the aid of tube workers. Nor was the...

Socialists and Muslims: Holier than thou?

My letter is inspired by Cathy Nugent’s review (Solidarity 3/56) of the novel Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam. “I hope the Russians love their children too.” Song lyric by Sting “You give me 20 minutes or an hour — a special programme to dissect the Koran — and I will show you that we have a monster in our midst.” Nick Griffin, BNP leader on “Newsnight”, 14 July 2004 “…some Christians justified the persecution and mass murder of Jews by claiming that Jews wanted to take over the world. But these fascist fantasies were based on deliberate lies, such as the notorious fake book The Protocols...

No hero of ours

Paul Hampton reviews Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution by Mike Gonzales (Bookmarks, £8.99) Is there no end to the opportunism of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)? After decades using the slogan “Neither Washington nor Moscow” they are now publishing books trying to breath life into old Stalinists. This book is published to coincide with a new film, The Motorcycle Diaries, based on the early life of Ernesto Che Guevara. But it also reflects a new political stance for the SWP. At their “Marxism” summer school this year, banners of Guevara adorned the walls of the auditoria. Guevara was a...

Adventures in Stasiland

Dan Katz reviews Stasiland by Anna Funder (Granta, £7.99) There’s a photo above our fire taken on New Year’s Eve, 1989. Me (compulsory donkey jacket) and girlfriend (long-hair, long-gone) and four pints of Guinness. We were drinking enthusiastically for the smashing of Stalinist rule across Eastern Europe. The Berlin wall had been pulled down in November 1989, Russian miners had set up workers’ councils, and then, over Xmas, the Romanian dictators, the Ceausescus, had been put up against a wall and shot. As one Romanian commentator declared: “When I saw the Ceausescus dead, I, like everybody...

Working till we drop

Pat Longman reviews Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives by Madeleine Bunting (Harper Collins, £12.99) “For about one in three of all British workers, exhaustion, stress or both have become an inescapable part of their working lives.” Madeleine Bunting argues that the weakening of the trade union movement, neo-liberalism and New-Ageist ideology have all contributed to a work environment that is increasingly unbearable. She provides facts, figures, case studies, and draws on anecdotal evidence to document how we are all working a lot, lot harder than we used to. Bunting...

Workers in globalisation

The working class in "globalised" capitalism

Draft review by Martin Thomas of Nigel Harris's book The return of cosmopolitan capital (Rtf file, 53k. November 2003.)


Notes from a Marxist discussion group organised by Workers' Liberty activists in Brisbane, Australia, in July-September 2003, around the book The End of Organized Capitalism, by Scott Lash and John Urry.

1. Introduction

2. Chapter-by-chapter summary and brief discussion

3. The rise and fall of 'organised capitalism'

4. Sunk in the suburbs?

5. Disorganised capital, disorganised labour?

6. Has politics become fractal?

7. Radicalism, nomadism, and working-class communities

8. Trade unionism, capitalist competition and fragmentation of bargaining

Publications
Culture and Reviews
Issues and Campaigns

Socialism in bad times

Colin Foster reviews The Other American: the life of Michael Harrington by Maurice Isserman This book has some interesting things to teach us about how socialists operate, both in times of adversity and in times of opportunity. Michael Harrington, later to become the USA's most famous reform socialist, joined the US socialist movement in 1952. It was not a good year for the movement. Working-class combativity had declined sharply since the big strike wave of 1946-7. It had been assuaged by economic boom, and pushed down by Cold War political reaction. McCarthyism was rampant. "Third Camp"...

The Battle of Venezuela

The Battle of Venezuela , Michael McCaughan, Latin America Bureau, 166 pages, £7.99 (2004). Since Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998, Venezuela has experienced enormous upheaval, including a military coup and two-month long bosses' lockout and insurgency. In August Chávez faces a referendum on his presidency, after the opposition collected enough signatures to force the vote. This was a provision Chávez introduced in his new constitution five years ago and if successful, it may mean another presidential election and possibly his departure from power. This book by journalist Michael...

The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border

The Children of NAFTA: Labor Wars on the US/Mexico Border , David Bacon, University of California Press, £18.95. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States (US), Canada and Mexico, which came into force in 1994, has revolutionised relations of capital and labour across the continent. This book by journalist and activist David Bacon paints a persuasive picture of the suffering and struggle that has resulted from NAFTA. It provides a valuable critique of its effects and a fascinating first-hand view of life and work on the US-Mexico border. NAFTA was an experiment...

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