Solidarity 490, 9 January 2019

Many Brazilians — especially those who are (or care for the rights of) women, black people, LGBT folk, workers, or leftists — feared the coming of New Year’s Day 2019, as far-right evangelical fundamentalist Jair Bolsonaro took power as president. In his first speech as president, behind lines of armed police to intimidate the press, Bolsonaro promised to fight socialism, “gender ideology”, and the colour red. His inauguration was boycotted by the Workers’ Party (PT) and the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) in protest, but neither those parties nor any other group organised major protest...

Fidel Castro’s 26 July Movement overthrew the corrupt Batista regime, and took power in Cuba sixty years ago, at the start of January 1959. The early period of the Castro regime improved social provision and living standards for the poorest in Cuba. Increasingly it did that while also suppressing the independent trade unions and political pluralism which existed, even though harassed and weak, under Batista. Sixty years later, the Morning Star is celebrating and excusing Cuba’s lack of democracy. It is pointedly silent about the economic inequality which has grown there since the Cuban...

On Saturday 5 January, an estimated 50,000 demonstrators came onto the streets of France to take part in “Act VIII”, the eighth national protest of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement. In Paris, a bloc of working¬class women in yellow jackets came to the fore and broke police encirclements. The movement has shrunk since “Act I” on 17 November 2018, which saw an estimated 300,000 on the streets, but it has defied predictions that it would die off during the Christmas¬New Year break. The protests began in the autumn, against a hike in fuel tax that would have hurt millions of workers and...

The Skwawkbox website, which is close to leading officials in the Labour Party Leader’s Office, has floated the idea of Labour abstaining in the parliamentary vote on the Tories’ Brexit deal. That would let the deal pass even if the DUP and the Tory ultra¬Brexit right still vote against. On 6 January, Skwawkbox wrote: “To take effect, May’s deal must first pass the ‘meaningful vote’ in the Commons – stage 1 – and then an Act of Parliament must be passed to bring it into force. “Labour could not support May’s deal – but an abstention on stage 1 would bring things to the point where the DUP...

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), a longstanding component of the Labour left, is promoting a model motion to “commend” the Labour Party leadership for its stance on Brexit. The motion accuses those agitating for a new public vote on Brexit of seeking to “overturn Labour conference policy”, on the grounds that we supposedly advocate a public vote *before* an attempt to bring down the Tories by a vote of no confidence in Parliament. In fact those who agitate for a new public vote are also those who express worries that the Labour front bench’s delay on proposing “no confidence”...

Amidst farcical discord in the dominant Left Unity faction of the civil service union PCS, nominations open on 17 January for the union’s Assistant General Secretary. Voting will run from 16 April to 9 May. The AGS is the only full¬time officer other than the General Secretary elected by members. Months ago, the union’s president Janice Godrich (not a full¬time official as such, but someone seconded long¬term from her civil service job) announced that she would challenge Chris Baugh (the incumbent) for the Left Unity nomination. Both Godrich and Baugh were and remain members of the Socialist...

Drivers in Darlington, Durham, Redcar, Stockton and Whitby working for Arriva have started a week long strike over pay. Unite members rejected a revised pay offer just before Christmas. The drivers are some of the lowest paid across the whole of Arriva buses. Arriva claim that 25% of buses have continued to run over the first 48 hours, but there has been widespread disruption with Unite stating they are willing to re¬enter talks as soon as the company confirm that a revised pay offer would be made. After this week Unite says it will consult members again as to what follow up action will be...

A potentially very positive consequence of the ATL/NUT merger for the National Education Union (NEU) is that it removed the barrier that the National Union of Teachers imposed on itself not to recruit non¬teaching staff in schools. By doing so the possibility has been created of much more effective workplace organisation in schools. The NEU now claims over 450,000 members, including a significant and growing number of non-teaching staff. The task now is to build an integrated, united and militant union that works for all its members. Unfortunately, led by the dominant and misnamed Socialist...

On 19 December, US president Donald Trump announced a snap decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. At first he said the troops would be out within 30 days, but now it looks like several months at least. The plan is now conditional on assurances from Turkey regarding the safety of the Kurds in Northern Syria. Trump’s move outraged the “common sense” of bourgeois foreign policy. US Defence Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis and Trump’s special envoy for anti-Daesh work, Brett McGurk, both resigned. Mattis was angered by Trump criticising American allies and other NATO members regarding their...

Introduction to the briefing Download pdf of full briefing here Red London is a Facebook page which deploys unevidenced smears rather than political argument against people they politically oppose. Its administrators are anonymous. Red London also builds support for contemporary Stalinist state formations (e.g. North Korea, China) and praises “High Stalinism” (the USSR in the 1930s and 40s). The page appears to be strongly aligned to the Communist Party of Britain and its paper the Morning Star (many posts share and defend Morning Star articles). They are also Labour supporters and members...