Solidarity 408, 8 June 2016

Junior doctors call to reject contract

On Friday 3 June the British Medical Association’s junior doctors’ committee met to discuss the proposed new contract. The committee agreed not to make a recommendation for the referendum which runs from 17 June to 1 July. Some members will be campaigning to reject. JDC members Pete Campbell and Yannis Gourtsoyannis set out their reasons in this article. Whilst gains have been made by junior doctors over the last eight months it is clear that we do not yet have a contract offer as good as the one we are presently working under. Voting No is therefore a positive decision on our part. We know...

Industrial news in brief

Bakers’, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) members are in the middle of a fierce battle against massive pay cuts in a food factory in Sheffield. Pennine Foods is part of 2 Sisters Group, which has revenue of over £3 billion; its owner Ranjit Singh Boparan has a personal wealth of £190 million. Boparan’s “salami-slicing” of conditions has been going on now for 8 years. The attempt at imposing a new contract that includes Sunday and Bank-Holiday pay reduced by 33%, overtime pay reduced by 25%, and losing half hour paid breaks on 12 hour shifts, is the last straw for many of these workers...

Stop the expulsions of Socialist Appeal supporters!

A number of Workers’ Liberty supporters have been expelled from the Labour Party, by an unaccountable factional hit squad — the “Compliance Unit”. Some have been reinstated after a fight, some told there is nothing doing and they must wait five years, and some are yet to hear back on their appeals. We are fighting for all of them to be readmitted. Now the Compliance Unit has expelled some supporters of another socialist group, Socialist Appeal. The Compliance Unit is always coming with new justifications. Whereas they told our most recent expellees that the “programme and principles” of the...

Reinstate Rhea Wolfson’s candidacy for NEC!

The right of the Labour Party is seeking to block left candidate Rhea Wolfson (who replaced Ken Livingstone on the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate following his suspension on charges of anti-semitism) from standing for Labour’s National Executive Committee. Party rules say that candidates must receive nominations from three different regions – no problem, Rhea has dozens of nominations – and from their own CLP. But Eastwood CLP voted not to nominate Rhea. Former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, who led the party to disaster in Scotland in the 2015 Westminster election, turned up with...

For a democratic youth movement

Momentum Youth and Students founding conference in Manchester on 5 June was a big step forward towards creating a radical democratic youth movement. 200 young Labour Party and socialist activists attended. The conference opened strongly with an all-women plenary. Hannah McCarthy, the Campaigns and Citizenship Officer at the University of Manchester Student Union, set the tone with news of an inspiring victory for low-paid catering workers at the university, and the importance of fighting explicitly for socialist ideas. We also heard from left-wing Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, the new chair...

The most homophobic election ever

I was the left-wing pro-LGBT rights Labour candidate. Described by many commentators as the dirtiest, most violent and homophobic by-election in modern British history, I went down to a crushing defeat at the hands of the Liberal candidate, Simon Hughes. The Liberals (since renamed the Liberal Democrats) pitched for the homophobic vote. They published leaflets which stated there was a “straight choice” between myself and Simon Hughes. Less well known was the tactic of some male Liberal canvassers to knock on doors wearing lapel stickers emblazoned with the words “I’ve been kissed by Peter...

Connolly, the USA, and the Wobblies

In June 1905, the American workers’ movement took a huge leap forward, with the establishment of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Chicago. Its roots lay in the militancy of mine workers in the mid-western states, where for a decade the Western Federation of Miners had been fighting intense class battles with the employers, uniting skilled and unskilled workers and relying on workers’ own strength and solidarity to defeat the bosses. The need for an organisation like the IWW (known commonly as the “Wobblies”), emphasising class struggle and solidarity, and organising the unorganised...

Vote remain! Workers’ unity can change Europe

Q: Is it really worth voting on 23 June? A: Yes. All polls suggest that, if “leave” wins, it will win because the embittered “why isn’t Britain the same as it was in the 1950s” types turn out in greater numbers than the more cosmopolitan-minded young. Let “leave” win, and you lose your EU citizenship, which entitles you to travel, and to move for work, freely in Europe. You (and two million British citizens living in EU countries) may well lose arrangements like the European Health Insurance Card, which entitles you to free or heavily-discounted public health care across Europe. Your friends...

Anti-racism: combine the tactics

Amid media storm and police overkill, anti-racists and anti-fascists held successful parallel rallies in Melbourne’s multicultural Coburg on Saturday 28 May. The Moreland Says No to Racism Rally was initiated by Socialist Alliance Moreland councillor Sue Bolton, with organisers including independent left activists. Months in preparation, and endorsed by over 60 groups including Moreland council, it aimed at opposing government racism, solidarity with refugees, for a treaty with indigenous people and against Islamophobia. However fascist groups (United Patriots Front and True Blue Crew) decided...

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