Solidarity 417, 21 September 2016

I’ve been a socialist as long as I can remember. In a world where capitalism was catastrophically failing most people, leaving them cold, hungry and dying of preventable diseases, even in developed countries, it didn’t make sense to support a system of market and profit. Fundamental change in the organisation of society, and a shift in power, is necessary to achieve decent conditions of living for all without destroying our planet. I’ve been active in the trade union movement since I started training as a doctor, but the Labour Party seemed like the least bad of the awful, rather than anything...

As Labour Party conference approaches, the numbers of members being suspended and expelled is increasing. This purge has become extremely destructive. The most recent high-profile suspensions were that of two Bristol Labour councillors — Hibaq Jama and Mike Langley. The suspensions leave Labour with one councillor below what is needed for an overall majority. A number of conference delegates, including those who have submitted a contemporary motion supporting the Stop the Purge campaign, have found themselves suspended and expelled. Harrow West delegate Rosie Woods has joined the long list of...

Justice for Health, the group of junior doctors who have crowdfunded a record £300,000 (from 10,000 people) finally got their day in court today. It was part of a two-day judicial review into the legality of the Secretary of State’s decision to impose a contract upon junior doctors. The official verdict is not expected until 28 September, and there is a further day of hearings to come as we go to press. The process will have been uncomfortable for the Secretary of State and his supporters. The argument put forward by the Justice for Health lawyers is that Jeremy Hunt does not have the power to...

Jeremy Corbyn has said he will defend freedom of movement in the negotiations around Brexit. He has declared: “I have visited the camps in Calais and Dunkirk, which are in an appalling state. Those people are in a very perilous situation. They are all humans, to whom we must reach out the hand of friendship and support”. He has called for Britain to admit more refugees. By contrast, the legacy of the 1997-2010 New Labour Government, of which Owen Smith aspires to be the successor, was seven Acts of Parliament restricting civil liberties on the pretext of fighting terrorism; six on immigration...

Theresa May’s Tory government has said that it will decide no new welfare cuts. What makes this a half-truth, or even an outright untruth, is that big cuts, maybe even bigger cuts than the government can realistically manage, have already been programmed by previous Tory decisions. “We will meet the previous commitments we’ve made”, as Tory minister Damian Green put it. For example, over three million people currently claim a total of £14 billion disability benefits in the UK. The programme of replacing Disability Living Allowance by Personal Independence Payment is still rolling out. By 2018...

The ceasefire in Syria had already appeared to be on the verge of collapse following a US-led attack on Syrian troops, who, so Russia has said, were fighting Daesh. Then came an air attack on UN aid convoys near Aleppo. Russia and Syria have both denied responsibility, but are suspected of being involved. The US has said the ceasefire is not dead. The US said its attack on Deir al-Zour was aimed at Daesh, and it was unaware Syrian government troops were present. The Russians declared it was a “display of heavy handedness” by the US. Russia has called on the US to coordinate airstrikes...

Hello! I have recently moved to Paris, and every month I will be writing a “Letter from Paris” to keep Solidarity readers up to date about France and its far left. Hopefully this will be an interesting year in which the far left can have serious conversations about our political ideas in light of the passing of the Labour Law with essentially no vote, the upcoming presidential election, and the continuing “state of emergency”. In February 2016, a large scale mobilisation against the proposed Loi Travail (Labour Law) began where students and workers mobilised in the streets, workplaces, and...

In the video above Sacha Ismail explains why he was secretly filmed by Dispatches, the politics behind the programme — distrust of socialist ideas, and what Workers' Liberty stand for. Channel Four's Dispatches programme ( The Battle for the Labour Party , shown Monday 19 September) was a pathetic, and fairly ineffective, attempt to scandal-monger. It's argument - that Momentum is an “entryist” organisation in Labour and that Workers' Liberty is an “entryist” group within Momentum — was an attempt to throw as much mud as they could at Corbyn and Momentum, to disorganise and destabilise, now...