Solidarity 426, 11 January 2017

Sunderland may become the first major UK city without any domestic violence refuges for women. Local charity Wearside Women in Need have been told by Sunderland council they will have their funding cut. The charity warns it won’t be able to continue running their four refuges, accommodating 173 women and 107 children. They also provide the only specialised service in the north east for black women and can provide accommodation for women with severe disabilities. Sunderland council has recently started a consultation with local residents ahead of setting plans for their budget. But the council...

The CIA’s report to US senators — that Russia intervened in the US presidential election to help the election of Donald Trump — is extraordinary. That’s not just because of the fact that Russia seemingly interfered in an election in the world’s most powerful country, but also because the US intelligence agency chose to make it public. Corey Robin comments on US socialist website Jacobin: “That the nation’s security agencies could go public with this kind of accusation, or allow their accusation to go public, is unprecedented. The United States traditionally does this kind of thing, covertly...

As the House of Lords EU Committee put it, with considerable understatement recently: UK-Irish relations “are often overlooked on the British side of the Irish sea”. Both before and after the EU referendum, the consequences of Brexit on Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic have been an afterthought in the public debate. Often there has been no thought at all. After the referendum result, Theresa May was quick to reassure Stormont that “nobody wants to return to the borders of the past”. Yet, under the pressure from the Tory right, and despite quietly believing in a Remain position during...

Assad’s so-called “liberation” of Aleppo has destroyed and ransacked the city. More than 400,000 people have been displaced in a city that once had a population of 1.5 million. Attempts to rebuild the infrastructure will be a slow process. Much of the city was obliterated in Russian-aided bombardments that sought to show both the might of Assad and the determination of Russia to cement itself as his key ally. Any lasting ceasefire is likely to break down. The UN’s efforts to provide humanitarian relief in Syria remain blocked by various obstructions including the need for permits from the...

Iraqi forces have reached the Tigris River in their campaign to take Mosul back from Daesh. Lieutenant General Abdal-Amir al-Lami, the Iraqi deputy chief of staff for operations, confirmed on 8 January that the Iraqi security forces (ISF) had seized the eastern end of one of the bridges linking the two sides of the city. Iraqi forces are now present in 35 of east Mosul’s 47 districts. Thousands of Iraqis have fled but displaced numbers are not yet as high as expected. There is still a lack of clarity on the distribution of aid and humanitarian resources with corruption endemic. The BBC reports...

“The country is drifting step by step, under the ‘presidential system’, using the state of emergency, to one-man administration”, says Turkey’s Union for Democracy in a recent statement. “However, Turkey needs, not a one-man administration, but a participatory pluralist secular parliamentary democracy and peace” The statement describes the widespread sackings of officials, shutting-down of TV and radio channels and newspapers and magazines, and the tens of thousands of people jailed. The state of emergency declared after the defeat of the coup attempt in July against President Erdogan’s AKP...

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has put out this briefing about preparations for the 2017 Labour Party conference. CLPs should currently be deciding when they will elect their delegates to this year's national Conference. Conference will be from 24 to 27 September in Brighton this year. It is important that delegates from CLPs reflect the views of Labour's membership. That will help ensure that progressive policies and democratic rule changes are adopted. The hard right wants to defeat such advances so the centre left needs to aim at being strongly represented. Labour First (unlike...

We should vote for Len McCluskey in the Unite general secretary election for which nominations open on 16 January because it is a first-past-the-post poll, and without left-wing votes going to McCluskey there is a real risk Gerard Coyne will win. Coyne is heavily backed by the Labour right wing around Tom Watson and Progress. If he wins, he will swing Unite decisively to the anti-Corbyn camp. That could close down all the openings for Labour revival opened by Jeremy Corbyn's leadership victories. Vote Coyne, and get Watson and Progress: that's the deal. In the 2013 general secretary election...

Workers' Liberty welcomes the statement “Momentum – a way forward” , circulated online by around 50 members of Momentum, including Steering Committee member Michael Chessum. It "call[s] on all in Momentum – both the central office and our fellow members and supporters – to focus our energies on active, outward-facing campaigns and initiatives" "Momentum - a way forward" It proposes conciliation to restore unity and the ability to "tolerate difference, tension and contradiction" in Momentum. It wants "a mixed democratic system for Momentum, which blends together delegate and online systems". It...

In the debate in the labour movement around "free movement", which is in fact a debate about immigration, a number of arguments have been made by left-wing advocates of ending free movement - that is, leaving the EU on a basis which abolishes the rights of free movement to the UK that EU citizens currently have, and which UK citizens currently have to other EU states. This article attempts to respond to some of those arguments, and present a positive case for defending and extending existing freedom of movement. Argument One: "By ending free movement we can make Britain a giant closed shop"...