Solidarity 511, 20 June 2019

Zionism and the left, from Arendt to Chomsky

Barry Finger reviews Susie Linfield’s book The Lions’ Den, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2019 “How has it come to this?” asks Susie Linfield. “How has ‘Zionist,’ sometimes shortened to the disparaging ‘Zio,’ become the dirtiest word to the international Left—akin, say to racist, pedophile or rapist?… “How is it that signs proclaiming ‘We Are All Hezbollah’ are brandished at supposedly left-wing demonstrations in London and New York? This is not the lunatic fringe. On the contrary: a highly respected American academic has praised Hezbollah and Hamas as ‘progressive’ social...

Edge of Democracy

Petra Costa was a child when Workers’ Party (PT) leader Lula da Silva became President of Brazil in 2003. Her parents had been detained and worked underground for the PT and the overthrow of the military dictatorship of 1965-1985. This documentary is a personal quest to make sense of her deep disappointment at the overthrow of the PT government of 2003-2018 by supporters of that military dictatorship. She has assembled footage of her family, of protests, of interviews with PT supporters, with the two PT Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, and, of parliamentary proceedings. Opponents...

Fat cat college threatens to sink pension scheme

Trinity College, the richest college at the University of Cambridge (net worth £1.5bn), recently took the decision to remove itself from the USS pension agreement — the same agreement that saw 2018’s mass industrial action on dozens of university campuses. This verdict, taken based on flawed financial grounds and with disregard to the wider education sector, puts at greater risk the pensions of over 400,000 university workers across the UK, and is already leading other universities to re-consider their long-term commitment to the scheme . University and College Union members in Cambridge have...

TDL couriers turn tide

Twelve months of negotiating. The IWGB’s “Rise of the precarious workers” demonstration descending on TDL’s headquarters doorstep. Demonstrating outside the company Christmas party they weren’t invited to. A two day strike that included a motorbike procession to prestigious clients in the Harley Street area and temporary occupation of the company loading bay. Amazing speakers on the picket line including Owen Jones, Dave “Blacklist” Smith and Dr Louise Irvine and support from clients, entrepreneurs and heavyweights like the ITF. And finally on Friday a breakthrough for the unionised medical...

Outsourced workers’ strikes

Outsourced workers at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) began a five day strike from 17 June, immediately following an outsourced workers’ strike at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (F&CO). Both strikes have had exceptionally lively picket lines. Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, walked past the F&CO picket and naturally strikers and supporters took the opportunity to make him aware of the issues, politely and diplomatically, of course. The following day, Hunt wrote to Interserve, the contractor which employs outsourced workers in the F&CO, to press them...

New guards’ strikes up the ante

RMT has upped the ante in the dispute against DOO on South Western Railway, by announcing a five day strike from 18-22 June. Despite winning what appeared to be a “guard guarantee” in February via previous strikes, SWR bosses have dithered and have failed to implement an agreement to retain guards’ jobs. Naming new strikes is absolutely the right thing to do, and it’s absolutely right to go big. Incidental one-day strikes won’t get the goods: sustained action might. RMT needs to finance these strikes to ensure members aren’t forced back to work for financial reasons. And if the action doesn’t...

Unison clash over tests boycott

The most contentious debate at the Local Government sector conference of public sector workers’ union Unison, which finished on 17 June, was around a motion proposed by Lambeth Unison, supported by Workers’ Liberty Unison activists. The motion advocated that Unison organise its members working in primary schools to support the National Education Union’s planned boycott of testing in primary schools. Arguing that “Unison members must not be put in the position of being asked to cover work that another union’s members are boycotting as part of a legitimate dispute”, it asked that all Unison...

NEU can win Yes for school boycott action

The National Education Union’s indicative ballot of its primary school members to boycott high stakes summative testing opened on 4 June and closes on 2 July. Thus far the turnout seems to be good, if uneven. Where districts are organising school meetings and phone-banking their members, the results are strong. In those areas, the process of building the ballot is bringing in new members and new reps and building the sinews of organisation that have been missing in primary schools for many years. With continued effort, many districts will pass the 50% turnout threshold. The ballot poses two...

Ford: build the fightback!

At the Ford Bridgend engine plant, union members have voted to reject the closure and to take industrial action if needed. The question now is what union leaders will do to build on those votes. A plan to save the jobs at the Ford Bridgend engine plant should combine three key elements: • A serious leverage campaign — aimed at hurting the key decision-makers right in their profit drivers • Political campaigning, to commit Labour on a public ownership plan for key industrial enterprises such as this that come under threat — nationalisation under workers’ control • A campaign to win the...

Sudan: the uprising regroups

Hamid Khalafallah is a democracy activist in Sudan. He talked with Sacha Ismail from Solidarity . The occupation of the streets around the army headquarters in Khartoum, which began on 6 April, was the spearhead of the revolutionary movement; on 3 June that was repressed and dispersed. However, protests are still happening in Khartoum and in other parts of the country. This sit-in was very large; on the first day something like a million people marched on the army HQ, and the occupation grew out of that, to protest against the regime and try to at least neutralise the army. Its size fluctuated...

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