Solidarity 564, 23 September 2020

Kino Eye

Kino Eye is a new column which will offer suggestions for film or TV viewing which are related to articles in Solidarity . The term "Kino Eye" is borrowed from the early Soviet documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov, whose best-known film is Man with a Movie Camera (1929). Suggestions for viewing from readers are welcome. In Solidarity 562 I recommended two interesting, and very different, films from Bosnia, Walter Defends Sarajevo and Grbavica . Although not about Sarajevo, another film from that region also worth seeing is Tito and Me (Goran Marković, 1992), the comic story of a chubby young...

Statutory ballot in DWP? (John Moloney's column)

The consultative ballot of our members in Job Centres returned an overwhelming majority in favour of industrial action over safety concerns. The union's Group Executive Committee for the Department for Work and Pensions meets on Tuesday 22 September and will discuss whether to proceed to a formal, statutory ballot, which they're very likely to do. Anyone who was wavering on whether action is necessary is likely to have been galvanised by events in recent days. Management is increasing the number of claimants required to attend physical meetings at Job Centres, which is a huge risk given...

Transport for London audit: Open the books!

The audit and review of TfL's governance and finance, ordered by the Department for Transport (DfT) as part of the funding bailout provided in June, and led by accountancy firm KPMG, was due to make its initial report at the end of August.

As Tubeworker reported, language in the audit's terms of...

Aslef members vote yes for action

Aslef members on LU have voted by a 95% majority in favour of industrial action, on a 70% turnout. It's a thumping result on a high turnout, that easily smashes the arbitrary thresholds of the Tories' anti-union laws.

Aslef balloted over the demand that LU abide by all existing agreements - in...

Defend Sherelle Cadogan!

Sherelle Cadogan, an I/O and Aslef member, has been given a 12 month suspended dismissal for challenging racism!

A manager posted racist comments on social media, including disparaging Black Lives Matter. Sherelle and others quite rightly, challenged the comments. While the Manager was reported for...

Joint enterprise: unjust and racist

British courts' application of "joint enterprise" is unjust, and criminalises black and working-class youth. "Joint enterprise" is a common-law doctrine that allows courts to convict not only the person who carried out a crime, but others who helped them to do it. In principle, that sounds reasonable. But since 1984, British courts have used it to convict people who they think knew the crime was going to happen, even if they did not help carry it out. That has led to a string of unjust convictions, with some people given life sentences in prison simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong...

Socialist politics to combat new virus surge

We want furlough and the ban on evictions extended, and rent "holidays" added. We want full isolation pay for all. The Tories' £500 one-off self-isolation dole for workers on benefits is a concession, but inadequate Social care should be taken into the public sector, and its staff put on regular public sector pay and conditions. Test-and-trace should be taken out of the hands of Serco and the other profiteers, and made a coordinated public health effort. NHS logistics, at present also a mess of profiteering subcontractors, should be put into public ownership, and industry requisitioned to...

Belarus workers fight for democracy

Again on 19-20 September, mass demonstrations across Belarus demanded democracy. The last two Saturdays have seen tens of thousands of women in the capital, Minsk. They have faced police attacks, but the last two Sunday demonstrations have both attracted over 150,000. The women defended each other heroically — stopping state security arresting their comrades and pulling off the balaclavas behind which the security thugs hide their identity. One hero of the women's marches is 74 year old Nina Baginskaya. Escaping arrest on 12 September, she was eventually arrested at the 19 September...

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