Solidarity 617, 8 December 2021

A number of countries, including the US and France, are seeing waves or flurries of strikes as workers try to gain or make up ground as economies revive after lockdowns. Here, pay in the private sector is rising but inflation is rising faster, with the left-Blairite Resolution Foundation noting that "real wages are already falling and are likely to continue to do so for the next six months”. In the public sector the government is seeking to impose even more real-terms cuts after more than a decade of huge cumulative losses. There is a wave of attacks on pay, terms and conditions as bosses try...

Earlier this year, during sizeable demonstrations against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, there was talk of the law at least being stripped down, removing its most egregious aspects. In fact, after demonstrations died away, the Tories have gone in exactly the opposite direction. As the bill has moved through the House of Lords, the government has proposed a raft of amendments which dramatically expand its oppressive features. Jun Pang of human rights organisation Liberty, which has been campaigning consistently against the Bill (though not mobilising people on the streets), has...

On Tuesday 23 November, the day before 27 people drowned in the English Channel trying to reach the UK, Priti Patel announced the official opening of Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) in County Durham, a new women-only facility intended to replace the notorious Yarl's Wood detention centre near Bedford. The new facility in Medomsley, near the town of Consett, was formerly Medomsley Detention Centre (for boys) and was the site of historic abuse carried out over decades before closing in 1988. Five former officers have already been jailed for their part in the abuse with many more...

On Saturday 27 November, there was a rally in London’s Chinatown, supposedly against anti-Asian racism and, more specifically, anti-Chinese racism. There is, indeed, strong evidence of an increase in racism against Chinese people and those of “Chinese” appearance in the UK. It’s been fuelled at least in part by the Covid-19 pandemic and Trump’s description of it as the “China virus”. All socialists would, as a matter of course, support a genuine campaign against anti-Chinese racism, but there can be no doubt that this rally was, in reality, a propaganda front for the Chinese Communist Party...

Two organisations proscribed by the Labour Party, Labour Against the Witch-hunt (LAW) and Labour In Exile Network (LIEN), have voted to merge. The merged group is making connections with Chris Williamson’s Resist movement and the “Workers Party of Britain” launched by George Galloway and the older Stalinist grouplet CPGB-ML. Resist also has links with the Socialist Party’s “TUSC” electoral vehicle. Four members of the LAW steering committee have resigned in protest at the merger. Both LAW and LIEN subscribe to the idea that the entire issue of antisemitism in Labour was a fake and an invention...

TUSC embraces Chris Williamson Galloway and Bannon Batley and Spen Labour victory despite Galloway threat Notes on a debate with Tony Greenstein George Galloway and Respect Weekly Worker

Barrie Hardy ( Solidarity 616 ) is correct in writing that we should oppose vigilante groups taking the law into their own hands. This is precisely why his opposition to Rittenhouse acquittal is so bizarre. While offering first aid, Rittenhouse was attacked by a man hurling anti-black racial slurs and death threats at him. Rittenhouse ran away but was soon caught. A shot was fired by one of his attackers as they were attempting to take his rifle to kill him. Rittenhouse defended himself with deadly force. Rittenhouse was then chased by a vigilante mob — exactly the sort that Bas claims to...

Mississippi’s Republican governor confirmed on 5 December that his administration would enforce a law in the state banning abortions just after the beginning of the second trimester of a pregnancy if the law is upheld by the US Supreme Court. Gov Tate Reeves joined CNN’s State of the Union: “[I]f Roe v. Wade is overturned, [will you] enforce the almost total abortion ban in Mississippi?”, host Jake Tapper asked Mr Reeves. “Yeah, Jake, that is a yes,” the governor responded. The Supreme Court are currently considering this case, which represents the greatest threat to abortion rights in the US...

A 27 November rally in Chinatown, London, finished with a physical attack by some supporters of the Chinese state on Hong Kongers and others who had come to protest about repression of the Uyghurs and in HK. Since then, messages have been circulated on the instant-messaging app WeChat putting a bounty on two exile Hong Kong activists, Simon Cheng and Nathan Law, offering £10,000 for their UK addresses, and forcing them to move house. Over 50 Hong Konger and other groups have protested and called for support “to secure long-term protection and support for Hongkongers — and broader East and...

Becky Talbot is a doula – an independent birth worker – in Cambridge who was central to initiating the protests by midwives and birth workers across the country on 21 November . She spoke to Sacha Ismail. I’m very much part of a doula community where we train and develop and collaborate together. In early October one of our Cambridgeshire doulas, Paula Cleary, decided to have a march in the town of March, where she lives, to protest about lack of homebirth services and poor conditions for staff at the local hospital. We talked about it, and of course these problems exist all over the UK. Over...