Solidarity 027, 3 April 2003

Stop union reps backing the war!

By Peter Brown The war has exposed once again the lack of accountability of the trade union representatives on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC). The trade unions still have power in the Labour Party - if they choose to exercise it. But overwhelmingly the trade unions in the party toe the Blair line, even when it is against the line of their own union. Every single union rep on the NEC has backed Blair on the war! At the 28 January NEC meeting an anti-war motion fell without a vote, because a bland pro-Government statement had been carried: "The NEC believes that the...

LAtW conference: Leyton and Wanstead CLP resolution.

Submitted to Labour Against the War conference (report at LAtW conference) We ask anti-war activists in the labour movement to consider the following action points: 1. Campaign in the affiliated unions to make union representatives on Labour's National Executive and other key bodies stand for union policies. (At the 28 January 2003 NEC discussion on the war, every single union representative voted for the motion supporting the Government line). 2. Campaign in the CLPs and affiliated unions for no confidence in Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party, and also for votes of no confidence in...

Labour Against the War conference: no confidence in Blair!

About 350 people, about a third of them trade-union or Labour Party delegates, and representing about 100 Constituency Labour Parties between them, attended the Labour Against the War (LATW) conference in London on Saturday 29 March. Matt Cooper reports The main controversy was about whether or not to campaign for no confidence in Tony Blair as Labour Party leader. Eventually pressure from the floor led to an indicative vote, with a majority of about three to one for "no confidence" despite strong opposition to it from the platform. Unfortunately the organisers had not printed up the...

Reasons to be cheerful

Reasons to be cheerful BNP gears up for elections Not in our name Back to the church Reasons to be cheerful Not everyone views the prospect of civilian casualties in any assault on Baghdad as bad news. Leading UK shares rose 1.5% after reports that US forces are closing in on Baghdad. European shares also rose. Reports that US forces were attacking Iraqi Republican Guard positions in the outskirts of Baghdad after intense air strikes dispelled recent gloom about the war effort. Renewed speculation about the health of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, who has not been seen for days, also...

Argentina: workers' occupation fights to survive

By the Argentine Solidarity Campaign Zanon, a ceramics factory in Neuquén, Argentina, has been occupied by its workers since 1 October 2001, when the management attempted to sack nearly half the workforce. Four months after the start of their occupation, the workers re-established production. They are now able to pay themselves wages of 800 pesos per month. Every worker gets the same amount, even the previously unemployed workers who have been recently taken on. They have won powerful support from the community - teachers, health sector workers, unemployed organisations and the Mapuche...

Indonesia: anti-union laws fight goes on

By Harry Glass Workers vowed to keep up the fight after the Indonesian government passed new anti-union laws. The anti-union laws are part of the government's drive to roll back gains made by unions since the fall of Suharto, and for an IMF-inspired flexible labour market. But unions like the National Front for the Struggle of Indonesian Workers (FNPBI) said they would not give in. FNPBI chair Dita Sari told workers at a rally outside the presidential palace in Jakarta to defy the law. "Those accepting the law are those who bow to the regime! Those accepting the law are those who bow to...

Puma abandons Mexican workforce

By Mick Duncan Hip Hop Activists of the World is the latest group to back the struggle of the Mexican workers of Matamoros Garments, in Puebla, central Mexico. This group of workers sweated in Matamoros produce expensive clothes for companies like the well-known German brand, Puma. In January they struck, in a fight extensively covered in the pages of recent issues of Solidarity. The workers set up their own independent union, SITEMAG, filed for their union's official recognition, demanded decent pay and respect at work. The Hip Hop Artists rightly describe the workers' conditions as...

Who will rebuild Iraq?

It’s hard, when looking at pictures of dead and burned children, to fathom the depths of cynicism of the war-mongers. David Aaronovitch in the, appropriately April Fool’s Day, Guardian agonises over whether, like Madeleine Albright and half a million dead Iraqi children, it’s price worth paying. Some people have no doubts; they know exactly what the cost and who will benefit. It is estimated that post-war reconstruction of Iraq will cost at least $20 billion a year. The Bush Administration already has an agency in place to oversee the spending of that money: the Office of Reconstruction and...

The war on TV

By Vicki Morris Alongside the ground war, and the war for hearts and minds, we have the propaganda war (and the TV channels have a ratings war). Nowadays, the credit to the UK/US side appears to consist not so much in the lies they are allowed to peddle as in the gratitude they earn from the TV companies for meeting televisual demand. (And, hey, why isn't the army sponsored yet?) The US decided to allow 500 journalists to travel with the troops. Since 1991, when the future of CNN was secured by its coverage of the last Gulf War, there are more TV stations with many more hours to fill in the...

Independence for the Kurds!

By Lucy Clement For the time being Turkey has pulled back a little from its threat to send troops into northern Iraq. But the threat is still there. Huge numbers of Turkish troops are massed on the Iraqi border in a zone closed to the public and the media. Turkey is absolutely opposed to the creation of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq - and wary of promises that the Kurds want "only" autonomy. The Turkish government fears that a Kurdish state would inspire its own eight-million strong Kurdish population (12% of the total) to secede or demand their own autonomy. The US...

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