Solidarity 070, 31 March 2005

Swedish left coalition on brink of collapse

Sweden has been governed since 1994 by a loose coalition of the Social Democrats (SAP), Left Party (VP) and the Green Party. The SAP makes up the largest part of this coalition and, since the 2002 election, holds 40% of seats in the Riksdag [Parliament] (the VP has 8.3% and Greens 4.6%). All cabinet and ministerial offices are filled by the SAP. The nature of the Swedish political system means that the party with the largest numbers of seats is entitled to form a government but requires majority support to pass legislation. This has led to the creation of unofficial Right and Left blocs, with...

"Kronstadt" and a travesty of the truth about the Russian Revolution

SINEAD ASH reviews “The Russian Revolution in Colour”, Channel 5 Put out over two weeks in two one-hour parts, The Russian Revolution in Colour was — to judge by the second part — largely a work of historical fiction. Fascinating scraps of old black and white film — of Lenin, Trotsky, demonstrators — were coloured up and spliced into long sections of “dramatisations” and “reconstructions” to let a continuous story, told by a voiceover narrator, unfold on the screen. It was about the Russian Revolution; it was set in the Russian Revolution and Civil War; but the story told and illustrated was...

Hunter S Thompson: scourge of the American elite

Mick Duncan examines the life and times of Hunter s Thompson, who killed himself on 20 February. Hunter S Thompson — journalist, novelist, juvenile delinquent, drugs and guns fiend, and abuser of Richard Milhous Nixon — left a note on a typewriter next to his body at his Aspen ranch. It read “counsellor” (sic). Who knows what that might mean? And is there anyone out there who does understand enough to evaluate Thompson? I guess we will just have to guess and muddle through. Thompson started writing in the 1950s, and wrote The Rum Diaries by the end of the decade. However, he didn’t publish...

Writing on the Wall

Religious freedom? Dr Amina Wadud is an Islamic scholar now living in New York. An outspoken feminist, Dr Wadud believes that women have an equal role to play in all aspects of Islamic faith and culture. Unfortunately, the voices of the Muslim community more usually patronised by the left and liberal intelligentsia think that anyone who believes this kind of thing should be killed. Wadud has received many death threats, and an religious service led by her recently had to be moved because extreme Islamists threatened to bomb the art gallery where it was to be held. It was eventually held in New...

Rethinking Good Friday?

On the night of 23 December 1939 the IRA raided the central arsenal of the 26 Counties army in Phoenix Park, Dublin. The organisation had started to set off bombs in British cities at the beginning of that year, and, believing itself to be the legitimate government of Ireland, north and south, had concluded a formal alliance against Britain with Hitler’s Germany. The Phoenix Park raid was a spectacular success. The IRA got away with lorry-loads of material — with most of the state’s stock of guns and ammunition! It did them no good. It provoked a ferocious response from the Dublin government —...

The Preacher and the Slave, by Joe Hill

Long-haired preachers come out every night, Try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right, But when asked about something to eat, They will answer in voices so sweet: Chorus: You will eat bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky. Work and pray, (work and pray), Live on hay, (live on hay), You’ll get Pie in the Sky, When you die, (that’s a lie!) And the starvation army they play, They sing and they dance and they pray, Till they get all your coin on the drum, Then they tell you when you’re on the bum: CHORUS If you fight hard for the good things in life, They will tell you to stop all...

The Wobblies' legacy

This is the second part of an article* by the American Trotskyist James P Cannon about the US Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or “Wobblies”), founded 100 years ago. The IWW was set up as “one big union” to organise all American workers, but as Cannon explains, it was also a “revolutionary” union built by socialists. IWWers thought the union could form the basis of a new, socialist, society. The original article was written in 1955. The article is substantially abridged here. The first part of the abridgement can be found in Solidarity 3/69 . The full text can be found on the Marxist...

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