Solidarity 141, 30 October 2008

Civil service and teachers

The PCS civil service union has called a strike for 10 November, and the teachers’ union NUT will announce the result of its strike ballot on 3 November. Both unions are in dispute with the Government over pay, demanding pay rises at least matching inflation rather than the Government’s limit of two-and-a-bit per cent. PCS’s call to action for 10 November is muffled and apologetic. Headlines: “PCS calls on government to avoid national strike. PCS calls on government to come to negotiating table to avoid damaging industrial action over pay. National executive committee sets 10 November as day...

Jerry Hicks: where I stand

Unite, formed by the merger of the unions Amicus and TGWU, has put the merger on hold and called an Amicus general secretary election rather than, as planned, having Derek Simpson go straight through to 2010 as Amicus general secretary and Joint General Secretary of Unite. Jerry Hicks, who is contesting the general secretary election, spoke to David Kirk from Solidarity. We invite readers to contribute to a discussion on the issues raised by Jerry. Q: Why are you standing against Derek Simpson for Amicus general secretary? A: I made the judgement that it was wrong and illegal to have a General...

Mandelson and Deripaska: by their friends shall ye know them

Is there anything to be learnt from the recent revelations that Peter — now Baron — Mandelson and Tory shadow Chancellor George Osborne have connections with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska? On one level we might just shrug and say “flies gather round shit.” That is too easy. We really do need register how this incident demonstrates venality at senior levels in both of Britain’s major mainstream parties. And how it is a dramatic measure of the degeneration of the Labour Party and government. One of Labour’s few remaining socialist MPs, John McDonnell, denounced Mandelson’s return: “This is...

Press on to abolish SATS

On October 14 Education Secretary Ed Balls scrapped National Curriculum (NC) testing at Key Stage 3 and the League Tables it gives rise to. But only a few weeks earlier Jim Knight, the Schools Secretary, had asserted in the media that KS3 testing was here to stay. Standard stuff from both Tory and Labour Education Secretaries, who have continually claimed that testing gives reliable and objective information about student progress and the performance of schools, and is vital for the maintenance of rising standards. What’s caused the u-turn? In May the Commons Children, Schools and Families...

Capitalist crisis: Italian, Greek, Irish workers and students fight back

Fifteen thousand students marched in Dublin on 22 October against education cuts made by the Irish government because the world crisis has sent its tax receipts slumping. Another big demonstration, initiated by the teachers’ union INTO, is due in Dublin on 6 December. Pensioners are protesting against another Irish government decision, to means-test free medical care for over-70s. Greek workers joined a general strike on 21 October against privatisation and pension cuts. In Italy, two and a half million workers and students demonstrated in Rome on 25 October against education cuts and racist...

What do we mean when we talk about socialism?

“Socialism is the answer” to the crises and crying injustices, the inequalities and absurdities, of capitalism. But what is it, this socialism? Too often it is a vague and cloudy and undefined “big word”. In part, this is deliberate policy by the socialists. Before the great founders of modern socialism, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, socialism had been mostly what they came to call “utopian socialism”. Some great benevolent thinker — and some of them were very great thinkers and splendid human beings, such as the Englishman Robert Owen — would work out a blueprint for an ideal socieity...

Iraq: deal on US troops rejected

Top people in the Iraqi government are saying that the deal which Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki has negotiated with the USA for US troops to remain in Iraq after their UN mandate runs out on 31 December now probably won’t be approved. On 20 October the Iraqi cabinet rejected the text, and on the 24th a leading figures in the government coalition said Maliki would not put the deal to the Iraqi parliament. The fallback is probaly for a further short UN mandate, six or twelve months. Russia has said that it will not oppose that. Earlier this year, the USA tried to get Iraq to approve a...

Support the strikes in Gaza!

Long-running factional battles between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah, on one hand, and Hamas on the other are the context for the strikes that have recently taken place in the Gaza Strip, with solidarity action in the West Bank. According to Haaretz, at the end of August, just before the new school year began, teachers and principals sympathetic to Fatah were purged and replaced with 2000 newly trained, Hamas-loyal teachers. Some of the new teachers appear to be students whose main qualification is that they are religious and pro-Hamas. Hamas also raided the Gaza headquarters of the...

William Morris and the trade unions

Morris was no dilettante on matters of organisation. Once he had decided to become a socialist he joined the Democratic Federation and became a leading activist and public spokesperson. This entailed speaking at open-air meetings, selling papers and other literature and giving educational lectures on a regular basis. Far from being a Sunday socialist, he became a dedicated semi-professional revolutionary. The issue of party democracy was one of the reasons behind the split with the SDF in late 1884. When the Socialist League was set up, it specifically subordinated the paper Commonweal to the...

As downturn snowballs, activists should plan fightback

On 27 October Luton Trades Union Council sponsored a meeting, “No Pay Cuts For Down Days!”, in support of the 1200 workers at the General Motors van factory in Luton. The way out, said the call for the meeting, was for workers “to join up with other unions to build a movement to fight redundancies, cuts in pay, house repossessions, and to start to build a world that does not rely on the waste and madness of capitalism to determine our future”. GM is shutting down the factory for two weeks in the run-up to Christmas. For previous down days the workers had got only a statutory £20; for this...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.