Solidarity 170, 2 April 2010

Tories plan cuts war

Last year, when the Tories were very confident about winning the general election, Tory leader David Cameron promised “an age of austerity” and boasted he would take “difficult, unpopular” decisions. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: “After three months in power we will be the most unpopular government since the war.” As the election approaches, the Tories have toned down their talk. But they haven’t shifted on basics. They declare: “A Conservative Government will hold an emergency Budget within 50 days of taking office... The first measures will start to take effect this year”. Alistair...

John McDonnell says: probe links between the top of New Labour and big business!

After the Byers-Hoon-Hewitt affair, there should be a wider investigation into the links between Labour ministers and big business. I have seen evidence again and again of a revolving-door relation between the aviation industry, for example, and government, both in Number Ten and the Department of Transport. Positions in Number Ten and the Department of Transport are populated by people who either come from the aviation industry, or are on their way to jobs in the industry. An unhealthy relation between Labour front-benchers, and their top advisers and officials, and big business, started in...

Merry. But effective?

After a dizzy moment in November-December 2009 when Gordon Brown and then a European Union summit endorsed the idea, the "Tobin Tax" has disappeared from the discourse of governments. But it is a long-circulated idea - first proposed nearly 40 years ago by the liberal US economist James Tobin - and is now gaining new momentum in the labour movement. A website advocating it under a new name, Robin Hood Tax, has been backed by the TUC, GMB, NUT, PCS, and Unison, as well as many NGOs: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk . It advocates a tax "as low as 0.005 per cent... average 0.05 per cent... on the...

Bourgeois, anti-sex worker feminism

The launch of UK Feminista – a new feminist organisation seeking to link up grassroots feminist activists with larger campaigning bodies - sees sex workers take another quiet but harsh blow. In the run up to the launch last Saturday, Kat Banyard, the brains (albeit brains without much logic) behind the campaign spoke at an event launching her new book The Equality Illusion: The Truth About Women and Men Today along with Anna van Heeswijk of Object, an organisation devoted to combating the objectification of women. No guesses as to what was top of their agenda: the condemnation of sex work and...

The shape of cuts to come

Q. The Tories promise an emergency cuts Budget within fifty days if they win the general election on 6 May. What will that include? A. The Tories aren't saying. This is a longer version of this article than in the printed paper. Q. What's our best guess? A. The Tories look for models to the Moderate-led Swedish government of 1991-4, and the Liberal Canadian government of 1993-8. When the global financial crisis hit its peak, in September-October 2008, David Cameron commented: "I will discuss the crisis... with Carl Bildt, the Swedish prime minister who 15 years ago showed how a centre-right...

Fighting education cuts in Newcastle

Newcastle University’s Free Education Network held a rally on 18 March to mark the day the government announced massive cuts across the public sector. The rally was addressed by trade unionists including a UCU Newcastle University rep and a PCS speaker to make the links with attacks on public services, as well as student speakers from the newly formed Free Education Network (a group of students and staff at the university who are collectively opposed to tuition fees, course cuts and job losses on campus). On the 18th March, the Government announced cuts to higher education amounting to at...

After Bolton: drop the charges against the arrested anti-fascists!

Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of Unite Against Fascism and a prominent member of the SWP, and Rhetta Moran, joint secretary of Greater Manchester UAF, were arrested at the anti-English Defence League mobilisation in Bolton on 20 March. So were a significant number of other anti-fascist demonstrators. The charge against Bennett is "suspicion of conspiracy to organise violent disorder". Workers' Liberty thinks Weyman Bennett and his associates have consistently misled the anti-fascist movement, but let us be very clear. The only people guilty of this charge at the Bolton demo were the...

Royal Mail: vote against this deal!

The ballot on the Communication Workers’ Union’s deal with Royal Mail will now run from 7-23 April. The leadership is now busy giving union activists their marching orders, lining up reps and branches to go out and campaign for a “yes” vote in the upcoming ballot on the deal. One rep told Solidarity , “there have been a number of reps’ briefings going on recently, but it’s generally just the top table talking up the deal”. Another said, “the leadership have made it quite clear that there is no plan B — this is it. They regard the deal we have as a strong bargaining position”. The deal is bad...

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