Solidarity 175, 10 June 2010

"Public sector alliance" is not the whole answer

The conference in May of the civil service workers' union PCS resolved on "a major call for joint action amongst public sector unions". There are two problems with making this call "the answer" to cuts. First, it cuts against more confident or militant unions taking action ahead of the rest. Some battles can be won by sectional action. And united trade-union action is more likely to start by some unions giving a lead than by waiting until everyone is lined up to make the first step forward in perfect harmony. Secondly: why the "public sector" limitation? It made some sense when the issue was...

The Crisis, Part Two

On 7 June the German government, which faces no acute government-debt crisis, announced £66 billion cuts. The cuts will come mostly from welfare benefits, but will also slice off 15,000 public sector jobs. Germany's move is part of a wider pattern. Germany is pushing for other European Union countries to adopt a constitutional amendment like the one Germany voted through in May 2009. That amendment comes into force from January 2011 and prohibits all but the smallest budget deficits from 2016. France has already made a constitutional amendment, banning budget deficits from 2018. Britain's...

Union democracy needed to fight cuts

Public sector workers in Germany will demonstrate against cuts on 12 June. Government employees in Spain struck on 8 June. Italy's biggest union federation has called a public sector workers' rally for 12 June. Portugal had a big anti-cuts protest march on 29 May. Greece has already had several general strikes. On 22 June the British government will announce its cuts. Welfare benefits, tax credits, and public service jobs and wages, are sure to be among the first targets. That is where the government can save cash quickly. As in other countries, trade-union action has to be central to fighting...

23 out of 29 Cabinet members are millionaires

The Daily Mail (23 May) has revealed that 23 out of the 29 members of the coalition Cabinet are millionaires. Since the Mail's report relied mainly on valuations of the ministers' houses, it probably underestimates their wealth.

What makes you get richer? Starting off rich

Harsh times for us all, promises David Cameron. But, as ever, much less harsh for the heroes of capitalism - the "entrepreneurs" who, so the theory goes, must have luxury to keep them at the "risk-taking" which supposedly makes capitalism uniquely dynamic. The Financial Times (24 April) recently reported an interesting little bit of research. Entrepreneurs, so Simeon Djankov and others, are actually more averse to taking risks than other people (for example, boring old workers). Willingness to take risks does not define entrepreneurs. What does, so resarch suggests, is receiving large...

A hatchet-job on Trotsky

Paul Hampton reviews Robert Service's biography of Trotsky, now released in paperback by Pan. Click here for a longer review (of the hardback edition) . Robert Service has long advocated the "continuity thesis" - the claim made by cold-war historians and by Stalinist apologists that Lenin (and Trotsky) led to Stalin. He is explicit about this in the book, but with an added twist. He makes Trotsky an even greater villain than Stalin or Lenin. Trotsky "lived for a dream that many people found a nightmare", claims Service. "[Trotsky’s] ideas and practices laid several foundation stones for the...

The Miliband with something to offer

At a recent Labour left conference, the writer David Osler quipped that Ralph Miliband, father of David and Ed Miliband, had written at length to show that the Labour Party was no good for the working class - and that the sons are now doing their best to prove the old man right. Ralph Miliband died in 1994. He had been active in the "Bevanite" Labour left movement of the early 1950s and the "New Left" of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was the prime mover in setting up the Centre for Socialist Education in 1966. Two of his books are of great importance: Parliamentary Socialism (1961), a...

Support Ark Tribe on 15 June!

Unions are organising demonstrations in support of construction worker Ark Tribe, prosecuted under the Building and Construction Industry Improvement (BCII) Act. Update: A court decision on Ark's case is due in late September 2010. Ark Tribe could face six months' jail for trade-union activity. Dave Noonan, secretary of the Construction and General division of Ark Tribe's union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) says: "If Ark is sent to jail we will begin immediate industrial action across this country". Ark Tribe's "crime" is simply to have refused to give evidence...

Is neoliberalism dead?

Review of The Enigma of Capital: and the crises of capitalism , by David Harvey (Profile Books) and Meltdown: the end of the age of greed , by Paul Mason (Verso). Paul Mason's book, written in February 2009, is the best (and best-written) narrative I've read of the world financial meltdown of September 2008. Mason goes for journalistic sharpness rather than academic hedging-of-bets, and concludes unequivocally: "Whatever you think about it, the neoliberal experiment is over". He collects shocked comments from capitalist strategists from the midst of the meltdown. He thinks those point to a...

Why unions should not automatically line up with UAF

This is the speech made by Pete Radcliff at the UCU conference 2010, calling for the motion to support UAF to be remitted . I am calling for this motion to be remitted because this issue deserves more serious debate and the motion glosses over very serious problems that have existed for some time but have got particularly worse over the last year since the formation of the English Defence League. The motion does not deal with our relationship with the Hope not Hate campaign. Even worse, although mentioning the existence of local anti-fascist organisations of which there an increasing number...

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