Solidarity 188, 12 January 2011

Labour democracy task force launches its plan

The Labour Democracy Task Force has put out its draft response to the Labour Party's review of structure, arguing that Labour conference must become a place of real debate, rank-and-file input, and decision-making. The Task Force is now offering speakers to constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) and union branches, and appealing for sponsors. The Labour Party's influx of new members since May 2010 has reached 50,000 - more than one-third of the (very low) old membership figure before May. Although, by all reports, not many of the 50,000 are hard left-wingers,. the influx has increased life in many...

South Korean state persecutes socialist workers

On Dec. 3 of last year, the prosecutor in the Seoul Central District Court demanded prison terms of 5-7 years for Oh sei-chull and other members (Yang Hyo-seok, Yang Joon-seok, Choi Young-ik, Park Joon-seon, Jeong Won-hyung, and Oh Min-gyu) of the Socialist Workers’ Alliance of Korea (SWLK), a revolutionary socialist group. These activists in the Korean working-class movement were indicted under South Korea’s notorious National Security Law (passed in 1948 and theoretically still stipulating the death penalty for “pro-North” activities). The eight militants of the SWLK, who as...

The role of "unions" in Cuba? To convince workers that job cuts are necessary!

Cuba's Stalinist rulers have begun the process of sacking 500,000 public-sector workers. The government claims the sackings are necessary because of the pressures the economic crisis has placed on the already cash-strapped state (a refrain familiar to working-class activists the world over). In an interview with a state-run radio station, Salvador Valdes Mesa - the head of the country's main "union", the Cuban Workers' Federation (also effectively state-run) - said that the union would need to "convince (workers) of the need for these measures for the country's economy". The picture is typical...

Why the revolution will not be tweeted

"The revolution will not be tweeted", argues Malcolm Gladwell in a recent article in the New Yorker magazine . Serious causes require tough, tight organisation, and "strong ties" between activists. The "weak ties" typical of social networking via the internet have many uses, but not that of being able to organise hard battles for change. Gladwell is an odd source of light for the left. He is a pop psychologist, author of the best-seller The Tipping Point . His prime case-study of a serious cause, the civil rights movement in the USA, may be one he feels strongly about (he is black), but as far...

The Wall must fall! End the occupation!

On 17 April 2009, at the weekly demonstration against the separation Wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in, 29 year old protester Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed when a high velocity tear gas canister was fired directly into his chest by an Israeli soldier. This morning his sister died in hospital in Ramallah after she failed to respond to treatment for poisoning caused by inhalation of tear gas at yesterday's demonstration on the same spot. Jawaher Abu Rahmah died at around 9am Palestinian time after hospital staff fought through the night to save her life after she fell victim to the gas that...

"Level up" the right to strike across Europe!

“There will be no return to the trade union laws of the 1970s. Laws banning secondary and flying pickets, on secondary action, on ballots before strikes and for union elections – on all the essential elements of the 1980s laws – will stay,” wrote the then Labour Party leader Tony Blair in an article published in the “Daily Mail” in 1997. In the same article Blair went on to stress: “Even after the changes the Labour Party is proposing in this area (trade union rights), Britain will remain with the most restrictive trade union laws anywhere in the western world.” This was a shameless ‘pitch’ to...

Unions' political rights under threat

Ed Miliband has had Labour Party general secretary Ray Collins write to the Committee on Standards in Public Life (a sort of quango, set up in 1994, with members appointed by the Government and the three big parties) to say donations to political parties should be capped at £500. Collins' letter was reported in the press at the end of December, together with speculation about Ed Miliband giving 25% of the vote in future Labour leadership elections to "supporters" who are not Labour Party members (nor, presumably, even levy-paying members of affiliated unions). The 25% scheme was soon disavowed...

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