Solidarity 200, 6 April 2011

The Dublin Labour War of 1913

Introduction When Margaret Thatcher's Tories outlawed "secondary" or solidarity strikes, they knew what they were doing. The solidarity strike had defeated the ruling class again and again throughout the 1960s and 70s. When they come out in sympathetic strike, workers act on behalf of interests not directly or narrowly their own. This is class action far more advanced than mere sectional trade-union action. Implicitly, and sometimes openly, it challenges capitalist rule in society. That is why the Tories, the Labour leaders and most trade union officials hate the idea of the sympathetic strike...

Can we build a revolutionary workers' movement?

In Solidarity 3/199, we printed an “open letter to a direct-action activist” as a contribution to the debate about actions which took place around the TUC-organised 26 March “March for the Alternative”, and the relationship of those actions and the activists involved to the mass labour movement. Ira Berkovic continues that debate by examining arguments which come up in discussion among anti-capitalist activists about the mass labour movement and involvement in it. Argument: trade unions are a spent force. They’re half the size they were in the 1970s; most workers know little about trade unions...

"Social mobility" is a con: fight for real equality!

The millionaire toff Nick Clegg is fronting the government’s new “social mobility” scheme, a plan it says is aimed at making Britain “a fairer and more socially mobile place”. The spectacle of a government claiming that it is attempting to make Britain “fairer,” while simultaneously carrying out an assault of unprecedented savagery on working-class living standards is gallingly hypocritical. The government’s strategy is based precisely on increasing the kind of social inequalities that Clegg claims they want to address with this “radical new package”. Of course, the scheme is neither new nor...

Millionaires' government batters the poorest

At the same time that its policies send unemployment skyrocketing, the Coalition government is persecuting the unemployed. On 1 April the Guardian cited Jobcentre Plus workers whistleblowing on a practice of bosses imposing arbitrary targets for throwing people off the dole. Claimants have been deliberately confused tricked into failing stringent obligations placed on them to look for work. Staff at one Jobcentre, for instance, were given a target of three people a week each to refer to “sanctions” i.e. removal of benefits. Individual advisers, teams and regions are being pushed to compete for...

Frankie Boyle: not a joking matter

In defending broadcasting comedian Frankie Boyle's “joke” about the eight year old disabled son of Katie Price, Channel 4 essentially had this to say: Price had already exploited her son by putting him in the media spotlight, so why shouldn't we? What a rotten, self-serving argument. You don't have to endorse Price's celebrity antics to recognise that making a joke at the expense of a child is wrong. This is Frankie Boyle’s “humour”: "Jordan and Peter Andre are still fighting each other over custody of Harvey — eventually one of them will lose and have to keep him." He went on to say some...

Arab revolution means jihad is over

“Socialism is what it is everywhere — weak and still trying to get its political bearings. The idea that in the Middle East the ‘masses’ can quickly become socialist, unleash a ‘process of permanent revolution’, and offer a socialist alternative can not but function in socialist observers to dissolve political standards, critical faculties and sober political judgment — and replace them with open-mouthed credulity and naivety towards political Islam." ( Solidarity 3/199) Socialism is never the same thing anywhere. The Arab people want to be unafraid to speak and organise. They might well want...

Galloway, the SP, SWP and Solidarity: a done deal

An update on last week’s article on the Galloway/SPS/SWP/Solidarity electoral bloc. It has been registered with the Glasgow City Council Returning Officer, and will therefore be appearing on the ballot paper, as: The Respect Party – George Galloway (Respect) Coalition Against the Cuts. Given that “The Respect Party — George Galloway (Respect) Coalition Against the Cuts” is a bit of a mouthful, BBC coverage of the elections is already helpfully referring to its candidates simply as being candidates of “The Respect Party”. The election agent of “The Respect Party — George Galloway (Respect)...

Twitter: horses for courses

I doubt that the most ardent protagonist of “Twitter revolutions” would disgree with Eric Lee’s statement (“How Twitter is like a horse”, Solidarity 197) that social media such as Twitter and Facebook are tools. That does not get us very far. New tools can create new possibilities and render old tools obsolete. Paul Revere wouldn’t have needed a horse if he’d had a mobile phone. So the point is not to counterpose old tried and tested methods to “Twitter revolutions” (from whichever side of the argument) but rather to examine what social media can and can’t do to build revolutionary and labour...

New website maps strikes in China

Manfred Elfstrom, a PhD student at Cornell University in the United States, has produced an extraordinary resource for the trade union movement. It’s a website called China Strikes and is essentially a map of China with red dots representing strikes. Elfstrom is taking this quite seriously and is producing some interesting results. For example, he’s categorised the strikes not only by region, but also by sector. Some of this will not be surprising — for example, he finds 15 strikes at electronics factories, such as the infamous Foxconn. There are another dozen strikes reported in auto...

Workers of the world

Following a three-year campaign, Indonesian union SBNIP has finally won a recognition agreement at the Nescafé factory in Panjang, Indonesia. Nestlé, which owns Nescafé, has traditionally refused to enter into any collective-bargaining agreements in Indonesia – a country seen by multinational corporations as fruitful ground for sweatshop-style exploitation. The union said: “This victory is not for IUF [the international union federation to which SBNIP is affiliated] and the SBNIP only; this is a real victory for all Indonesian workers. This is a very historic victory. From now on, the...

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.