Solidarity 203, 11 May 2011

Syria: the labour movement must speak out!

The Assad dictatorship in Syria is going for endgame. It wants to crush the people's revolt now, with whatever violence it takes. Despite some small mutinies, the armed forces are standing with Assad, not splitting as in Libya or turning against the dictator as the Egyptian army turned against Mubarak and the Tunisian against Ben Ali. The big powers, while deploring the repression, are too anxious about their difficulties in Libya to want to get much involved. With most news from Syria blocked by the regime, media coverage is low-key. Too much of the left is more interested in repeating its...

Cut the ultra-rich, not the poor!

On 8 May the Sunday Times reported: "the 1,000 multimillionaires in [its] Rich List are £60.2 billion better off than they were in 2010". In 2010, they were £77 billion better off than in 2009. Over two years since near the lowpoint of the global finance crash, they have gained £137 billion, a 53% rise in their stash to £396 billion. Compare that with the total of £81 billion which the coalition government is cutting from public spending. Why not say that the richest one thousand have had "too much", rather than the relatively poor people who will lose out from the government's cuts?

Counterfire says: go for broad "resistance", not the labour movement

Around 100 people attended the Counterfire conference in London on Saturday 7 May. Although this turnout was smaller than I had been led to expect, the event was staged in a very slick, professional way. I arrived 20 minutes late but was directed and greeted by several people before I entered, and given a glossy leaflet urging me to join Counterfire. I think the event was aimed at, and to some extent attracted, young people without fully formed politics. This would be fine were it not for the appalling version of 'socialist' politics on offer from these shysters. Meaningless platitudes and...

5 May: why the Tory vote held up

The Lib Dems lost heavily in the local government elections on 5 May, but the Tory vote held up. The Tories gained 86 new council seats in England compared to last time these seats were contested - which was in 2007, when the Labour government was very unpopular. They control 19 more councils than they did before 5 May. The Tory percentage of the vote was the same as in 2010. The Tories have lost no share of the vote since the general election, despite introducing huge and very unpopular cuts. In mid-2009 George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, calculatingly leaked to the press the opinion...

Unions should stamp on Lib-Lab talk

Labour did poorly - in the circumstances - on 5 May, because its political message, against cuts "too far and too fast", was weak and mumbling. Labour leader Ed Miliband's response has been to shift into even more weak and mumbling mode. He has upped his calls for Lib Dem MPs to "come and work with us. My door is always open". Obviously Miliband does not expect the Lib Dems suddenly to break their coalition with the Tories and go for a coalition government with Labour (which would, apart from anything else, not even have a majority in Parliament). The cunning scheme here is for a Lib-Dem/...

Unison will ballot, but when?

"Unison will ballot one million of its members to strike to protect their pensions. This will not be a token skirmish, but a prolonged and sustained war, because this government has declared war on a huge proportion of the population". Dave Prentis, general secretary of the big public services union Unison, made that declaration on 30 April. He did not say when Unison will ballot. Unison officials dismiss any possibility of Unison balloting to join the likely strike over pensions by NUT, PCS, ATL, and UCU on 30 June. But Prentis said it. Unison members should pin him down to a definite...

Manchester and Liverpool in the American Civil War

Just off Albert Square in Manchester stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln, the inscription expressing gratitude to the Lancashire cotton workers for their support of the Northern Union forces against the Southern Confederate slaveholders in the American Civil War of 1861-65. The background was told in Radio 4’s Manchester and Liverpool: Britain's American Civil War , presented by TV historian and Labour MP Tristram Hunt. Liverpool and Manchester both had links with the antebellum American South. Manchester and the surrounding Lancashire textile towns imported 80% of their raw cotton from the...

New repression in Tunisia – support the workers' movement!

See details of emergency protest against police repression here . Since Thursday 5 May, the Tunisian police have been carrying out a campaign of repression against demonstrators, on a scale not seen since the overthrow of Ben Ali on January 14. The Tunisian police, who are still commanded by old-regime loyalists, charged and beat demonstrators, including children. Police in black balaclavas shot huge quantities of tear-gas into crowds. As far as we know, no activists were arrested – just beaten. Leftwing activists and journalists were targeted in particular, and publishing houses were raided...

Socialist Worker (mealy-mouthedly) mourns bin Laden

After 11 September 2001, Socialist Worker notoriously "refused to condemn" the massacre of three thousand working people in New York by bin Laden's followers. It tried to hold that line of "refusing to condemn" in the Stop The War movement, until finally in early 2002 it had to retreat and say "of course" the massacre should be condemned. Socialist Worker of 7 May shows the SWP still "refusing to condemn" bin Laden. "Attacks like 9/11", says SW , "in reality... are a response to oppression, not an expression of 'evil'." The effect of Bin Laden’s death, says SW , will be bad: "a newly confident...

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