Solidarity 207, 8 June 2011

We need a union campaign against anti-semitism

If the British National Party were tomorrow to issue a report saying that Israeli Jews were responsible for the “ritual slaughter” of a Christian priest — as part of an effort to ethnically cleanse Palestine of Christians — we’d probably not be shocked. The BNP are, after all, the legitimate heirs of the British Union of Fascists. If the ultra-right party of Jean Marie La Pen in France were to denounce the European Union Monitoring Commission's (EUMC) definition of anti-semitism – because it implicated them as racists — we’d expect that of them. Much of what La Pen has said over the years puts...

Spanish "real democracy" movement and the unions

The Spanish 15-M movement, called after the starting point on 15 May, is at present passing through a crucial stage. The continuing protests are uncomfortable for Spanish capitalism as it struggles to project an image of bourgeois respectability to the international markets. But the “Genuine Democracy Now” movement is uncomfortable not only for them. In the offices of the UGT and CCOO (Spain’s largest trade union federations), the movement is also making some nervous. Since the general strike of 29 September last year, when over 10 million workers downed tools, many on the left have...

Three dictators wobble, but don't yet fall

On Saturday 4 June, one of the three remaining Arab despots confronting mass rebellions — Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen — seemed to concede defeat, fleeing to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. It was reported that 35 top officials had fled with him. Tens of thousands celebrated in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday 5 June. But on Monday 6 June, Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, deputising for Saleh, refused to meet the opposition parties to discuss a transfer of power. He said Saleh would soon return, and there could be no talks until then. The USA and the EU are urging Saleh to step down. If Saleh digs in...

US looks for deal with Taliban

The USA is stepping up its efforts to negotiate a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Whether it can succeed is another matter. Britain and the US are pressing the United Nations to drop sanctions against Taliban leaders. The US is backing diplomatic moves to get a public Taliban political office set up somewhere in the region. The USA has already had talks with the Taliban, as has the Kabul government. It has quietly dropped its previous preconditions that the Taliban must break links with al Qaeda, renounce violence, and accept the Afghan constitutions. Speaking to the BBC on 21 May...

A bloody nose for Berlusconi

In the second round of Italy’s administrative and regional elections last month the seven million who voted gave Berlusconi a reply neither he nor his media empire anticipated. His own city base, Milan, lost heavily to the centre-left. Napoli, a city in the hands of the centre left for years, corrupt and inefficient, was won overwhelmingly by the young radical ex-magistrate De Magistris of di Pietro, (Italy of the Values). Trieste, historically the most right-wing place in Italy, is now in the hands of a former Communist of the centre-left. Cagliari in Sardinia was seized from the right by the...

Student campaign "grows up"

The results of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts conference, held at Birmingham Guild of Students on 4 June, mean that the campaign can now get ready for, and help to lead, the next wave of student struggles. Despite being in the middle of school and university exams, the conference attracted between 90 and 100 people, with delegations from areas and institutions including Royal Holloway, London Met, Westminster, UCL, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Merseyside, Aberystwyth, Hull, Sheffield, Lincoln, Nottingham, Oxford, the Open University and Northern Ireland. Although the...

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