Solidarity 224, 9 November 2011

In a recent Observer article, and in interviews and conference speeches, Labour leader Ed Miliband has been making statements that make it seem like the Labour Party is beginning to side with protest movements and is supporting the demands of public sector unions on pensions and job cuts. Miliband says the Occupy London protests raise deep issues that society can’ t ignore; that the Tories are in touch with the richest 1% but not the other 99; that we must tackle the “irresponsible predator capitalists”; that we can’ t allow high levels of youth unemployment to continue; that we shouldn’ t be...

The Greek revolutionary socialist group Okde is calling for the creation of "structures and organs of workers' control" in districts and industries, and "popular assemblies in neighbourhoods", "with all bodies elected and recallable". These would be something like the "neighbourhood commissions" which emerged in Portugal in 1974-5, after the fall of the military regime, or in Chile in 1972-3, in the ferment before the military coup. Building on the strikes and demonstrations of recent weeks, such bodies could challenge all the factions of the Greek capitalist class, and the deal imposed on...

By Martin Thomas On Sunday 6 November we got a small down-payment towards the debate on Libya between AWL and the Socialist Party which we have been demanding, and the SP has been evading, since SP leader Peter Taaffe put his pen to work on the first of two long (and inaccurate!) polemics against us on the subject, back in April. Click here for the written exchanges . At a session on Libya at the SP's annual weekend event, on 5-6 November, Mark Osborn and I intervened from the floor, for AWL. Bear in mind that the SP's annual weekend event is not like AWL's. Sessions are almost never set up as...

« When I cook for the Occupy the City move­ment in London I contri­bute to change the world. » A guy inter­vie­wed on RFI radio. The fol­lo­wing is an exten­ded ver­sion of my brief inter­ven­tion at the AWL’s congress [22-23 October 2011]. I would like first to thank the AWL for its invi­ta­tion. As far as I know, the AWL is the only orga­ni­sa­tion in the European Far Left which is trying to seriously debate with other refor­mist or revo­lu­tio­nary cur­rents. I don’t share the AWL’s dog­ma­tic reve­rence toward Leninism and Trotskyism but at least we have some­thing impor­tant in common...

By Michel Husson (2 November 2011) In French: below or at http://hussonet.free.fr/bailout11f.pdf . The decision by Greek prime minister Georges Papandreou to put the Eurosummit agreement to a referendum marks a new step in the European crisis. To understand the causes and what is at stake in this crisis, we must first situate it in the broad sweep of events. It is not just a sovereign debt crisis. It is also, and more fundamentally, a crisis of the European construction. Today it is obvious that neo-liberal-style Europe was botched. The single currency was supposed to serve as a wage-control...