Solidarity 232, 1 February 2012

What does Kronstadt mean?

The debate in Solidarity about Kronstadt has been between those who utterly condemn the suppression and see it as the beginning of the Stalinist Thermidor and the end of workers’ self rule in Russia; those who absolutely defend the suppression and see it as guaranteeing the survival of the workers’ revolution for a little longer; and those who see it as a tragic mistake and in retrospect the first signs of an “emergent totalitarianism” whilst still defending the good intentions of the Bolsheviks and asserting their fallibility. Victor Serge was in the latter camp. Paul Hampton ( Solidarity 230...

Long live free Georgia!

It’s the final moments of a fictional 1927 silent film. The hero is being tortured, and those paying close attention will see that the torturers are Russians. (The dials on their machines have Cyrillic characters.) The hero breaks free, rescues the girl, and flies off to freedom. His last words, which appear as a title card, are “Long live free Georgia!” My guess is that Michel Hazanavicius, director of The Artist, in which the fictional film appears, was looking for something that would seem authentic in the 1920s, something sufficiently obscure that it would have an air of being genuine. To...

Four million refuse to pay in Greece

As the German government proposes that the EU and ECB should insist on an external “commissioner” running Greece’s budget, it has been revealed that four million bills for the new regressive property tax, imposed as part of the Greek government’s cuts programme, have not been paid. According to the power workers’ Genop-Dei, 1.5 million bills have passed their expiry date, and 250,000 have gone beyond the 80-day threshold after which the government sends orders for cutting off the electricity supply. In order to increase the pressure to pay, the government has made the new tax payable as a part...

Writing treaties while Europe burns

On 30 January, European Union leaders met in Brussels to fix the new “budget discipline” treaty decided on 9 December. The British government made itself a minority of one on 9 December in trying to block the treaty, but has subsequently quietly assented to the treaty involving EU institutions in enforcing its constraints on eurozone member states who sign up for it. However, on the one hand, the treaty's loopholes through which governments can claim exemption from its budget rules have become large enough that the European Central Bank has publicly said it is unsatisfactory. On the other hand...

Pensions: end the waiting game!

Ealing and Kirklees are among the latest local government branches of the public services union Unison to demand a special local government conference of the union on pensions, and Oxfordshire Health branch is pushing for a special health conference. In local government, Unison and GMB have signed joint “principles” with the employers to implement the Government’s plans for worse public sector pensions. Unite is dissenting only passively. “Final proposals” on “initial design” of the new (worse) pension scheme are due by 8 February. “Final proposals” for “future scheme management” are due by 7...

Students plan week of action

The national conference of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts took place in Liverpool University Guild of Students on the weekend of 28-29 January. Around 150 activists from colleges across the UK attended, including representatives from the Northern Ireland Student Assembly and the Galway branch of the Irish campaign Free Education for Everyone (FEE). The conference was an impressive organisational effort. Activists from Merseyside Network Against Fees and Cuts played a special role in housing students on floors and sofas. The Conference elected a new National Committee and an eleven...

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