Solidarity 234, 15 February 2012

The wagons are beginning to circle at the offices of the Sun after five more of the papers’ journalists were arrested by Metropolitan Police. Veteran Sun hack Trevor Kavanagh — who has worked for the paper for 40 years — described the arrests as an “extraordinary assumption of power” by the police. Kavanagh’s a man who knows more than a thing or two about exercising unwarranted power. Those arrested have been implicated in making payments to police officers and other public officials in exchange for information. Members of the police force and a ministry of defence official have also been...

The government’s Welfare Reform Bill has now returned to the House of Lords. Although the Lords will not return to its previous amendments which lessened the blow for the worst affected, they will be able to table new ones, meaning a prolonged dispute over the Bill is still possible. The Commons reversed all the changes from the Lords — exempting parents from £50-£100 charges to access Child Support Agency services; exempting Child Benefit from the £26,000 “benefit cap”; continuing non-means tested access to Employment Support Allowance for cancer patients; lessening reductions in benefits for...

A vultures’ conference on Wednesday 29 February will dramatise what the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill means. It is a briefing session (at £354 a head) for private profiteers dealing with the NHS, run by a communications firm, GB Communications PR, whose bosses Geoffrey Bowden and Roy Lilley have strong NHS connections and a background in NHS-linked jobs. The speakers include Mark Simmonds, Tory MP and shadow Health Minister 2007-10, probably the highest-placed Tory able to speak on the issue without the constraints of a current government position. Simmonds is paid £50,000 a year...

A group of socialists, trade unionists, student activists and human rights activists are on trial in Zimbabwe for treason. Many of them are members of the International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe. If convicted they face years in prison. At one point the government was prosecuting 39 individuals, but this has now been reduced to seven (though the charges against the others have not actually been dropped). The comrades will fin out on 15 February whether the government will proceed with the trial. They need solidarity! Please send messages to iso.zim@gmail.com

On 12 February, Malaysian police deported 23 year old Saudi columnist Hamza Kashgari, who fled Saudi Arabia after making comments on Twitter claimed by some to be “insulting” to the prophet Muhammad. There have been widespread calls from Islamists for his execution — and in Saudi Arabia, blasphemy is punishable by death. Theocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia will not tolerate the most basic freedom of thought and expression. We defend the right of everyone in the world to freely express their views, including to criticise religion. We condemn the Malaysian government for handing over Kashgari...

In December 2011, after a meeting of 131 activists, a new party was formed in Hong Kong, China. Activists in several trade unions have been part of the new initiative. Eleven of the 20-strong committee are connected to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions. Lee Cheuk-yan was elected chairman unopposed and was one of the prime motivators of the new party. Lee Cheuk-yan is currently an elected member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and is currently General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions. Since its foundation it now has three elected members of the...

Bonus payouts in banking and finance totalled £14 billion in 2011. If such amounts were redirected to social spending, they would be way more than enough to reverse all the Government’s social cuts. Benefit cuts to 2015: £18 billion. Cuts in education and local services: £16 billion. This year the bonus total will be a bit smaller. It could hardly not be, even on the most shameless capitalist criteria, since banks did poorly in 2011. Prime minister David Cameron is bidding to “call a truce” and “call off banker-bashing”. The startling thing, though, is that the top bankers are still shameless...

The activist left has won the elections for the leadership of University of London Union - the federation of student unions at the old London universities. Until a few years ago, ULU functioned almost purely as a building with bars and other facilities, with zero political campaigning. This has begun to change more recently, with the revival of student activism from 2010, and this result should consolidate that shift. The winning candidates are all members of left-wing organisations. Sean Rillo Raczka, previously Vice President and a member of Socialist Workers' Party split Counterfire, was...