Solidarity 280, 27 March 2013

Cyprus shows Eurozone crisis isn't over

Barely one month after Greek and European rulers assured us the European debt crisis had been resolved, Greece had been stabilised, and the euro wasn’t in danger, a crisis in the Cypriot banking system and uncertainty over a bailout deal threatened the “peace”. To be fair, rcent forecasts for the European economy showed that the EU will be in recession during 2013 and even the German economy will be in stagnation. A new crisis in the EU and the euro — as the recession exacerbates the problems of deficits and debt — was always on the cards. None of the objectives in any of the bail-out...

Left unity must be linked to real action

The crises and splits in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and Respect have spurred more talk about left unity. The left needs systematic unity in action where we agree, and honest dialogue where we differ, in order to reinstate socialist ideas as an option in the working class. On 26 March the Coalition of Resistance (within which the key force is the SWP splinter Counterfire) held a press conference to promote a “People’s Assembly Against Austerity” for 22 June (previously announced in a letter to the Guardian on 5 February). Workers’ Liberty supports all such gatherings; but, worryingly...

Scotland: vote No, argue for working-class politics

The Scottish National Party government in Holyrood finally announced the date for the referendum on independence for Scotland: 18 September 2014. Everyone over the age of 16 and resident in Scotland will be entitled to vote in the referendum, in which the question on the ballot paper will be: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” Some members of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL) advocate a call for abstention in the referendum on the basis that the only choice on offer is a capitalist Scotland which is part of the UK or a capitalist Scotland which is independent from the UK. The...

Barnet Spring march

In a measure of Barnet residents’ determination to fight the Tory Council’s “One Barnet” outsourcing programme, more than 300 turned out in a blizzard on 23 March to march from Finchley Central to an inspiring rally at Friern Barnet Community Library. Our “Barnet Spring” march was the culmination of a week that saw resident Maria Nash bringing an application for Judicial Review of One Barnet in the High Court. During a three-day hearing it was clear that the Council had made no effort to consult residents over the privatisation plan. Their entire defence was bureaucratic — residents should...

The Tories smirk

The vocal Tories at the Daily Mail were pleased about chancellor George Osborne’s 20 March budget. There was “no Lib Dem drivel about mansion taxes”, they crowed. And a scheduled rise in fuel duty was scrapped, leading the Mail to “hope this is the end of the Coalition’s economically crippling obsession with global warming”. The Mail conceded that “this Budget will seriously harm the living standards of public employees. And... the public sector... is really being clobbered”. But that is all right by the Mail, because the Budget is “aimed at stimulating growth by liberating the energies of the...

Support, resistance and collective action

Teesside Solidarity Movement (TSM) is a new explicitly anti-capitalist/anti-cuts group, seeking to engage in direct action, whilst developing bottom-up organisation, hopefully on a sustainable basis. The origins of the grouping are in the 4 People Not Profit Human Rights/Global Awareness events network and plans made by Teesside-based activists to celebrate May Day 2013 in a more imaginative and creative manner that it was hoped would stimulate anti-capitalist activism and promote workers’ struggle. The group emerging from this process began to organise regular activity including a council...

Migrants scare is a distraction

On Sunday 25 March David Cameron wrote a piece for the Sun railing about so-called health and benefit tourism by migrants! He carefully calibrated his language so as to appear reasonable — the sane alternative to UKIP was the image he was going for. He made a nod to “Polish wartime heros” and “hard working” West Indian migrants who helped us “rebuild” Britain after the war. But the underlying message was clear enough: “Hey you, East European good for nothing, if you think you're going to get more than £8 an hour and a bed on a park bench, bugger off”! His claims were spurious. He said migrants...

Basildon Council orders Dale Farm families to pay for their eviction

In October 2011, Basildon Council violently evicted 83 families from land they owned (at Dale Farm) because they did not have planning permission. Now, Basildon Council has told families who have virtually nothing left that they must pay £4.3 million for the cost of the eviction! Many of the families had lived in Basildon for over 10 years: their children were born in the borough, attend the local school and were the first generation in the community to learn to read and write. The bulldozers turned this once thriving and close-knit community into a virtual wasteland, creating deep troughs and...

Syria in chaos

The carnage in Syria continues with the regime unable to crush the rebels, and the rebels — despite making gains — unable to overrun the regime’s heartlands. Although the figures are difficult to verify it seems likely that 60-70,000 have died in the conflict so far. Analysis of data by the London-based Syrian Observatory suggests two-thirds of the fatalities are civilians, and 2,300 are children under 18. The Observatory states that over 14,000 security personnel have been killed in the fighting. Among those whose identities are unknown are over 1,000 opposition fighters, mostly — it is...

Bob Carnegie Defence Campaign: London activists protest as court case continues

The Federal Magistrates Court in Brisbane, Australia, will hear further submissions on Tuesday 2 April in the case of victimised trade unionist Bob Carnegie. Bob faces charges brought against him by construction contractor Abigroup, backed by the right-wing Queensland state government, because of his role in a successful construction workers' dispute in August-October 2012. If he is found guilty, he faces a huge fine and a possible jail sentence. On 11 February, the day his trial began, construction workers and dock workers across Australia walked off the job, shutting down construction sites...

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