Solidarity 493, 30 January 2019

Bristol couriers working for the meal-delivery company Deliveroo have voted to strike again on Friday 1 February, this time to be joined by couriers from at least four other cities.

Like many courier companies, Deliveroo falsely categorise us as “self-employed independent contractors”, so depriving us of any workers’ rights, and paying us only per order with no hourly minimum.

The net weekly pay has steadily reduced over the last six months or so. We have been demanding higher pay and a hiring freeze (full demands at bit.ly/demandsBC).

Jen Kirby, writing for American news website Vox, has described the system of surveillance and repression in Xinjiang put into place since 2016, when Chen Quanguo was appointed head of the regional government. Xinjiang, in the north west of China, is home to ten million Uighur Muslim people.

“Increased surveillance and police presence accompanied [Quanguo’s] move to Xinjiang, including his ‘grid management’ policing system.

Former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond appeared in court on 24 January after having been charged the previous day with two attempted rapes, nine sexual assaults, two indecent assaults, and a breach of the peace.

In line with Scottish legal procedures for “solemn” serious cases, the hearing was held in private and Salmond was not required to enter a plea. After the hearing Salmond told reporters that he was “innocent of any criminality whatsoever”.

“The moment we have been waiting for 50 years has arrived, the cycle has of anti-fascism has closed — determinate ideas have entered the hearts of the Italian people”. Roberto Fiore, veteran fascist, and now national secretary of Forza Nuovo, one of Italy’s fast growing neo-Nazi forces, addressing a conference on “From Populism to Revolution”.

On Saturday 26 January, the Labour Party called a national day of action. Against no deal Brexit? For migrant rights? Against the academy rip-offs recently exposed by a parliamentary report? For the NHS? Over Universal Credit? No — to “say no to police cuts”.

On 23 January 2019, Juan Guaidó, member of Voluntad Popular and leader of the opposition, declared himself Venezuela’s interim President.

Thousands have taken to the streets, to support Guaidó or to oppose him and back incumbent President Nicolás Maduro. The US, Canada, Brazil, and the UK, and others have recognised as Guaidó as president. Maduro has severed diplomatic relations with the US; Russia and China continue to support him.

“I want to make it absolutely explicit that capital controls would not happen under a Labour government”, said Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to the Financial Times on 23 January. That, he said, is the answer he gives to reassure City plutocrats in a series of meetings now underway.

Hitachi has shelved plans for a new nuclear plant at Wylfa, Wales, months after Toshiba scrapped plans in Moorside, Cumbria, and Horizon suspended work at Oldbury, Gloucestershire. These withdrawals by three private Japanese corporations leave gaps in the UK government’s already bad climate and energy strategy.

Many old reactors are due to retire through the 2020s, and coal-fired power stations are due to be phased out by 2025. These new nuclear plants were due to fill the energy gap while contributing to the UK’s (insufficient) climate goals.

Conspiracy theories are on the rise in politics these days. Traditionally conspiracism has tended to be associated with the right but – increasingly in the UK – it’s coming to characterise sections of the left.

An outcry from Labour’s grassroots and a threatened backbench rebellion dragged the leadership back from a disgraceful capitulation on the Tories’ Immigration Bill on 28 January. The Bill will end free movement for EU citizens and, rather than setting out the new regime of immigration controls, will hand over a blank cheque for Ministers to write the law themselves – so-called “Henry VIII” powers.