Solidarity 375, 9 September 2015

Beyond the fragments of the Trotskyist movement

Why is the revolutionary left today in such a mess? Why are the politics of the SWP, the Socialist Party, the various Fourth Internationals and most of the splinters, grouplets and fragments so incoherent? When did it start to go wrong for the classical Marxist tradition, which had reached such a flowering with Lenin, Trotsky and other Bolsheviks? And what were the alternatives, the roads not taken or barely trodden, which might help orientate Marxists today in the situation we start from? The AWL’s new book, a second volume of documents from the early Trotskyist movement goes a long way...

The lefts we've had and the left we want

The Labour Party has always had left wings, more or less organised, more or less diffuse. The thing is, up to now, they have always been defeated. A look at the history tells us what we need from a new left. In a way the Labour Party’s founding (as the Labour Representation Committee, in 1900) was a high point for the Labour left. The left wing was embodied in affiliated sub-parties, able to operate regular party structures of their own, without witch-hunts or bans. Until 1918 the Labour Party had no individual members: it was a federation of trade unions (only a minority of unions at first...

Building the left after the Labour leadership vote

Max Munday, co-ordinator of the Corbyn supporters’ organisation in Sheffield, spoke to Solidarity about what they’ve built in the city. Why is the campaign shaking things up in the labour movement? I think the campaign gives people a clear, positive focus. Immediately after the election we had demonstrations; people were clearly saying we don’t like the Tories and we don’t want cuts. This is more positive, we have a clear goal of electing Corbyn and an opportunity to get left-wing ideas discussed with a national platform. There is a similarity with Syriza and Podemos, but in some respects the...

Heroes and Hordes

If Nicholas Winton were saving the children today His Transport of Kindness would camp out in fear at Calais Compassion is easier cast back through history's mist Abhorrence for migrants but Oscars for Schindler's List No humans may cross here, this tunnel is only for freight Hurrah for the Blackshirts and see off the swarms at the gate They've kind words for history, now for the iron-clad fist Coldness for Calais and Oscars for Schindler's List The lords of the fortress will draw bloody lines in the sand Armed guard at the border instead of the helping hand They'll trample the memory of...

What's it like to be a refugee?

In 1996, when I was three years old, my parents and I fled our native Afghanistan. Over the course of the next three years we made our way across Europe before we arrived in Britain in 1999. This is an account from my parents about why they did what they did and how they have come to react to the current refugee crisis from their perspectives of already having been through it. I hope this gives people a small idea of what it’s like to be a refugee. Why did you leave Afghanistan? Dad: We left, like all the people who left with us, because our lives were in danger. There was a civil war going on...

Solidarity with refugees and migrants

The situation of migrants journeying through Hungary has been covered extensively in the news, showing chaotic scenes at Keleti Station in Budapest. A recent rush of migrants when people heard rumours of a fence being built on the border between Serbia and Hungary, on the orders of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. People wanted to try to cross the border before the fence was complete. The Hungarian government, unsurprising to those who are aware of their nationalist politics, have done everything they can do to make Hungary a hostile environment for refugees. They want to discourage...

Let them in!

Over the weekend 5-6 September 20,000 refugees arrived by train in Germany via Austria from Hungary; thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands are following them. Merkel’s decision to allow Syrians who reach Germany to apply for asylum there is a good thing. That so many people in Germany, elsewhere in Europe and around the world have welcomed people as they arrive in train stations, have been collecting and distributing food, clothing, toys and medicine shows that basic human solidarity is a powerful force in the world. In the face of such an inspiring response to human suffering, David Cameron...

Will Corbyn's feminism work for women?

Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn’s “Working with Women” document makes many proposals which, if implemented, would mark significant gains in the struggle for gender equality. There is this and that problem with the demands, and it doesn’t go far enough. More fundamentally, however, it doesn’t come at women’s rights from a class-struggle or even a particularly labour movement-based perspective. Corbyn recognises the significant and disproportionate impact of austerity on women’s lives. He calls for an end to, and though it’s not entirely clear I think a reversal of, cuts to vital...

Who is Tom Watson?

Watson comes from a Stalinist-Labour bureaucracy background. He used to boast that his father had been expelled from school for writing pro-Cuba graffiti. On leaving school, Watson got a job in the Labour Party headquarters in Walworth Road. He then went to study Politics at Hull University in 1990; after initially eschewing student politics he became involved in the Labour Club and in 1992 became the Union President. During this time he was heavily immersed in the National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS) working closely with the leading lights of the time Lorna Fitzsimons and Jim...

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