Solidarity 383, 4 November 2015

No return to selection in schools!

Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has agreed that Weald of Kent Grammar School, a single-sex academy in Tonbridge, can open a new building in Sevenoaks. This decision marks a shift Michael Gove’s position, and potentially heralds an upsurge in overt selection by so-called academic “ability” on a scale not seen for decades. Labour legislated in 1998 to prevent construction of new grammar schools. In part this was to deflect the grassroots pressure for the abolition of those grammar schools that remained after an uncompleted move to comprehensivisation. To circumvent Labour’s law, the...

Close Guantanamo Bay!

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, has finally been released after being held there for 13 years without trial. Aamer was captured by bounty hunters in Afghanistan in 2001 and sold on to US forces. He was then taken to Guantanamo Bay, the US military prison in Cuba. He was held there from 2002 until now, but no charges were ever brought against him and he never faced trial. Aamer alleges that he was repeatedly beaten and tortured during his time in captivity. He says that when he was tortured in a US prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, British...

AKP wins in Turkey

In Turkey’s snap election held on 1 November, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) got 317 seats out of 550 and won more than 49% of the vote, compared with 41% in the June 2015 general election. The main secularist Kemalist-nationalist party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), on the other hand, again found itself disappointed with a vote share of 25% and 134 seats. However, the biggest surprise came from the fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which lost nearly two million votes to the AKP, slipping to 12% from 16.3%. The pro-Kurdish, leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP)...

Bahar Mustafa: charges dropped

Charges against the left-wing, feminist activist Bahar Mustafa, for ironically tweeting #kill all white men, have been dropped. Those charges — sending a communication conveying a threatening message — were ridiculous and inappropriate. It seems that the campaign to defend Bahar, and arguments in favour of free speech have won out. That’s good. The decision should give us confidence to debate the politics of, and campaign for, a generalised defence of free speech against institutional, state and other forms of repression.

Momentum campaigning

Democracy SOS is Momentum’s first major campaigning initiative. Supported by TSSA, it focuses on registering voters for the May 2016 local elections. The deadline for registration for those elections is 1 December. The results of the May elections are likely to be seen as a referendum on Corbyn’s leadership, and if the results aren’t strong enough they are likely to be swooped on by the right-wing. There has been a particular crisis about voter registration since the Tories have introduced a new system of individual registration. An estimated 1.9 million people have lost their right to vote...

Fight for the Right to Strike!

On Monday 2 November, thousands of trade unionists joined the TUC lobby against the Trade Union Bill. Large delegations from the FBU, CWU and some lively Unison branches kept the mood up with chanting and music when not everyone could fit in the hall. In the evening a protest organised by the Trade Union Coordinating Group, and supported by Right to Strike, Unite the Resistance and the National Shop Stewards Network, gathered over 200 activists in Parliament square. The Trade Union Bill will have its third reading in the Commons on Tuesday 10 November before going to the House of Lords. •...

Defend our unions against Tories and the SNP!

Unsurprisingly the recent Scottish Labour Party conference voted unanimously to oppose the Tories’ Trade Union Bill. But the motion, from Unison and three Glasgow Constituency Labour Parties, had its weaknesses, saying, for instance that trade unions are “good for business”. But if unions are good for business, why do so many employers derecognise them? The motion called for ongoing campaigning against the Bill, including organising rallies and further weeks of action. Unfortunately more specific proposals for campaigning disappeared in the course of compositing. Even so, the motion provides a...

Red Labour issues a statement opposing expulsions in the Labour Party

The following statement has been published by Red Labour in protest at the expulsion from the Labour Party of supporters of Solidarity and of Corbyn. We urge activists to republish the statement, to add supportive comments on the Facebook page , and to get their union branches and CLPs to endorse it. "In the course of a rather grotesquely titled 'operation ice-pick' (ice pick being the murder weapon used on Trotsky by an agent of Stalin), a number of long-standing party members have been expelled despite being energetic Labour supporters for all recent elections. The charge against them is...

Discussing the "Transnational Social Strike"

Transnational Social Strike , a platform of workers, unions, and other organisations from across Europe, many of which are active around questions of immigration and migrant workers' struggles, held a conference in Poznan, Poland on 2-4 October. The final document from the conference is available online here . Roberta Ferrari, an activist involved in the project and a member of Precarious Disconnections and Coordinamento Migranti in Bologna, Italy, spoke to Workers' Liberty. What is the Transnational Social Strike project? What are its origins, and what are its aims? To talk about a...

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