Workers' Liberty 23: July 1995

Fifty years ago the Labour Party won an overwhelming victory in the general election that followed the defeat of Hitler. Labour had been governing Britain since 1940 in a coalition with the Tories and Liberals. Now it had supreme governmental power. It used it to create the Welfare State. Draining some of the jungles and swamps of capitalism, the labour movement raised workers to a level of security and frugal well-being such as millions of our class had not known before. This was “reform socialism” at the height of its success. When Labour MPs got up and sang the Red Flag in the House of...

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has now signed Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death warrant. They plan to kill him on 17 August and thus barbourously to satisfy the racist cops who continue to campaign for his death and the blood lust of those who elected Tom Ridge as governor. Time is running out for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Time is short in which to lodge the protests and mount the pickets that may make the difference between life for Mumia-Abu Jama and a horrible death at the hands of the hired killers of the state of Pensylvania. Ridge is a man in a hurry. He is threatening to deliver on at least one of his...

350 library workers in Sheffield have been on all-out indefinite strike since 5 June over the council’s threat to remove enhanced pay for weekend work, breaking national conditions of service. All workers in the Council’s leisure department face the same threat, resulting in a pay cut of up to 7% for some of the lowest paid workers. The strike is solid. Clare Renshaw, a libraries shop steward and striker, spoke to Workers’ Liberty: “This strike is about national conditions of service. We’re not striking for more pay but to keep hold of our pay. We are low paid, and women workers. We can’t...

Many socialists believe that we should deal with the Islamic fundamentalists now recruiting among Asian youth in Britain — notably Hizb-ut Tahir — by a policy of “no platform” for such bigots. We reprint an excerpt from Dave Landau ’s argument in Jewish Socialist no.33 and a response by Mark Osborn The left, specifically the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP), the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and Socialist Organiser [Workers' Liberty], have campaigned against bans on Hizb-ut Tahrir, declaring themselves in support of their right to free speech. What should we do about Hizb-ut Tahrir? I...

As we go to press, RMT and ASLEF members on British Rail and London Underground are balloting for a series of one day strikes over pay. The RMT wants a 6% rise. ASLEF — the train drivers’ union — want “a substantial increase.” If the RMT ballot is lost the responsibility lies entirely with the union’s unelected bureaucracy who have refused to really fight for a big yes vote, despite the decisions of the union’s elected Executive, or the feelings of activists on the ground. If the ballots do show majorities for action then we need action co-ordinated across both the unions and on British Rail...

By Brian Roberts It now seems certain that the long-running NHS pay dispute will come to a head this autumn. UNISON is set to ballot for strike action during August, over the government’s “1% plus local bargaining” pay offer. A host of smaller staff organisations are likely to fall in line behind them. The dispute is over two issues: the break-up of national pay and conditions by the introduction of local pay bargaining, and the limit of 3% effectively set by the government over any total rise. 800,000 NHS workers are facing a pay cut and the loss of national bargaining in one pay round! The...

By Tony Dale The conference of the public sector workers union, Unison, held in June, was a mixed affair. Important left resolutions supporting the minimum wage and full employment were passed. However, most of what the right-wing leadership wanted was voted for by conference. The left was defeated on the anti-union laws. There was a rallying behind the leadership, under fire from the Labour leadership after supporting Clause Four. The left was pre-occupied with the question of whether or not we should stand a candidate in elections for General Secretary in which former NUPE leader, Rodney...