Third Camp Marxism

The campaign to overturn the dismissal of Richie Venton — USDAW shop steward, USDAW convenor, and member of USDAW National Executive Council — continues, despite the lack of support from the leaders of his own union.

Richie was sacked by his employer, IKEA, at the end of August. Richie had worked in the IKEA store in Braehead on the outskirts of Glasgow for twelve years, during which time he had built an effective trade union organisation in the store and achieved major improvements in working conditions.

On 1 November, demonstrations in Israel showed solidarity with Israeli citizen Hallel Rabin, imprisoned for the third time, and for 25 days, for her continued refusal to serve in the Israeli army.

In October, Hope Not Hate released a report on QAnon, written by David Lawrence and Gregory Davis, with the first half concentrating on an overall summary, while the second half explores QAnon in the UK specifically.

The report shows how David Icke laid the groundwork for QAnon in the UK, by spreading his own lizard-themed version of Satanic panic for decades.

Hope Not Hate commissioned a poll into QAnon’s UK popularity.

In the first half of October, Storm Linfa hit Vietnam, followed by Storm Nangka, causing floods and landslides which left almost 100 dead, flooded over 100,000 houses, and forced almost that number to evacuate — while causing serious damage to agriculture and infrastructure. Towards the end of October well over one million people were evacuated in Vietnam as yet another storm, Typhoon Molave, wreaked havoc: destroying over 50,000 houses in total and leaving over six million without power.

Amy Coney Barrett, the new judge rushed onto the Supreme Court by Trump and the Republicans, is on record in a court judgement as saying that the right to vote belongs only to “virtuous citizens”.

Labour must now confront the issue of antisemitism in the labour movement. All the attempts by Corbyn leadership to downplay the issue, or to say that it is only the inevitable spillover into a large organisation of attitudes in wider society, must end.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report published on 29 October is not the solution or the last word on the matter, but it has the institutional weight to push the left into accepting, legally and politically, that there is a real problem.

For sure, his opponents in the party and the Tory press are out to get Jeremy Corbyn.

One of two things then: either they’re telling the truth on this matter or they aren’t. Either there is a problem of antisemitism in the party or there isn’t. Either his critics are lying or exaggerating, and should then be stood up to and faced down. Or they are telling the truth; in which case Corbyn should energetically set about digging out Labour Party antisemitism by the roots.

I have just re-joined the Labour Party.

Some people will say that one should never leave the Labour Party. Whatever it did, whatever bothered you and made it difficult to remain a member, you should stay inside and fight from within. Sure, you disagreed with this or that policy, but that’s no reason to abandon Labour, which has consistently fought against all forms of racism. Whatever you disagreed with, Labour is the party that unites working people of all races and religions, and campaigns consistently for genuine equality and respect.

This article contains spoilers for Wheatley’s 2020 Rebecca film, the 1940 Hitchcock film, and the original 1938 Daphne Du Maurier gothic novel.

Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca, showing on Netflix, was always going to be haunted by Hitchcock’s 1940 film. Wheatley and screenwriter Goldman were right to try and create a new film adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, rather than a remake of the Oscar-winning classic. They tried to give us a more explicitly feminist Rebecca, but sadly do not pull it off.

Biden fails at first test

Eric Lee ( Solidarity 568) is so annoyed with my article in the previous issue (Democrats: no space for radicals) that he does not even manage to acknowledge my name while writing a polemic against me.