Socialist Resistance October '07

socialist

No. 48 October 2007

www.socialistresistance.net

Price: 80p RESPECT

Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan

Was this a crisis – or an opportunity? pages 4,5,6

Editorial

FIGHT BACK

Andrew Wiard

page 3

OFFENSIVE!

Brown’s biggest gamble page 3

2 Socialist Resistance

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Andrew Wiard

Trade unions

Fremantle – slashing pay and gagging trade unionists On 1 April 2007 Fremantle Trust cut 196 low paid care workers’ pay by up to 30%. The workers were told – “accept these terms or be sacked”! The union members involved in the dispute provide residential and day care to the elderly and vulnerable residents in Barnet’s old peoples’ homes, in north London. Fremantle Trust is a not-forprofit company that took over care home contracts five years ago. The cuts include lower

wages, increased hours, no sick pay, shorter holidays and reduced payment for working unsocial hours. Even pensions to which contributions have been made during the workers’ service are to be dramatically cut by more than one third. In response to these attacks UNISON members voted to take strike action and have taken one day’s action while sustaining a high profile campaign. This is an all too familiar story of privatisation, where companies pledge to

keep delivering the same service but under-cut the inhouse provision by attacking the conditions of the workforce. UNISON is asking for the widest possible support for the Fremantle workers. Fremantle didn’t draw the line at attacking its own employees. In an unprecedented move, they contacted the internet service provider which hosts LabourStart. This pro-union website had been supporting the UNISON strikers and

The mettle of the trade union leadership in the face of Gordon Brown’s clear statement that his assault on working people’s conditions will be even more ferocious than that of his predecessor Tony Blair is sorely wanting. The stance of the Trade Union Congress is summed up in its treatment of two men. Bob Crow of the Rail Maritime Transport union (above), fresh from its victory against Metronet, was removed from the TUC’s General Council. Meanwhile UNISON’s Dave Prentis, who had just presided over 400,000 health workers settling for a pay cut because of lack of leadership from the union, took over as TUC President. What a way to run a railroad!

publicising their case. Fremantle’s lawyers demanded that the internet provider shut down the campaign or else face a lawsuit themselves. LabourStart were contacted by the legal department of the internet service provider and told that they had one day to close down the web campaign or else the entire LabourStart site would be shut down. The strikers are now running a site with LabourStart’s support www.wewillnotbesilenced.org.

Postal strikes back on! POA: militancy in unexpected quarters! Piers Mostyn The recent militant Prison Officers Association strike was hailed by the left. Yet the union had virtually pariahstatus not so many years ago. Go back a decade or two and it was an organising ground for racists and fascists within the labour movement. Its members are involved in the ugliest, most brutal and racist hard end of the strong state. And the union seemed to be unashamedly enthusiastic about this role. Has that all now changed? Over the past decade or so the union’s members have radicalised in the face of privatisation and a relentless assault on wages and conditions, eroding their status as well paid enforcers lording it over the rest of the working class. In addition, like in other areas of low-skilled public

sector employment there has been a demographic shift. The uniformly white male organisation of the 1980s and before – heavily staffed by exarmy and ex-police officers who made a career choice out of joining the front ranks of the “hang ‘em and flog em’ brigade” – has been slowly transformed. There has been an influx of female and black workers driven into the job primarily by the dynamics of the low wage economy and stringent unemployment benefit rules. Parallel to these changes the prisons have been in a permanent state of crisis – with soaring inmate numbers leading to overcrowding and a chronic shortage of resources for basic rehabilitation and welfare. The POA – renowned in the Thatcher era for its annual calls for capital punishment is

now more likely to be denouncing a system that warehouses the mentally ill and fails to provide drug rehabilitation and education welfare services for deprived youth. This doesn’t mean that everything has changed. Far from it. Racism and fascism among prison staff is a major problem. Brute violence and corruption is widespread – creating a regime in which murder, suicide and beatings have flourished. But the old days in which the union saw its job as being to defend such a regime and scapegoat those raising these issues are gone. Perhaps this is why some inmates clapped and cheered the screws as they came off the strike – despite the resulting loss of their highly-valued visits and association.

The Postal Executive of the Communication Workers’ Union has, at last, reinstated the strikes over pay, conditions and pensions. Postal workers will be taking two 48-hour strikes, on Friday/Saturday 5/6 October and Monday/Tuesday 8/9 October, followed by “functional” strikes (different parts of the system taking action on different days) beginning in the following week, 15 October. Although the two 48-hour strikes mean that no post will be delivered for 5 days, some workers will be working on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday – details of precise times for the strike can be found on the CWU website at http://www.cwu.org There is a growing awareness among postal workers that, in addition to industrial action against Royal Mail, there is a need for political pressure to be brought on the government which, while arguing the dispute

Andrew Wiard

By a London Postal Worker

is merely one between workers and employer, in fact owns Royal Mail. This has also been continually stressed by the union leadership, which makes it all the more appalling that General Secretary Billy Hayes was adamant that no strike would take place during Labour Party conference. No real impact was made at the conference by the CWU over the dispute, despite postal workers from several regions going to Bournemouth to lobby delegates.

Unfortunately, the leadership’s preference is for back room deals rather than real pressure. During the period while the strikes have been “suspended”, Royal Mail has gone on the offensive, unilaterally attempting to change conditions, victimising those doing the job by the book and disciplining those who took unofficial action during the last round of strikes. Meanwhile, the CWU leadership has seemed oblivious to all this. If they are not called off because a shoddy deal is done, these strikes could be the start of real pressure on both the government and Royal Mail to back down on their attempt to make the workforce pay for the introduction of competition, and, if necessary, the action must be stepped up to an all-out strike. Postal workers receive no strike pay, so support from the wider movement is essential if Royal Mail is not to achieve its hoped for aim of breaking the strikes through hardship.

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Socialist Resistance

Editorial Brown’s biggest gamble AS THIS issue of Socialist Resistance was preparing to go to press one huge issue has been dominating the domestic news agenda, giving some other discussions a slight air of unreality: will Gordon Brown, Prime Minister for just on three months, opt for an early election, on November 1 or 8? Everything appears to be being done to give the impression that Brown will indeed go for it, to take advantage of New Labour’s current strong showing in the polls, exploit the weakness and disarray of the two main opposition parties, and get the voting in now, before any further bad news on the economic front after the traumatic Northern Rock fiasco triggered the first run on a British bank for 140 years. Brown has therefore been running his new government pretty much in pre-election mode since the summer. In recent weeks we have seen further preparatory steps: ! A tub-thumping “law and order” platform was established from the Labour conference, with Jack “Have A Go” Straw shamelessly stealing yet another Tory policy. ! Brown has been photographed meeting soldiers in Iraq and telling them another 500 could be home by Christmas, cultivating the impression that a total withdrawal is on the way. ! Lord Darzi, the charismatic new health minister, has been pressed to bring forward the interim report from his England-wide review of the NHS to give the impression that the government is

implementing dynamic and popular changes. ! And trade union leaders, with the exception of the postal workers, have been largely neutered or neutralised, and have connived at Brown’s brutal exclusion of their voice and votes at Labour conference and are reportedly digging deep to pay up next year’s political fund contributions in advance. Brown has effectively concealed or removed most reminders of the discredited Blair era. But a number of issues seem set to undermine New Labour’s popularity in the period ahead, reminding voters that Brown is just as hard-line a neoliberal as Blair. Among them::

Andrew Wiard

After scrapping super-casino, election is

Am I mad to think of trying for it so soon? pressures. All of these factors press Brown towards a “cut and run” election, which would also have the beneficial sideeffect of catching other parties less well prepared and hugely disadvantaging smaller parties which cannot resort to large scale corporate donations or trade union political funds. However there are disadvantages, too, and it is by no means guaranteed that Brown would necessarily strengthen his position. And there are some indications that David Cameron’s Tories, after a disastrous six months of sliding poll ratings may have been able to use the threat of a swift election as the focus to reunite the party and

to the National Council, supplemented by a strong statement from Salma Yaqoob. The initial defensive reaction from the Socialist Workers Party brought sharp words and a near-split at a National Council meeting in mid-September, but, with an election looming, this was followed by an apparent process of reuniting the organisation around unanimous motions. The organisational and political concessions made by the SWP are necessary to enable Respect to grow and develop politically as a broad coalition to the left of Brown. There was also agreement that if there is an immediate election, Respect will again focus most of its resources on a limited number of target

Not one more death – Troops out now Gordon Brown’s first visit to Iraq as Prime Minister may have been a miscalculation. It’s certainly a hard act to pull off. It’s not just that the Tories have had a go at him for electioneering. More to the point it is difficult to paint a good news story about the war in Iraq, especially when the withdrawal of 1000 troops before Christmas turns out to be yet another example of double counting from the man that used to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. There had already been an announcement in September that 500 troops would leave Iraq this year – and 250 of them have already left. The reality is that everyone – on both sides of the Atlantic – knows that Iraq is a disaster. On September 10, Brigadier James Bashall told the Daily Telegraph that the British handover of the city of Basra to Iraqi troops and consequent withdrawal to the airport had been delayed five months because of US pressure. The handover took place in the end on September 3 – and 11

The economy seems set for more problems, with the possibility of further bank crises which could be more embarrassing for the government and less easy for them to escape from than Northern Rock. The economy seems set for more problems, with the possibility of further bank crises which could be more embarrassing for the government and less easy for them to escape from than Northern Rock. The military situation in Afghanistan and Iraq again seems set to worsen over the coming winter: the longer troops remain fighting, the more Brown takes on the Blair image of warmonger in chief. The NHS is poised in many parts of England to carry through another wave of highly unpopular hospital closures and reorganisation – some of which were postponed in the face of mass protest and pressure in 2006, but are now driven by cash

regroup. Interestingly some of the same factors also apply to Brown’s principal (sole serious) challenge from the left, Respect. Respect carries the banner of the opposition to neoliberalism, and has demonstrated an ability to transcend the limits of the tiny hard-core left vote and secure the election of George Galloway as an MP and around two dozen councillors. But (as we argued in last month’s Socialist Resistance) much of Respect, too, had been in the doldrums for some time, and has only been shaken out of a rather conservative and blinkered complacency and decline by a critical letter from George Galloway

seats where a firm base has already been established, rather than spreading its limited resources too thinly around a large number of seats where little groundwork has yet been done. We can hope that now peace has broken out – at least on paper – Respect can begin to match its potential in what remains a generally favourable situation. For our part we urge Socialist Resistance readers and supporters to work actively to promote Respect campaigns in their local area or to support the local efforts of branches where there is no local candidate standing to build a national fund to support the effort in the target seats.

Now they are clearly Brown’s wars, and the death toll is rising

British soldiers were killed and 62 injured during the final six months. The MOD persists in claiming that the handover took place when “conditions were right”. They certainly weren’t right for the soldiers who died or were wounded in the interim – or for their families. And of course the death toll of Iraqis continues almost unmentioned For a time there was an attempt amongst the British political establishment to suggest that maybe that was true, but Afghanistan was going fine. More and more that myth has been exposed too. On September 28, NATO’s commander General Dan O’Neil – an American – warned that it was “likely” that some of the ground British troops had won from the Taliban in Helmand province would need to be won again if the Taliban regrouped over the winter. Tariq Ali, in an interview with Interpress service on September 18, explained the balance of forces on the ground thus: “You have a thin layer of politicians implanted there by the West with no real base in the country. And then you have the old American habit of shooting from the hip, dropping bombs from the air, indiscriminately killing people right, left and centre. “The result is increased resistance. I don’t like the Taliban, but if people in Afghanistan see the Taliban fighting the guys who are bombing and killing, they get attracted. It’s very simple.” In these conditions both here and in the US, it is not surprising that there is another wave of measures to crack down on the anti-war movement. Here in Britain the new Labour warmongers have colluded with the police to ban the antiwar march on October 8. But the anti-war movement won’t be cowed by these type of measures – they are a sign of the weakness of our enemy not their strength. We are ever more determined to ensure we get Troops out of Iraq – and Troops out of Afghanistan now

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Respect A new crisis – or a new opportunity? Just when the need for a party like Respect is clearer than ever, with the arrival of Brown and the snuffing out of the last vestiges of democracy in the Labour Party, Respect has been passing through the biggest crisis in its three-anda-half year history. Alan Thornett reports on the events and decisions of Respect’s September National Council meetings.

Just when the need for a party like Respect is clearer than ever, with the arrival of Brown and the snuffing out of the last vestiges of democracy in the Labour Party, Respect has been passing through the biggest crisis in its three-anda-half year history. After a series of statements and resolutions and two National Council meetings, the jury is out on whether enough has been done to relaunch Respect on a broader and more inclusive basis. It is also pondering on whether the political will exists in the SWP leadership to positively implement the decisions adopted, which could take the organisation forward. The crisis came to a head around two critical meetings of the Respect National Council, one on September 22, which failed to complete its agenda, and another the following week on September 29 to complete the business. At the centre of the crisis

was a serious rift between some of Respect’s major components, the SWP on the one hand and George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob, and some of the East London councillors on the other. It was described by George Galloway as a ‘breakdown of trust’, and it clearly was and is.

These events were triggered by a letter from George Galloway to the NC which raised a number of legitimate issues. It argued that Respect has not fulfilled its potential either in terms of votes or membership and that in some areas Respect is effectively moribund. It implicitly criti-

cised the method used by the SWP regarding decisionmaking and priorities. It also implicitly challenged the SWP approach to Respect which is to treat it as an electoral united front (of a special kind). There did not have to be a crisis over such criticisms,

however, a number of which some of us have been raising for a long time. However the SWP leadership grossly over-reacted – seeing the letter as an attack on the SWP itself, and John Rees in particular, and responding in that vein. A positive response and an undertaking to make some changes (even some concessions) and tackle some of the issues Galloway was raising could have created a very different situation. By the time of the September 22 NC therefore, instead of compromise, the debate was ratcheted up. In internal meetings of the SWP (the contents of which leaked into the public domain) inflammatory charges of communalism had been levelled at George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob and some of the East London councillors. The clash was presented as a left versus right issue or the socialists versus the communalists. These accusations

Salma refutes allegation of “communalism” “The fault line of “communalist politics”’ in Birmingham has most recently been between African-Caribbean and Asian communities who often feel in competition with each other over council funding. These tensions tragically ignited in Lozells where two young people lost their lives. There is no political figure in Birmingham more closely associated with trying to address these tensions than myself. That is why I initiated the women and children’s Peace March in the aftermath of the Lozells riots which received very high local news coverage. That is why Respect supporters took great risks, behind the scenes, to ensure there was no retaliation from Pakistani gangs in the aftermath of the desecration of Muslim graves in Handsworth cemetery. When I spoke from the platform of the recent Jesse Jackson rally to a 600 strong (and overwhelmingly African-Caribbean) audience, I used my time to call for black and Asian unity. It is not accidental that I was the only politician to speak at the recent march in Lozells against Gangs and Guns organised by the

Council of Black Led Churches. Furthermore, both in my newsletters and within the council chamber I have specifically championed the issue of poor educational attainment of white working class boys from disadvantaged backgrounds. If I wanted to pander to conservative pressure inside the Muslim community, appearing on Question Time and opposing the imposition of Islamic dress on women, opposing the criminalisation of women in the sex industry, or opposing homophobia in the local media, would not exactly be the best way to go about it!”

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Andrew Wiard

Respect were then repeated in the course of the National Committe meeting. It was bound to raise the heat whether or not it was designed to do so. There was heavy criticism of Tower Hamlets group – which reflects Respect’s unique breakthrough into the Muslim community by the predominantly white left. It is not surprising that there are problems following such a breakthrough, but these problems have never been brought to the NC for collective discussion. The question is not whether there have been political problems and disagreements. The question is whether political steps were taken to discuss these problems and bring about a common political development. John Lister and I had submitted a discussion paper to the NC taking up these issues and other aspects of the debate as had Salma Yaqoob – who made a very powerful case against the communalism allegation. In the debate on all this on the 22nd, speaker after speaker from the SWP (of their 19 members on the NC) attacked George Galloway, in particular, around these issues. The result was a blowup in which George Galloway announced that he would not be a candidate in the upcoming election and came close to walking out. Fortunately he did not walk out, and fortunately he has reversed his decision and is putting himself forward in Poplar and Canning Town. I have been amongst the harshest critics of George Galloway particularly over the issue of accountability. But the notion that Respect could fight a successful election campaign in a few weeks time (or six months time), or successfully approach other sections of the left and the trade unions in order to expand outwards, after a fractious split with George Galloway, was a dangerous

illusion. We could have said goodbye to the prospect of a new left party for a long time. The meeting moved on to discuss the practical proposals in George Galloway’s letter, which he moved in summary form. His most controversial proposal, as far as the SWP was concerned, was for a new post of national organiser to function alongside the national secretary (aimed at broadening Respect out at the top). The SWP, however, saw this as a direct challenge to the authority of John Rees and therefore to the vertical control which is implicit in both the method of the SWP and its model for Respect as one a number of united fronts in which they work. It was this which made a simple proposal emerge as a pivotal issue. The argument the SWP used was that any elected position took precedence over any appointed one. This arose because the new post would need to be appointed if it was to be open to the whole membership rather than just the NC. But

be discussed by a working group comprising Ger Frances, Lindsey German Linda Smith and myself in an attempt to find solution. We met, but failed to agree. I could agree with everything Lindsey German wrote with the exception of the last three words “and individual officers”. These words reversed the proposal (that both officers are responsible to the EC) and put the national secretary back in charge. I discussed it with her prior to the 29th (we met over another issue) but to

The meeting voted unanimously to urge George Galloway, who had not yet made a decision, to put himself forward for one of the East London seats. why would an elected post take precedence? Providing they were both responsible to the same elected committees, which could regulate their work there was no need for one to be the line manager of the other. There is nothing in Respect’s constitution which requires such hierarchy. And when the issue was to re-establish trust it made no sense to insist on such an arrangement. George Galloway’s proposals were therefore accepted, with the proviso that the apparently vexed issue of the authority/constitutionality of a national organiser alongside the national secretary would

no avail. The first item on the agenda on the 29th was Respect’s approach to the looming general election. It was a good discussion. It is clearly crucial the left is able to mount a credible challenge to new Labour under Brown in a snap poll. And that means Respect, because no other left grouping has the ability to ripple the surface of the water. Respect has at least the possibility of winning in three constituencies in such an election. Two of these are in East London: Bethnal Green and Bow which is currently George Galloway’s constituency, and Poplar and

Canning Town where Respect recently won the Shadwell local by-election and which is the constituency of Government Minister Jim Fitzpatrick. The other is Birmingham Hall Green, the new constituency replacing Sparkbrook and Small Heath, where Salma Yaqoob came a close second in 2005. It is a mammoth task, of course. But just being a serious challenger in these seats informs the shape of Respect’s election campaign. It means that Respect will stand in a limited number of seats (probably fewer than the 25 seats Respect stood in in 2005) so that support can be given to the constituencies with the best chance of success whilst mounting a challenge in other selected areas. The meeting voted unanimously to urge George Galloway, who had not yet made a decision, to put himself forward for one of the East London seats. He said he would seriously reconsider in light of the decision, and many other such requests he had had. A letter was handed to him by Jerry Hicks to this effect from Bristol Respect. The meeting then returned to the issue of the national organiser. The old debate began to re-run but it was difficult to sustain. When I said that I could accept all Lindsey German was proposing other than the last three words she said that she had no problem in deleting them. John Rees

said the same, and that was it. The two would work side by side and report to the elected committees. We had an agreement which we could have had a week earlier. George Galloway’s other proposal for a new, broader, and more inclusive executive committee is also very important. The narrow nature of the existing committee led myself and John Lister to decline nomination to it after last year’s conference. It was too narrow to function effectively and was not in reality an authoritative decision making body. Changing this and broadening the committee out will be the task of the incoming NC after the November conference. Also the overpowering size of the SWP delegations on the committees has to come to an end.

Resolutions for conference The next item on the agenda was NC resolutions to Respect conference. Here the meeting unanimously adopted a resolution I moved, which incorporated the resolution tabled by myself and John Lister at the previous meeting and the resolution adopted at that meeting moved by George Galloway. This combined resolution

Continued overleaf, p6

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Respect was now seconded by John Rees who had proposed some amendments to it prior to the meeting. It was crucial that this went through. The resolution offers a new way forward for Respect both in terms of tasks and priorities and in terms of opening up Respect to the broader movement. In fact if fully implemented it could relaunch Respect on a more open and attractive basis. Central to the resolution is the need to engage others on the left such as the RMT, the CPB, Bob Wareing and John McDonnell who are currently discussing the issue of labour representation in the light of the rise of Brown. The resolution urges that: “These discussions to be on the basis of no organisational preconditions as far as Respect is concerned, with the aim of initiating a process towards a wider regroupment of left forces.” This could hardly be more urgent given the escalating debate around this issue. The resolution proposes approaching these organisations and individuals with the view to jointly organising a conference with them on the crisis of representation and the forward. This should be held as soon as practically possible and build on the broadest possible basis. The resolution also proposes a number of other measures designed to build Respect more effectively, recruit new members and reinvigorate the branches:

Sounding the alarm: Galloway’s letter echoed concerns On public profile: “To build a much higher public profile for Respect. To have an effective means of getting our ideas across through broad sheets and leaflets, and an improved, revitalised website and improved media management with a well resourced press officer. “We agree in principle to produce a newspaper or a magazine. This should be discussed by a working party and brought back to the NC for implementation in the New Year”. To end the ‘slate’ system of election at Respect conference which has been contentious with individual activists, from the upcoming conference in 2007, and introduce a form of STV, to be agreed. To introduce a partly delegate-based National Council with delegates from the branches – from the 2008 conference To improve communica-

Salma’s vision for Respect “The fact that Respect has won a serious base in some Muslim communities is a tremendous achievement for all of us. For the first time, a part of the genuine left has sunk deep roots in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. In a period where racism is on the rise, and multiculturalism is under attack, the importance of this is hard to overestimate. We have been much weaker in areas where this combination of factors is not as strong. … There are whole swathes of white working class areas that feel abandoned. We need an honest discussion inside

tions and accountability and overhaul the organisation of the national office. On electoral policy the resolution stresses the need to ensure that Respect has clear working class politics in the campaign. “This means that the ethos of Respect as expressed in its acronym Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community, Trade Unionism, has to be the framework of its work, its activities and its policies. “Any left party wanting to make its mark under the current conditions will have to have clear and distinct and radical politics on which to build an election campaign”. It resolves to ensure that Respect plays an integral part in the struggle of the trade unions against the Brown wage freeze and the attack on trade union rights, and against privatisation and deregulation and to continue

Respect about what we have committed to these areas, apart from rhetoric. … Sustained local community activity is the key to ensuring strong local candidates and every potential Respect candidate should aim to be a “community leader”’ if they are serious about trying to win. Part of our role is to be able to bring the respected and rooted local activist (or (community leader’) into the wider progressive alliance that we have created, and for us all to be strengthened by this common ground. … We need to combine in our local work both a commitment to campaigning around the big political issues and addressing

to support the activities and campaigns of the StWC both in terms of opposition to the war and the defence of civil liberties and human rights. It also stresses the need to ensure that: “Respect gives a high profile to material on the environment and climate change in its election and general material. To become more involved in the climate change campaign and the climate camps and their activities. Support the climate change trade union conference”. This is not only necessary in its own right given the huge urgency of the issue but essential if Respect is going to challenge the greens and attract young people to its campaign. These proposals do offer a way forward at a time of great potential opportunity. Ultimately, however, it is in the hands of the SWP. According to the various reports of the SWP party council the day after the NC “business as usual” was apparently the order of the day. If this was the case, then the signs are not good. To maximise the impact of Respect in today’s conditions, the culture of the organisation has to change and this has to go right down to the branches. The opportunity to build a broad-based left alternative has never been greater – but if the left manages to miss it, it could be a long time before it comes around again.

ways these link to specific local issues that impact on people’s day-to-day lives. We need to work consciously and patiently to consolidate and extend our vote in our existing strongholds. And, where we are weaker, we need to begin to act as if we were already local councillors. The crisis of political representation extends right down to ward level. We have to be willing and able to offer an alternative now. … We have an opportunity to show, in practice, that we are a home for those seeking an alternative to the right wing consensus. There are many more people outside Respect, who share many of our principles but who, for a variety of reasons and party loyalties, may not join us at the moment. Our willingness to be open and flexible in co-operating and sharing ideas and experiences is vital for the future of us all. My vision for Respect is of a coalition which acts to support all those who share a commitment to peace, equality and justice. In building Respect we have to act in a way that strengthens this broad progressive constituency and does not divide it.”

Extract from the statement by Alan Thornett and John Lister to Respect NC “The objective conditions which produced Respect, and the space to the left of Labour, remains in full-force, as shown by the Shadwell result. Brown leads a right-wing, anti-working class, neoliberal government, which has continued the Blairite relationship with the employers, and is even more hostile to the unions, as his pay freeze makes clear. … Despite the politics of new Labour, Respect has not fulfilled its potential politically or organisationally. … Respect needs to build itself as a national organisation. This means a stronger national profile and much more attention to building local branches. It needs effective fund-raising. In our view in the longer term the strategic issue is whether Respect should be a political party or a loose coalition. We have argued that the loose coalition model - or “united front of a special kind” or whatever - does not work. We believe that challenging for political power taking on all other political parties and dealing with all the problems that arise needs the structures of a political party: This does not mean that we believe Respect is, or could sensibly be declared to be, a party in any sense at the present time. A process of development is required to make this a possibility. Meanwhile we agree that even as a coalition Respect could be far more effective, proactive and dynamic: we agree with both George and Salma when they underline the need to organise Respect as a coalition in a much more coherent and inclusive way, and to raise its profile. The recent Morning Star article by Rob Griffiths, Alan Thornett raising the issue of the need for a new party, is an important development. We have to promote a dialogue with such potential allies and build their confidence in what we are doing. We cannot simply say “here is Respect, it is the best thing around (which is certainly true) and you should join it”. We have to show them that we are a serious, active, inclusive, campaigning organisation. If Respect is to seriously build itself, it has to convince those coming from the labour and trade union left that there is a democratic space within Respect in which they can function. Also - partly as a result of Respect’s failure to promote itself as a convincing alternative that can win support from trade union leaders - the RMT is considering standing candidates in the GLA elections. We should welcome this development - but do everything it can to reach an agreement with the RMT for a joint slate in these elections… …Respect has to have a political life separate from its participating organisations. Its leading members have to be in a position to make building Respect a genuine priority in their political work, and prioritise building a collective, inclusive leadership that sets out to draw together the strengths and the talents of all the currents and independent forces that rally to Respect. In our view that means taking on the character of a political party which can collectivise political experience. … The conference in November needs to build a new and broader unity in the leadership bodies and make the necessary changes which can take the organisation forward and build it as a broad, active, high-profile, campaigning party to the left of New Labour, which in our view should also run an active publicity machine and a high profile campaigning publication. This would present a strong and credible appeal to the left in the trade unions, the demoralised left in the Labour Party and to the Morning Star/CPB. Any other answer threatens to undermine all of the gains that have been made so far, and all of the good work that has been done so far at national and local level to build Respect.”

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NHS New evidence undermines the case for hospital closures Darzi challenged on NHS cuts and closures Pressure group Health Emergency have challenged the Government to come clean on whether the Darzi report on the NHS - published on October 4 - means an immediate moratorium on service closures and job cuts across the NHS. In the past 18 months over 25,000 jobs have been axed from the NHS and a series of regional reviews have identified a raft of maternity units, A&E departments and mental health services for closure. Lord Darzi has now indicated that he will be bringing in his own teams of experts in the Regions to look at services with the suggestion that the existing finance-led reviews, and their associated cuts and closures, will be put on hold. Geoff Martin, Health Emergency Head of Campaigns, said: “Any genuine attempt to engage staff and patients in reviewing the future pattern of local health services would be a positive move and would be a welcome break from the current top-down approach where bureaucrats bulldoze through cuts and closures in the teeth of staff and public opposition. “However, if we’re to have any confidence in the brave, new world of Lord Darzi the existing cuts-led reviews have to be stopped and the axe that’s hanging over dozens of local hospitals and services must be lifted. “We are challenging the Government for a categoric assurance on that key point.”

John Lister TWO recent top-level academic reports have struck body blows at the drive towards “centralizing” more hospital services and downsizing many hospital Accident & Emergency departments to “urgent care centres”. First came Sheffield University study, carefully weighing evidence and information to draw the apparently common-sense conclusion that longer ambulance journeys for treatment can have a seriously detrimental impact on the survival chances of some groups of patients. This has been stubbornly and indignantly denied by NHS managers seeking to close down A&E units and obliging patients to travel further, and by ambulance trust bosses eager to trumpet the skills of their workforce and the impressive range of lifesaving equipment that is now carried in emergency ambulances. Their response to the Sheffield study was to rubbish it, pointing to the fact that it is based on information that is now seven years old. However, this is the most recent and most detailed study of the issue to be carried out, and not that much has changed in terms of resources and training of ambulance staff that would question the findings. Ambulance crew themselves, while justifiably proud of their skills, also point out the difficulty of conducting life-saving treatment and using sophisticate equipment in the back of a swaying ambulance and the importance in many cases of getting the patient to hospital in the shortest possible time. In other words plans such as the Hertfordshire proposal to close A&E and other frontline hospital services at Hemel Hempstead and

Welwyn Garden City (QEII Hospital) do pose a potential threat to the lives and future recovery of patients who would then face much longer journeys along highly congested roads to Stevenage (Lister Hospital) or Watford General Hospital. But the second major report struck right at the heart of the whole rationalization programme across the NHS: a 154-page study by the Academy of Medical Royal

It’s common sense: even a child can understand, but not, it seems, NHS managers … There is limited evidence sible” without compromising – as obstacles to joint working that outcomes for patients safety and quality, and: and barriers to change. who have suffered major “The Royal College of Of course the conflicting trauma, or need neurosurgery Surgeons insists that any evidence is not enough on its or vascular care fare better in reorganization of health serv- own to force back the managemore highly specialized units. ices has a sound clinical and ment offensive, which is very But: evidence base. Financial, much driven by the cash pres“At this stage, any decision political and managerial expe- sures in an NHS which is now to withdraw 24-hour surgical diency must not be primary constantly claiming that it is cover from some hospitals in drivers for service reorganiza- in balance or even in surplus, favour of centralization is not tion.” while beneath the service frantic efforts are being made to cut back mental health and hospital services to balance the books. Central London One Hertfordshire manager National demonstration in central London responded to the Royal Colleges’ report by arguing to celebrate and defend the NHS. that it is “just a point of view”. Further details from www.unison.org.uk//healthcare/keepNHSworking It’s very much up to trade Ministers should be further unions to marshal the eviColleges, published in supported by current clinical embarrassed that the RCS also dence, inform their members September, has concluded evidence”. And even more damning in points to New Labour’s own and encourage them to fight that there is no evidence that most patient care or safety is response to the cash-driven market-style “reforms” of the back for jobs and services – materially improved by con- process towards centraliza- NHS – the system of “pay- and give a lead to local camcentrating all hospital serv- tion of services, the report ment by results” and the paigns which are continuing ices into fewer, bigger also argues that services must deliberate creation of compe- to challenge local cutbacks be “delivered as locally as pos- tition between NHS providers and centralization. hospitals.

Saturday November 3

Feminism in the 21st Century Socialist Resistance will be hosting a forum on Feminism in the 21st Century which will involve speakers from Portugal, France and Britain. Through plenary and workshop discussions we will discuss a range of issues including: ! Women in the 21st Century – how does globalisation affect women’s lives ! What shape is the family in today? ! What is socialist feminism? ! What is third wave feminism? ! Was the women’s liberation movement of the 70s and 80s just a load of white middle class women? ! The origins of International women’s day ! Why control of our bodies is central to control of our lives. ! Why are women paid less than men? ! Women at the sharp edge of climate change

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 24

at the University of London Union from 10.30-5.50 £10 waged £4 unwaged for advanced registration (£12/£5 on the day)

8 Socialist Resistance

Asylum CAMP FIGHTS NEW DETENTION CENTRE James Haywood September 19 saw the official opening of the “No Borders” camp near Gatwick airport. Activists from across the country gathered in protest against the new Immigration Detention Centre being built inside the airport’s perimeter (there are already 10 in the UK and one in Gatwick already). The camp was originally planned for a field nearer to the airport, but police and local Surrey council worked a brutal campaign of harassment on the farmer on whose land the camp was to take place. Eventually he buckled and the camp had to move. The camp included a range of activities, from workshops on migration to direct actions and protests. On Thursday a welcome event was held in Crawley, the

nearest (and biggest) town to Gatwick airport where campers distributed leaflets and their own camp paper, the Gatwick Express. This was followed by a free gig in the evening to raise awareness of the camp. The next day saw protests in nearby Croydon, South London, where the headquarters of the Border and Immigration Agency is based and where the majority of migrants go to register. At the same time a dozen protestors occupied the offices of Virgin Holidays in Crawley to highlight Virgin’s complicity with the Home Office in deporting so-called ‘failed’ migrants back to countries where they face almost certain torture and death. Alphonsus Uche Okafor Mefor is a Nigerian who was

booked onto a Virgin flight to be deported back to Nigeria. Through a sustained national campaign he was released and the flight cancelled. Through similar campaigns the airline XL Airways stopped participation in such flights altogether earlier this year. The Saturday saw a massive march in the centre of Crawley to the detention centre Tinsley House, another prison in Gatwick. Hundreds of people marched through the town centre and onto the main road, with some people honking in support and lining the streets in curiosity. The march concluded with a rally outside Tinsley House, which included speeches from asylum seekers talking about their experiences of being a migrants in Britain.

The camp was hugely successful in raising awareness of the brutal conditions migrants face in these prisons without charges, lawyers or any legal rights at all. Banners seen at the actions included “No One Is Illegal” “Freedom Of Movement For All” and banners from a range of asylum rights groups. The camp got wide media coverage including BBC South East news at prime time. The camp was marked by unbelievable police harassment and victimization. This reporter got their car photographed when they entered the camp. People were con-

stantly filmed and photographed. At the march on the Saturday two people got arrested and dragged away from the protest by police: one for just refusing to say their name and address (which by law is only required if formally arrested). Although not on the same scale as the Climate Camp at Heathrow this was a very positive step in building a movement on one of the most important issues for the labour movement internationally – immigration. All pics from Indymedia

Migrant rights are human rights Liz Peretz

All new asylum seekers now are processed through a New Asylum Model. This may benefit a very small number of people because under the new rules each new applicant has only one home office worker to relate to, called a ‘case owner’ and there is an assumption that people should have a decision much more quickly than they have in the past. But the government’s stated reason for the changes is to allow “rapid removal” – and in grinding through the processes of fact finding and investigation at breakneck speed it is even more likely than before that migrants seeking asylum will not be listened to, not have quick enough access to legal advice, and that refugees fleeing persecution will end up back in the countries they came from facing the

problems they fled from them to get legal advice, or plus the ones gained by to gather their evidence seeking refuge here. together. New applicants will be Those from so-called safe divided on arrival into 5 countries will be told to go rough categories, or ‘seghome if they want to appeal ments’ in the new jargon; – against a decision – effecpeople who should have tively removing their right claimed in the to appeal. Those already The noose is tightfirst country in the Home ening all round on they entered (third country), Office system migrants wishing to people from so stay in the UK. face all the old What is happening called ‘safe countries’ like problems, and to people newly seekIraq, people who are not to be ing asylum is only are fast tracked one part of the picwhose case may assigned new ture. be decided processes or Other aspects of quickly but who legislation their own case new will be detained include: worker. in the first case, ! Having irregular minors, and or false papers general case attracts a charge and work. a prison sentence Most of these ‘segments’ ! Working without will have their conclusive papers attracts a prison senfirst (and last) interview tence. (Employers face fines within five days of their for this offence but not a claim, which will not be single employer has been long enough for most of prosecuted yet.)

! If you don’t have a UK passport and you have been in prison you automatically face deportation at the end of your sentence. ! Legal aid, which used to be available as long as asylum seekers needed it if they lacked the means to fight their cases themselves is now severely limited to a few hours support, and even this funding has been suspended currently. ! Public servants – health workers, social workers etc – and employers are meant to turn in people without papers and face charges unless they do this. In other European countries people have been sent to prison for providing such help – not here yet but it will no doubt come. Those already in the labyrinthine Home Office system, of whom in the home office’s own estimate at least 450,000 are already ‘failed’, face all the old

problems, and are not to be assigned new processes or their own case worker. Increasingly people who have been here for many years and have jobs and families but irregular papers are being picked up detained and deported. For the majority of migrants, the new legislation is a continuing nightmare and a threat to their family and working lives. For employers and the British Immigration Agency, it is a further instrument for intimidation and to force employees to accept poor wages and conditions. For those of us engaged in campaigning and union work it is yet another sign of the erosion of all our rights. For more information on the new asylum model see the excellent briefing at www.refugeecouncil.co.uk

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9

Abortion rights Stop deportations to the Congo Innocent Empi, Co-ordinator, Congo Support project

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a huge country with lots of resources that are needed in the western world. The sufferings of the people of the Congo are based upon the interests of the big powers. Because these resources (gold, diamond, coltan, oil, water, electricity, cooper etc) cannot be obtained through the official and legal channels, the big powers sell weapons to warlords who then abuse and kill people – while multinationals are plundering the resources and getting them out of the Congo via Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe etc. As a result, more than four million people have died since the conflict began in 1996. Thousands are displaced within the country and thousands more are living now outside the Congo as asylum seekers and refugees. Most of the Congolese in Britain have fled persecution because they oppose the regime in Kinshasa. They had to flee in order to save their lives but unfortunately they are not given protection in Britain. The war in the eastern part of this country is still pending and people are being killed for the interest of the multinational making lots of profits. Teachers have taken strike action and there are lots of street children who cannot go to school because their parents have not got jobs. Opponents of the regime are being oppressed and civil liberties are under attack. Journalists, human rights defenders and political activists are arrested and assassinated etc. The Home office advises British people not to travel to the Congo. Human rights organisations, experts and the United Nations agree that

Congo is not safe. In September, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Jens Hesemann. said “The number of people forced to flee violence this year in the DRC’s North Kivu province has passed the 300,000 mark, the highest level in over three years.” But the Home Office is willing to send failed Congolese asylum seekers back to the country, where they face persecution. The barristers and solicitors defending Congolese people have credible evidence and testimonies which prove that Congolese asylum seekers are tortured, imprisoned, detained and/or disappeared upon arrival in the country. This evidence from the former Congolese immigration officials, former Congolese presidential secret service, human rights defenders, experts and people working with DRC deportees. The Congo Support Project was set up in order to give information, advice and advocacy on a range of issues surrounding asylum. We are closely working with firms of solicitors who offer legal advice to Congolese; we help them integrate into the British society and we try to support those who do not have houses and food. The Congo Support Project also promotes Congolese culture through dance, music, drama, poetry etc and campaign against deportations to the Congo. We have organised five demonstrations in different parts of Britain - Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and London. About 150 Congolese people and their supporters attended the demonstration in Manchester. It is hoped that a fair and just decision will be made to allow asylum seekers from the Congo to be protected so that they can live safely in the United Kingdom. Witnesses will put it clear to the judges and the Home Office that it is not safe to send people back to the DRC and that those who are forcibly deported end up in prisons and detentions and they are also tortured. We have not won yet and we will fight until people are safe in this country.

Abortion law 40 years on …

Defend and extend a woman’s right to choose Veronica Fagan It is forty years since women in Britain won a major victory in the battle to control our bodies and therefore our lives – with the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act. At few points over the last four decades have the limited rights won then not been under attack from reactionary forces. In the last twelve months alone there have been three anti-choice bills before parliament which have fortunately been thrown out. In October 2006 a bill introduced by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries which sought reduce the time limit from 2421 weeks was defeated by 187 to 108 votes. In March 2007 a bill introduced by Tory MP Angela Watkinson that would have ended confidentiality for young women seeking abortion was defeated by 159 votes to 87. In June 2007, Ann Winterton’s bill to impose compulsory counselling and a seven-day delay on women’s access to abortion was defeated by 182 votes to 107. These defeats of the antiabortion forces have only been possible because pro-

choice forces continue to be well organised and visible. If, as is expected, a more extreme version of the Dorries bill is put forward this autumn through amendments to the government’s Human Tissue and Embryo bill - it will be vital that the answering campaign is stronger than ever. There is no doubt that public opinion supports woman’s right to control her fertility. Abortion Rights and the Joseph Rowntreee Reform Trust commissioned an opinion poll in March 2007 which showed that 73 per cent oppose the delays that women often face in seeking an abortion – while a massive 77 per cent support a woman’s right to choose in the first three months of pregnancy.

Most trade unions have positions in support of a woman’s right to choose – a legacy of the days when campaigning on the streets in support of the National Abortion and against right-wing attacks on our existing rights. The TUC women’s conference marked the anniversary of the Act with a backdrop emblazoned “Defend a woman’s right to choose”. But last year’s defeats of the anti-abortionists took place quite quietly – and even the majority of women activists in unions are probably not aware of what further attacks may be in the offing. Meanwhile, Abortion Rights is also using the fortieth anniversary to go on the offensive and fight to extend the current provisions. Pro-choice campaigners want to end the paternalistic – and dangerous – situation where a woman who wants an abortion has to persuade two doctors to support her first. We want a woman’s right to choose at least up to 12 weeks. We also want the law to oblige the NHS to provide abortion services Levels of funding for NHS service provision have increased over the past 10 years, but waiting lists still vary across Britain result-

ing in a ‘postcode lottery’ of delays. The Department of Health has set a target for delays of no longer than three weeks. No government figures are published on waiting times but research conducted by the All Party Pro-choice and Sexual Health group showed that 27 per cent of Primary Care Trusts delayed women beyond three weeks The British Medical Association gave important support to the campaign at its conference, with 67 per cent voting in favour of a woman’s right to choose in the first trimester, while reaffirming their support for the 24-week time limit.

# Abortion rights is calling for a week of action from Oct 20-27. For further information and to join abortion rights go to www.abortionrights.org.uk or phone 0207 923 9792 # Get your MP to sign the Early Day motion “Access to abortion rights” (No 1649) put forward by Laura Moffat – which counters many of the myths put forward by the antiabortionists. Go to :http://edmi.parliament.uk/E DMi/

10 Socialist Resistance

USA

Sun setting on Bush’s empire David Finkel With the George W. Bush presidency limping into its final sixteen months and a line of rats led by torture boy Alberto Gonzales and dirty trickmeister Karl Rove jumping ship, several questions come to mind. Even if definitive answers aren’t possible, the questions provide a kind of window into the state of the regime and the larger crisis it has helped to create. Is this administration, as some serious historians suggest, the very worst in U.S. history? Following its failure and debacle in Iraq, will this gangster regime take the ultimate plunge the world into the ultimate catastrophe of a war with Iran? Will the Democrats who narrowly control Congress do anything to force Bush out of Iraq? Will the sudden turmoil in financial markets triggered by the sleazy “subprime mortage” collapse translate into political crisis for an administration on the brink? The question of the Bush regime’s place in history should be divided into two parts. Certainly in its levels of corruption, mendacity, destruction of the Bill of

Rights and of people’s freedom from government abuse, this administration has combined the criminality of the Nixon (Watergate) and Reagan (Iran-Contra) presidencies and, as we say on this side of the pond, “taken them to a new level.” Just take the Supreme Court – please! Nonetheless, in terms of its damage to American society itself, the George W. Bush presidency can be considered only the second worst in our history. Going back 130 years, it was the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes – who took office

the GW Bush presidency in terms of the damage done to the world – from the utter destruction of Iraq, the brutal impasse of Afghanistan, the destruction of Palestinian democracy (and all this in the Middle East alone) to blocking action on catastrophic climate change – these past eight years smash all previous records. These considerations lead naturally into the other questions posed above, and a broader one: If the strength of the U.S. Constitutional structure – which we must admit has served the bourgeoisie

Why, indeed, has a Democratic Congressional majority, elected in November 2006 precisely because the U.S. population is sick to death of the Iraq war, proven unwilling or unable to change the Bush regime’s behavior when it’s clear the war is lost? There are conjunctural reasons, or if you like excuses: The Democrats’ majority is thin and can’t force an end to debate in the Senate (where 60 votes are required to stop a filibuster), let alone achieve a two-thirds majority to override Bush’s veto of any legislation for withdrawal “timetables” or adequate time at home between deployments. What infuriates antiwar activists, however, is that Congress doesn’t actually need to pass anything: All it would need to do is to refuse to pass the Bush administration’s semi-annual requests for hundreds of billions of dollars in “supplemental,” off-budget war spending. Here’s where political cowardice intersects with the objective crisis of imperial-

This is clearly the most destructive of all the recent imperial presidencies, and now the most unpopular of them all through a dirty political deal following a deadlocked election – that ended post-Civil War Reconstruction in the U.S. South, opening the way for generations of lynch law terror, the stripping of voting and civil rights from Black citizens, and the whole culture of white supremacy that has poisoned the United States ever since. There you have the most internally destructive administration ever. In 1877, however, the United States wasn’t yet a world power. If you examine

very well indeed for over two centuries – lies partly in the fact that it doesn’t assume or depend on presidents being necessarily wise, particularly competent or even honest, then why have there apparently been no serious checks on the runaway behavior of the current one? This is clearly the most destructive of all the recent imperial presidencies, and now the most unpopular of them all, yet it has encountered the least institutional resistance.

ism. The Democratic leadership are not only terrorized by the “soft on terror” label; they have no real alternative to the Bush gang’s emerging program for the regional crisis. That “surge and beyond” program entails a longterm presence of U.S. occupation troops on the Korean model; a tactical alliance with Sunni insurgent tribes in Iraq to counteract Shia and Iranian power; sponsorship of a rightwing Palestinian leadership in the hopes of forcing Palestinian aspirations for an

independent state into a miserable Bantustan. The Democrats intend to win the 2008 election on the basis of Bush’s incompetent management of the Iraq occupation, but not to bring about any fundamentally different direction. Tactically, the Democratic leadership’s trick is to wage the facsimile of a fight against Bush sufficient to hold onto the antiwar vote on which they absolutely depend, but not to risk actually winning it. This is particularly true of the party’s de facto leader Hillary Clinton. A more serious fight might occur if the administration follows through with its plans to attack Iran. There is little doubt that the then-dominant neoconservative faction headed by Dick Cheney, two years ago, committed the Bush administration to war with Iran before leaving office. The catastrophic failure in Iraq, however, has left no popular support for this level of insanity, even if the “official” Democratic opposition pretends not to know the war plan even exists, let alone trying to block it. (Most of the military elites also consider it crazy, except for the air force brass who apparently think they can bomb anything into oblivion.) In this writer’s tentative opinion, there’s a more serious new factor that tends to further push back the war drive: the threat of the housing and credit crunch morphing into a serious recession. With oil prices already at $80 a barrel, with stock markets very uneasy and with the U.S. dollar falling fast, with U.S. corporations’ domestic profits falling (although propped up by their international operations) and the emerging realities of rotten debts not only in housing mortgages but throughout the banking system, the shock of a new war today might have implications greater than 1973. No one really knows – but it seems logical that the ruling class wouldn’t want to find out. One way or another, one expects that corporate capital will have ways and means of stopping this rogue regime from playing geopolitical Russian Roulette with trillions of dollars of its hardunearned money. Still, it would feel a lot better if we had a mass movement to rely on to impose sanity. David Finkel is an editor of the U.S. socialist magazine AGAINST THE CURRENT (www.solidarity-us.org).

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11

Economy The most precarious situation since World War 2 The last few months have witnessed the beginnings of a major global credit crunch. Domestically, this has manifested itself in the recent Northern Rock crisis where thousands of people made a run on the bank. JON KERSHAW takes the pulse of the British economy.

THE ORIGINS of the crisis lie in the United States housing market. As a result of financial deregulation the socalled ‘sub-prime’ market was targeted by banks. This was effectively for lowincome families who traditionally would not have qualified for mortgages. Because they were seen as higher risks a premium rate of interest could be charged. In 2006 it is estimated that some $600bn of sub-prime loans were made to Americans. The loans were parcelled into different packages and mixed with less risky debt. This was then sold on to institutions like hedge funds, which found the prospect of earning high returns enticing. Inevitably, problems arose when people could not repay their loans – often as a result of losing their jobs. When the crisis broke in US, banks became nervous about lending to one another. One analyst called it a ‘crisis of information’ as banks were unsure who held the debt that was owed. Some estimates suggest up to $1 trillion of losses on subprime loans. It could take many months to untangle the legal mess. All this will have an adverse effect on the mortgage market; to recoup their losses banks will either raise rates or tighten lending. Already the US housing market is in crisis with a 12 year low in housing starts and a doubling of foreclosures in the last year. In early September Northern Rock, the fifth largest mortgage lender in the UK, was forced to turn to the Bank of England for cash because no City institution was prepared to do so. As news spread, huge queues

formed outside branches and as much as £1bn was taken out in one day. The main issue with Northern Rock is how it is raised its funds. Traditionally banks have relied on small savers to provide funds but Northern Rock relied a great deal on the wholesale money markets – it is estimated 75% of its funding comes from this source compared to half for most banks. The attraction of this source is that it is comparatively cheap. It enabled the bank to snap up 19% of the UK mortgage market in the past 6 months. However this source of funding dried up in the present crisis, when banks became very reluctant to lend funds to one another. The Economist draws attention to the vulnerability in the UK financial system – the socalled ‘funding gap’ This refers to the difference between loans and deposits. In December 2006 this was

None of them wants to take Alistair Darling’s word for it their money is safe … this crisis is immense. There is a big debate going on in the ruling class about the way forward. When the US crisis broke in August, both the Federal Reserve and European central banks poured billions into the markets in an attempt to get stability. However the Bank of England refused to do so, on the basis that the banks which have been reckless in their lending would not be punished – the so-called ‘moral hazard’ problem. No doubt due to massive political pressure in the wake of the Northern Rock debacle the Bank was forced to do a Uturn and pump funds into the market. It offered to lend £10 billion to commercial banks in an emergency 3-month auction. At the same time it also widened the collateral that it was prepared to accept to include mortgage loans. The

among traders who greeted the Fed cut prompted one commentator to say that ‘its as if a cure for cancer had been found’! In the UK there is also a vigorous debate about regulatory failings that contributed to the crisis. When New Labour came to power it split responsibilities between the newly created Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Bank of England with the former taking charge of banking supervision and the latter responsible for maintaining economic and financial stability. It appears that the FSA did not foresee the Northern Rock fiasco and has been heavily censured. However this glosses over the fact that New Labour’s complacent approach to the financial sector contributed to a situation in which a Northern Rock could operate.

Consumer debt as a percentage of disposable income (after taxes) doubled in the UK over the last 15 years – from 80 to 160%. estimated to be about £530bn. In normal circumstances this would not matter as loans becoming due would simply be rolled over or repaid with proceeds of fresh loans. However, in current times banks are hoarding their cash and unwilling to lend to other banks for more than a day. A temporary glitch in the system or an unfounded rumour could leave an otherwise sound bank short of cash, forcing it to go to the Bank of England to tide it over. This in fact did recently happen to Barclays. The political fallout from

Bank also allowed banks to top up reserves they hold in central bank coffers, and can draw cash against, by £4.4bn. Commercial banks snapped up the offer - draining the fund in less than an hour. The Chancellor also guaranteed all deposits with Northern Rock. On September 19 the US Federal Reserve cut its interest rate by half a per cent. This prompted the biggest one-day gain in equities (2.51% on the Dow Jones) since April 2003, which marked the start of the Iraq invasion. The euphoria

It is not the first time that socalled ‘regulatory failings’ are seen as a convenient scapegoat for fundamental flaws in the system. Underlying the initial Bank of England stance is that all this does is just to delay the crisis when the housing bubble bursts. Will Hutton argues that the finance sector should be tightly regulated so this is not repeated. He is quite alarmist about the whole affair. “Make no mistake. Britain’s financial system is in the most precarious position since the war.”

Even the 1974 banking crisis was caused by banks lending too much on speculative property deals, but these were at the periphery of the system. The big question is what input this banking crisis will have on the wider economy – whether spending will be curtailed as a result. This is because when mortgage rates go up, consumer spending will inevitably suffer. One must remember that the socalled boom under New Labour has been underwritten by credit – which in large part has been fuelled by the housing bubble. Total consumer credit in the UK recently topped £1 trillion. To put it in perspective consumer debt as a percentage of disposable income (after taxes) doubled in the UK over the last 15 years – from 80 to 160%. The trend in the US is very similar. Since Labour came to power exports have been crippled by an over-valued pound and as a result the balance of trade has got worse. Financial and business services now account for about 30% of GDP. The risks are huge if this trend continues: If financial markets face period of weak activity the problems will reverberate throughout the system. In conclusion the period ahead is uncertain. Because the extent of the credit problem cannot be gauged accurately the impact on the wider economy is difficult to assess. The Economist does sound a warning when it says “Combine the present discord in credit markets with the seeming vulnerability of housing markets and it is all too easy to imagine the rich world economies in trouble”.

Socialist Resistance

Pan-African p

Norman Traub of Socialist Resistance spoke with EXPLO NANI-KOFI, coordinator of African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC Network) and editor of their magazine Kilombo on September 18 in London NT: Can you tell me about the journal you edit, Kilombo and the significance of its title as well as the aims and objects of the ALISC Network? ENK: Let me start with the publication, Kilombo. The name comes from the Kimbundu language of the Ambundu people in Angola. We looked for a word from an African language that is a word of resistance in Africa and also for people of African descent outside. We wanted a word that is applicable to both the continent and the diaspora because of our PanAfrican orientation. Kilombo means a fighting settlement or a committee of resistance. Queen Nzingha led the revolts against the colonial occupation of the Portuguese in Angola from her kilombos. When the enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil they revolted against the slave owners and they called the fortresses from which they fought kilombos. This is how we came by the name. The ALISC was initiated in 1991 by a group of Ghanaians who came into exile in Europe and had been involved in struggles against the IMF and the World Bank structural adjustment policies in Ghana. When they came to Europe they found the struggles they were involved in had not been heard of – even in progressive circles in the countries to which they fled. We started the ALISC in Britain in 1991 to bring information about the daily class struggles taking place in Africa to the population of this country. We wanted to strengthen progressive forces in Africa, who had been marginalised by right wing forces making truces with imperialism during the period of independence. We work closely with new social movements that have emerged fighting all cases of injustice on our continent, fighting for democracy, fight-

You can’t separate the struggles of African people from struggles around the world

ing against military dictatorships, fighting for trade union rights and for all other aspects of social justice. NT: The break with colonialism in Africa in the middle of the 20th century was ushered in by the struggle of the Ghanaian people under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah. By the end of the 20th century Africa had freed itself from the shackles of colonialism. While this was a huge achievement, many of the hopes and aspirations of the African people in the postindependent period have not been realised. Why do you think this is the case? ENK: When I was talking about the type of movements and activities we support I referred to the forces that were marginalised in the anti-colonial struggle. This brings to mind your own organisation, the African People’s Democratic Union of Southern Africa. In the struggle for independence the imperialist forces were not lying back looking at the Africans freeing themselves. Through an alliance with right-wing

Nkrumah (right) toasts US black civil rights activist WEB Dubois

African forces they ensured that the post-colonial state was structured so that there was no real break in the colonial relationship. The forces which acted as the tools of imperialism ran the state on behalf of these external forces. It was a smoother way for colonialism to operate. There was a unity in the forces involved in the anticolonial struggle between the working class, the peasantry and the petit bourgeois. But after independence the majority of the petit bourgeois broke the relationship with the working class and the peasantry and made an alliance with imperialism – leading to the crisis which Africa is facing now. NT: You had Moukoko Priso of the Cameroon Peoples’ Union (UPC) the radical party of the Cameroon, address your organisation on the subject of Revolutionary Pan Africanism. While he praised Nkrumah as one of the pioneers of PanAfricanism, he contrasted the approach of the UPC to that of Nkrumah. Can you say something about these two

approaches and where you see the place of Pan-Africanism today? ENK :The UPC participated in various forums and seminars, which Nkrumah organised in Accra in 1963 before the formation of the Organisation of African Unity(OAU). They held the view that bringing together reactionary pro-imperialist governments with more radical governments in the OAU was not going to work in the interests of the African people, rather, progressive governments and organisations should come together in a separate body. Nkrumah and his associates thought they had to compromise and bring all the governments of Africa together. But in some of his later writings, in particular “Revolutionary Path”, after his overthrow by the CIA and MI5 and in some of his other writings “Class Struggle in Africa” and “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare” Nkrumah took up similar positions to those of the UPC. In discussing the place of Pan-Africanism today, we have to bear in mind that the way Africa was integrated into the world economy and its political boundaries and structures created were all externally determined. People of African descent throughout the period of slavery were brought to the North without their consent. The people of Africa and people of African descent living in the North have specific places within the framework of global capitalism today, which cannot be ignored. Pan-Africanism is not in conflict with internationalism but is a facilitator of internationalism in that this section of the world’s population is historically linked through its

integration into the world capitalist economy. In the struggle to overthrow imperialism we have to utilise this historical connection as part of the whole international movement against imperialism. Nkrumah and DuBois have left us with a legacy on which we are building PanAfricanism today. NT: You were recently invited to be a panel member on television to discuss whether socialism can work in Africa. Tell us something of the discussion and your contribution. ENK: I made it clear in the discussion that capitalism emerged historically. Because of the oppressive and exploitative nature of capitalism, the need for an alternative system has become compelling. Socialism is not a mere declaration or label but is an alternative to all the injustices of capitalism and emerges through a historical process. It is unlike having a choice between two commodities being sold on a market stall. Capitalism is a functioning system and as such has to be dismantled so that an alternative system can be built. Capitalism has failed to meet the needs of Africa, which is part of the capitalist periphery. Socialism has not been built in any part of Africa. Socialism has to be built in Africa just as it has to be built in the rest of the world. Unless this occurs, the crisis through which the world is passing will remain unresolved. The inhuman conditions in which the majority of people live today will remain. The alternative to this is socialism. NT: The US and other states like China are becoming more dependent on oil from Africa. Can you tell us how this new scramble for oil is affecting Africa? ENK: During the cold war the war was only cold in the countries that had declared war but was very hot in the fields of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau. With regard to the competition between the US and China, there are those who point out that China was offering better terms than the US and the West. But the laws of capitalism operating in a country, where one company outbids the others, also apply on the global level, where China is outbidding the US. This competition does not serve the interests of the

Socialist Resistance

olitics

oppressed section of the majority population. ALISC makes it possible for progressive non Africans and oppressed Africans to work together in creating a common front of oppressed non Africans and the African minority in these countries on the basis of class.

African people because it is a struggle of foreign powers for control of our resources. It is not a struggle to enable us. There is a real difference between what is happening now and the days of Mao when the Chinese did provide material support for the liberation movements. NT: One consequence of the scramble for Africa is the increase in proxy wars being fought all over the continent. Could you say something about these wars and how we could prevent these wars from raging? ENK: These wars assist the multinational corporations to take resources out of the countries without even the application of the unjust and unfair world trade rules that are in existence. This is to say nothing about the lives that are lost in these wars. If we study these wars, what becomes apparent is that these western countries are always able to find a way of supporting one of the groups or other in these wars. The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become a war of the US and Britain on the one side and France and Belgium on the other. In the war in Somalia, the US is using the Ethiopian government as a proxy If you look at the war in Northern Uganda, Mouseveni has become the main face of Anglo American imperialism in central Africa, intervening in the DRC as well as Northern Uganda. We can stop these wars by tackling the countries which control the proxies and the companies which supply the arms. The arms are not produced in Africa but in Europe. Trade unions in these coun-

tries can help progressive forces in Africa by fighting the war-mongers at home. What we in ALISC have been doing in Britain is to work within the anti-war movement in Britain and show the commonality of the proxy wars and the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of the strength of the anti-war movement here it has played an important part in the mobilising of the Cairo Conference and the networking of anti-war groups. The ALISC, networking African groups and working together with the anti-war movement can make a contribution to making it harder for these proxy wars to continue.

NT: You have outlined some of the ways in which Africans in the diaspora can help the African people in their ongoing struggles against their oppressors both internal and external. How they can fight against discrimination in the countries in which they are living and how they can link up with others who are oppressed there? ENK: Pan-Africanism facilitates internationalism. There is no way in which people of African descent in the diaspora will be able to fight against oppression isolated from other forces especially in countries where they are a minority population. They must fight together with the

NT The last World Social Forum took place in Kenya this year. Grassroots movements in Kenya were unable to afford the entrance fees to the WSF but activists within the African continent whom your organization had sponsored to attend the forum made contact with them. Could you tell us about the contact with the Mau Mau veterans? ENK Those activists from Africa whom we sponsored, built a relationship with a group called Friends of Dedan Kimaathi, who was the leader of the Land and Freedom army which is known as the Mau Mau. They arranged a meeting with this group. We have a DVD of this meeting and I am hoping that Socialist Resistance will take up my offer to show this DVD at a public meeting if they are prepared to organise it. It includes an interview with a former field marshal of the Mau Mau, Mouthoni Kirima, who lives in the Rift Valley and Mrs Dedan Kimaathi, widow of Dedan Kimaathi. This meeting was also attended by representatives of the Landless Peoples’ Movement of South Africa,

socialist activists from Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and also activists from the African American movement of the USA. NT Do you see any similarity between the aims of the PanAfricanists in striving for unity in Africa and the struggle in Latin America spearheaded by Cuba and Venezuela for unity and co-operation of the people of Latin America ENK : There has been a long history of co-operation between the leaderships of the Latin American and the African struggles. We took our name Kilombo, which was used in Brazil as well as Angola where it originated. When Nkrumah died, four heads of state carried the coffin and the person in front of the coffin was Fidel Castro. The Pan- Africanists and the Latin American revolutionaries are involved in the struggle by Africans, some of whom are of African descent who are in Latin America, to reverse the way in which imperialism has shaped the world globally. It is the same struggle. We have built our co-operation using the structures we have created in the separate places in which we have found ourselves. The unity of the PanAfricanists and the Latin American revolutionaries has to be linked with the unity of oppressed forces in Europe and the rest of the world.

Revolutionary legacy of Thomas Sankara

James Haywood

TWENTY years ago one of the greatest leaders Africa has seen was brutally assassinated. Thomas Sankara, a charismatic military leader in the West African country of Upper Volta, was put under house arrest in 1983, for his attacks on the corrupt practises of the government and French imperial domination of the country. This triggered a mass uprising which not only freed Sankara but swept away the government – and installed him as President. One of his first actions as President was to lead a fight against the oppression of women, which was deeply ingrained in Upper Volta. The new revolutionary government outlawed female circumcision (a common practice at the time) as well as formally condemning polygamy, and promoting contraception. Sankara, argued that improving women’s backward status was a key pillar of the revolution, saying, “You are our mothers, life companions, our comrades in struggle and because of this fact you should by

right affirm yourselves as equal partners in the joyful victory feasts of the revolution. We must restore to humanity your true image by…eliminating all kinds of hypocrisy that sustain the shameless exploitation of women.” These were not just words; the new government included a large number of women and Sankara symbolically employed an all-women armed motorcade as his personal guard. The government also denounced apartheid and occupation at home – in South Africa and Western Sahara – as well as abroad (Israel) and supported the revolutionary governments in Cuba and Nicaragua. On the first anniversary of the revolution, the country’s colonial name was wiped off the map and replaced with a name combining the two major languages of the country: “Burkina Faso” (Land of the Upright People). This was soon followed by nationalizations of the mineral wealth and land and the setting up of Committees for Defence of the Revolution (CDRs), which were mass

organizations of armed peasants and workers to defend these gains. With the help of Cuban volunteer doctors, ‘Vaccination Commando’ was organised; a massive programme which immunized over 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in just 15 days. In 1985 a huge housing drive was established, and a massive reforestation campaign was launched, mobilising millions of Burkinabé toilers to plant 10 million trees to combat the growing spread of the Sahara desert. This was the first mass ecosocialist programme of any revolutionary government in Africa, and was massively popular. These mass campaigns and social welfare programmes earned the hatred of the imperialists. At the Organisation of African Unity Conference in Addis Ababa in 1985, Sankara condemned the imperialist debt burden on African nations: “The debt is another form of neocolonialism… [it] cannot be repaid, first of all, because, if we don’t pay, the lenders won’t die. Of that you can be sure. On the other hand, if we do pay, we are the ones who will die. Of that

you can be equally sure. “Those who led us into debt were gambling, as if they were in a casino. As long as they were winning, there was no problem. Now that they’re losing their bets, they demand repayment. There is talk of a crisis. No, Mr. President. They gambled. They lost. Those are the rules of the game. Life goes on.” There was also a growing bourgeois element within the country who were angered at their loss of privileges. Tragically this included Sankara’s long term comrade Blaise Compaoré, who organized and assassinated Sankara and dozens of revolutionaries in the government on the October 15 1987. This counter-revolutionary government set about reversing the gains of the revolution, and to this day Compaoré is still leading a brutal and corrupt capitalist dictatorship, with full support from the IMF/World Bank The revolution may have been reversed but there are still fights exploding to commemorate Sankara’s death officially. The struggle is not lost, as Sankara himself said, in Burkina Faso, “There are seven million Thomas Sankaras.”

14 Socialist Resistance

International Burma – oil interests come before democracy Veronica Fagan

On September 22, as thousands were protesting across Burma, Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora was in the country’s capital Rangoon for the signing of oil and gas exploration contracts between statecontrolled ONGC Videsh Ltd and Burma’s military rulers. Certainly it is the quest for oil and gas which has meant that China – ever more hungry for that commodity – has blocked stronger sanctions against the regime. This has lead for calls from some Burmese activists for a boycott of the Olympics China and Russia’s role has been highlighted in Britain – while India’s role has been ignored because it is not so convenient. China is Burma’s largest trading partner but France, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand are also involved.

Solidarity action in support of the Burmese people’s struggle is not suprisingly particularly strong in South East Asia – including from Indonesia, the Philipines, Malaysia and Thailand. Meanwhile, while the Israeli foreign ministry calls on the regime to exercise restraint and denies selling it military equipment, information to the contrary is surfacing showing the close links between the two countries stretching back as far as the 1988 coup in Burma. British trade unions have supported Amnesty’s calls for protests – but not done much to publicise the work of the International Transport Workers Federation – which has a ten-year long history of work in solidarity with Burmese seafarers, who work in completely appalling conditions and don’t get paid for long periods of time.

The Seafarer’s union of Burma, like other Burmese unions, is illegal and works in exile. When Burmese ships put in to foreign ports, the workers have been able to link up with other trade unionists and through their solidarity have been successful in getting paid – but when they return home they are sacked and often jailed. The Seafarer’s union of Burma is fully supporting the current “people’s demonstrations” and their fight for “democracy, freedom and peace”. Workers across the world have an interest in seeing an end to this brutal antiworking class regime. For further information see: http://www.burmacampaign.or g.uk/ http://www.mizzima.com/Mizzi maNews/ http://www.burmanet.org/news

This rally in London was among the many in solidarity with Burmese fight

PAKISTAN – NO EASY TIME FOR DICTATORSHIP Susan Moore The current political situation in Pakistan is extremely volatile in the run up to the General Election scheduled for October 6. Parliamentary elections will then probably take place in November. On September 28, the Electoral Commission agreed that General Pervez Musharraf could stand again as President, despite continuing to be head of the army. Several legal challenges to Musharraf ’s position – which came from the main opposition parties as well as other opponents – had been thrown out by the Supreme Court the previous day. But by no means everything is going the General’s way as hundreds of protestors throng the streets in Islamabad and Lahore. Members of the legal profession are playing a central role

in these mobilisations against the dictatorship. The Lahore bar association called for an immediate end to the military dictatorship at a seminar on August 31. All of this followed a battle over the position of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, who Musharraf suspended in March and who was reinstated after huge mobilisations in July. On September 10, former Prime Minister and Muslim League leader Navaz Sharif managed to break his sevenyear exile for only a few short hours. He returned to Islamabad on a direct flight from Britain and intended to process in triumph to his home city of Lahore. Sharif had been deposed by Musharraf ’s coup eight years ago Musharraf ’s men were waiting for him and after a tense

standoff while he was still on the plane; he disembarked, was arrested and was summarily deported back to Saudi Arabia. This action was in defiance of a ruling from the Supreme Court in July that Sharif was free to return. Indian activist Praful Bidwai noted in an article in The News International on September 17 that Sharif has become more popular of late because he has “tried to relate to the popular mood and taken a strong position against another term for President Musharraf, whether in or out of uniform”. He also notes that this stance from Sharif is in strong contrast to that of the other exiled opposition leader – Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Musharraf and Bhutto held discussions in Dubai in July

No easy answers: Musharraf

and Bhutto seems all too ready to do a deal. She is not planning to return to Pakistan until October 15 – i.e. after the Presidential election. “Clearly the US wants to supervise a power-sharing arrangement between Musharraf and Bhutto”, Bidwai points out. That this approach, like so much else of US foreign policy, is a completely bi-partisan approach is made clear by Bhutto’s recent visit to Congress where she was feted by the Democrats. Meanwhile I have just heard that Labour Party Pakistan General Secretary Farooq Tariq was released on bail yesterday evening, although nine other comrades remain in prison for technical reasons.

It is expected they will be released tomorrow. Tariq, who has been arrested three times in the last three months has been a persistent thorn in the side of the regime. He was freed from jail after a major international campaign in June after being in prison for fifteen days . It is certainly possible that further solidarity with the movement against the military dictatorship will be necessary over the months and weeks ahead For further information seehttp://www.laborpakistan.org/ http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?rubrique 56&var_recherche=pakistan

VENEZUELA

Socialist Resistance

15

International Revolutionary militants gather in Caracas

Opportunities and obstacles in Venezuela Stuart Piper, Caracas “Huge opportunities, very great dangers!” That’s how one of President Chavez’ closest advisers summed up the current situation facing Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution. Haiman el Troudi was addressing a seminar organised by the Fourth International in Caracas in August, to discuss the challenge of socialism in the 21st century, both in Venezuela and in the rest of the region. The meeting brought together revolutionaries from a dozen Latin American and European countries, along with a variety of currents and individuals from across the spectrum of the revolutionary left in Venezuela. It was held in the Miranda International Centre, a government-sponsored thinktank, where Haiman, who was Chavez’s chief of staff in 2005, now directs a research programme on 21st Century Socialism. In spite of their differing experiences, approaches, and analyses, just about all the Venezuelan participants came out with assessments of the present challenge that were similar to Haiman’s. Trade union leader and editor of Marea Socialista, Stalin Perez, pointed to grave problems in the newly nationalised telecoms and electricity sectors, as well as the state oil company, where workers are not being given a voice, much less control, or where collective agreements have not been renewed. But he also emphasised the immense possibilities for building a new socialist vanguard in the emerging PSUV

united socialist party. Carlos Lanz of Proyecto Nuestro America, who headed up the most ambitious experiment so far in workers’ control, at the ALCASA aluminium plant, analysed the danger of “Bolivarian entropy”, a dispersion of energy that could lead to a “restorationist counter-revolution”. Roland Denis and Ricardo Navarro, from two other wings of the divided Proyecto Nuestro America, also argued that the contradictions within the original Bolivarian project, including within the 1999 Constitution, were now coming to a head. Simon Uzcategui, of the Ezequiel Zamora National Peasant Front, described the emergence of an unusual kind of dual power, which must now either go to the left or to the right. Margarita Aguinaga, from

within the political leaderships. This was a theme felt keenly by the Fourth International participants present, not least because of the 14 attending from nine Latin American countries, nine were women, and many of these came from a younger generation drawn into political activity around feminist struggles. It was not difficult to find living examples of the positive possibilities in this moment of the Bolivarian revolution that many of the Venezuelan participants referred to. A visit to the western town of Carora gave a taste of how much further the socalled “explosion of popular power” through Community Councils could go. These Councils – which Chavez calls the fifth and most important motor of the transition to socialism – are local bodies of popular power

don’t necessarily encroach very much on the powers of the existing local state. The constitutional reform now being discussed in Venezuela should give greater powers to these Communal Councils, including a stipulation that at least 5 per cent of the budget of all local governments should be handed over to the community councils. But the local government in Carora has already gone much further, handing over control of 100 per cent of its investment budget to the organs of popular power through a participatory budget. Carora is so far a bit of an exception – one of the few local administrations in Venezuela that is clearly com-

Stalin Perez (left) emphasised the immense possibilities for building a new socialist vanguard in the emerging PSUV united socialist party.

Troudi and the others were referring to. After nine months of occupation, the exemplary experience of workers control at the Sanitarios de Maracay bathroom factory had just been overturned by something looking like a coup d’etat. Starved of raw materials, cut off from their natural cus-

The constitutional reform now being discussed in Venezuela should give greater powers to the Communal Councils, including a stipulation that they should receive at least 5% of the budget of all local governments Socialist Refoundation (Ecuadorean section of the Fourth International) made an eloquent case for giving any new project for socialism a militantly feminist face. And she pointed to a different kind of contradiction facing the revolutionary processes both in her own country and in Venezuela: that between the pre-eminent role played by women at the grass roots of these struggles – for example within the indigenous movement in Ecuador or the neighbourhood mobilisations in Venezuela – and their far more marginalised presence

bringing together 200 or more families. They have been springing up in thousands of communities across the country since Chavez’ re-election last December. In most cases the scope of their discussions and the extent of their powers are still limited to very immediate and very local decisions. They agree what their community’s most pressing needs are, draw up projects to address these, then oversee their execution. Such projects are usually financed by central government grants of around 10-15 thousand dollars each. As such, the community councils

mitted to the building of a new kind of ‘communal’ state, to replace the old bourgeois one that still prevails. But it is not entirely alone. A visit to the industrial town of La Victoria, where the mayor is a highly combative young woman, showed how all of the local government’s social service departments, and their budgets, are being transferred out of the town hall and put under the control of a regional network of Communal Councils. But just a half an hour down the road in Maracay, it was also easy enough to see the kind of dangers Haiman El

tomers and saddled with bank debts, some of the workers had begun to lose confidence. The Ministry of Labour offered a deal including the payment of outstanding benefits in exchange for an end to the occupation and the handing back of the factory to the absentee owners – then helped to mount a lightning assembly with the whitecollar administrative staff who had never supported the occupation, to throw out the factory committee that had been leading it. This was just the most recent and dramatic example of what has appeared to be at

best indifference and at worst outright sabotage by parts of the Bolivarian government in the face of the most radical experiences of co-management or workers’ control that have emerged. A month earlier some of the workers at Sanitarios had visited Carora for a joint celebration of the anniversary of Aporrea, the alternative news web site that has become the virtual home of the left in the Bolivarian revolution. In his contribution to the Caracas seminar, Gonzalo Gomez, founder of Aporrea and also one of the editors of Marea Clasista y Socialista, pointed to this as precisely the kind of combination of struggles where the biggest opportunities lie for moving the process forward. But it is clear that some within the Bolivarian leadership, including, disgracefully, the Minister of Labour, selfstyled trotskyist Jose Ramon Rivera, do not want this to happen. Several of the Venezuelan participants in our meeting pointed to the delicate balance that needs to be struck by international supporters of the Bolivarian revolution. They must at one and the same time defend and energetically support the existing achievements and the new struggles underway, with their extraordinary potential; but they must also speak out even more clearly than it is sometimes possible for Venezuelan revolutionaries to do, against the abuses and dangers that threaten the revolution from within.

16 Socialist Resistance

Europe Greek anti-capitalists win fourteen seats Giorgos Sapounas

Scotland’s conversation

SNP lacks answers Terry Conway

After his slender victory in May’s elections for the Scottish Parliament leading to the establishment of a minority adminstration, Scottish National Party leader and First Minister Alec Salmond has announced a ‘national conversation’ on Scotland’s future. On August 14 he published a white paper, “Choosing Scotland’s Future” which sets out the SNP’s proposals. The Scottish Socialist Party have welcomed this opportunity to debate different visions of Scotland’s future. The party’s statement continues: “ The Scottish Socialist Party supports independence for Scotland. We believe Scotland would be economically, politically, culturally and socially better off making our own decisions and standing on our own two feet. We look forward to outlining our own unique vision, for an independent socialist Scotland.” ”In the meantime, the SSP will also support any steps to strengthen the Scottish Parliament short of full independence. We have called, for example, for Holyrood to have control over broadcasting, energy, fiscal policy, drugs and other matters that are currently reserved to Westminster. We would use fiscal autonomy, not to boost the already bloated profits of big business, but to redistribute wealth and narrow the gap between rich and poor.” Then the SSP deal with the fact that only full independence will allow Scotland to get of nuclear weapons, disentangle Scotland from Iraq and Afghanistan, allow us to welcome refugees fleeing, and enable Scotland to draw up its

own democratic constitution fit for the 21st century. ”We note that the SNP’s vision for independence would involve a ‘Union of the Crowns’. The Scottish Socialist Party, in contrast, believes in sweeping away the remnants of feudalism, inherited power and class privilege which the monarchy symbolises. We believe that neither the 300-year old Union of Parliaments, nor the 400 yearold Union of Crowns meet Scotland’s needs in the new world of the 21st century”. ”In the coming national conversation, we will be arguing strongly for an independent Scottish republic. The SSP believes that the fight for independence involves confronting powerful vested interests at the heart of the British establishment”. ”We believe that the forces in favour of independence including the SNP, the SSP, the Greens, the Independence Convention and Independence First - have a major battle on the hands to win the Scottish people decisively to the cause of Scottish independence”. The SSP is certainly correct that May’s election results, as well as opinion polls, show that many people living in Scotland don’t have a very fixed view on the question of independence – although a clear majority want more powers for Holyrood. But for the SSP, which suffered badly in May’s elections following the decision of Tommy Sheridan to drag his erstwhile comrades through the courts, a debate on visions for Scotland is reminiscent of the context in which the Scottish Socialist Alliance and then the SSP itself were first forged – around the Scottish Constitutional Convention.

Meanwhile on September 5, First Minister Alec Salmond announced eleven new legislative proposals – all of which will require opposition support to get them through, together with some measures that don’t require a change in the law. Other than the proposal to scrap bridge tolls – which is popular enough to make it unlikely that anyone would vote against it, it is unclear what else will go through because of the fact that this is a minority administration. It is certainly already clear that the proposal to make it legally binding to prevent any patient having to wait more that 18 weeks for treatment on the NHS is highly controversial. Ross Finnie led the Liberal Democrats first ever opposition debate in Edinburgh arguing that the proposal was “preposterous”. “It would lead to American style litigation,” he continued. He won the vote by 77 to 48. None of what is on offer now – either from “Choosing Scotland’s future” or in these proposals suggests any change in the nature of the SNP under Salmond. The SNP’s coffers are still bulging with the money of privateer Brian Souter – they are committed not only to capitalism itself but to neoliberalism. However that doesn’t mean they will not be forced to take some progressive measures – if only to maintain their distance from the Unionist parties. For a detailed analysis of the SNP today see Nick McKerrell’s The Celtic Tigers? – The SNP in government in Frontline Vol 2 Issue 4 (www.redflag//frontline/jun07

September’s general election in Greece saw the ruling conservative New Democracy (ND) party win. Its vote declined slightly from 45 per cent to 42 per cent. In common with their social democrat predecessors PASOK, ND’s rule had been a period of neo-liberal counter reforms. As well as sharing very similar programmes, the two parties had the lion’s share of the vote, winning 85 per cent last time around. The situation going into this election was different. There had been big mobilisations against the changes in the constitution, in particular against the government’s flagship reform which attempted to remove the right to free and public university education. Also in people’s minds as they went to vote were the enormous fires that had just taken place and which vividly demonstrated the effects of neo-liberalism on basic infrastructure such as the fire service. Although the new government is much weaker, only having 152 out of 300 MPs, it is certain that it will try to promote neoliberal reforms of the constitution, social security and working conditions. Its problem is that the small parliamentary majority makes it vulnerable to the resistance of the social movements. PASOK came second taking 38 per cent of the vote, a 2 per cent fall from 2004. This was their lowest percentage in recent decades. The main reason for this was the right turn that they took. It was clear to everyone that PASOK, instead of supporting the struggles, was subverting them. On election night a crisis broke out and today there is a battle for the party leadership. The base of the party contains not only a working class majority but also lots of the young people who participated in the student movement. It lacks a clearly anti-liberal left wing that is represented in the leadership, and so it is not expected that there will be a left turn against the main neoliberal policies of the party. The percentage of the

two big parties has been largest that ever split from reduced but is still solid. PASOK and Ecological interThe Left won a combined ventions, an anti-capitalist total of 15 per cent of the vote. ecological organisation. The Communist Party of SYRIZA is the Greek examGreece’s (KKE) vote rose to 8 ple of building a broad antiper cent from 5.9 per cent in liberal, radical left structure. 2004. Its strong showing in the elecKKE is a Stalinist reformist tion and the fact that four of party with a clearly anti-capi- its fourteen MPs are not memtalist rhetoric. At the same bers of Synaspismos are positime it is extremely sectarian tive signs for its future. at all levels towards both the This process also means rest of the left and the social greater responsibilities for movements. KOKKINO as it tries not It is a pole of attraction of only to build SYRIZA but protest but does not offer an also to build a more radical, alternative perspective apart anti-capitalist tendency in it. from an abstract Stalinist The electoral results of the vision. A recurrent problem is revolutionary left outside that the KKE is very destruc- SYRIZA remained at their tive in the left fronts and the customary low levels. KKE movement. (m-l) a Maoist group got 0.25 The Coalition of the Radical per cent. ENANTIA, a coaliLeft, SYRIZA won just over 5 tion between SEK (the Greek per cent of the vote up from SWP) and OKDE-Spartakos 3.2 per cent in 2004. Under (the Greek section of the FI) the Greek system of propor- won 0.15 per cent. tional representaThis election tion this entitles it to saw a small fourteen MPs. for Although the breakthrough SYRIZA is a broad LAOS - a nationLeft coalition that new government alist, racist, party. first participated in is much weaker, It entered the the elections in (3.8 only having 152 parliament 2004. per cent). This is There are 10 par- out of 300 MPs, an expression of a ticipating organisaprotest it is certain that negative tions including that the Left it will try to needs to focus on KOKKINO which is friendly to the without underespromote Fourth timating it. neoliberal International (FI). As a conclusion The largest of the it can be said that reforms participants is there are new Synaspismos, a attacks in store sister party of the French for us. The social democrats Communist Party and are in crisis and the left is Rifondazione Comunista. It is strong but divided. There are a member of the European huge opportunities in the Left party. development of SYRIZA on Over the last three years three different levels: there has been a change in the ! Deepening of the coalileadership of Synaspismos. It tion and the unity of the parhas taken a real left turn, ticipant organisations of rejecting any centre-left sce- SYRIZA by building local narios. This was the main and national structures. platform on which the coali! Having an offensive set of tion was made. political proposals that will Other participating groups provide the necessary condiare of a variety of Maoist, tions for a programmatical Trotskyist and Communist convergence of all the antiorigins including former liberal sections of the political KKE and International and social left, including the Socialists. It also includes base of PASOK. Manolis Glezos, who is one of ! Building the movements the most important personali- while respecting their autonties not only of the Greek Left omy from the political left. but also of the anti-Nazi # Giorgos Sapounas is a resistance during World War member of KOKKINO and of Two and his group Active the political secretariat of Citizens. SYRIZA Then there is DIKKI) is the

WORLD WIDE 17

Socialist Resistance

Ecosocialism Capitalism fouls up…

Greece aflame Giorgos Galanis

The fires during the summer months were the biggest and most devastating in the modern history of Greece. They left behind more than 2 billion square metres of burned land, more than 100 totally destroyed villages and the loss of more than 60 human lives. While everyone agrees on the size of the destruction, no one seems to be taking the responsibility. So who is to blame? Climate change was the main factor both in starting the fires and making them so catastrophic. The capitalist mode of production and the drive for economic growth do not have any respect for nature. Unfortunately it was nature’s turn to ‘’revolt’’. This

Irish Greens go into Government Joe Craig

In June this year the Irish Green Party became the latest of such parties around the world to enter government, in a coalition with the Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrat (PD) parties, which had been in power for the previous 10 years. The record of this government, especially from an environmental perspective, has been disastrous. Fianna Fail is notorious for being the party of developers and builders whose last consideration is the environmental impact of their work. Their actions, fuelled by the economic boom in the State, has led to the massive expansion of Dublin so that the M50 motorway, which was supposed to be a ring road round the city, now resembles a car park in the middle of it. Dublin City now covers the same area as Los Angeles but with only one quarter of the population. Estates have been built with little or no infrastructure such as shops and community facilities with long car journeys are required to get to work. This lack of public services has led to a situation where dozens of children were without a school place at the start of the new school year. This hit the headlines because all the children were black, the Catholic

Church making sure that the primary schools they control – 98% of them – provided for their flock first. The Progressive Democrats are a Thatcherite Party so viciously right wing that their role has been to break the neoliberal consensus – from the right! Their banner policy going into the election was the widely unpopular proposal to build private hospitals on the public land of existing hospitals. The Greens campaigned against all this as well as the gross inequality of Irish society and the political corruption that again erupted as an issue at the start of the campaign. They were widely seen as a possible component of an alternative coalition, describing a deal with Fianna Fail as a ‘deal with the devil.’ All this was thrown into the air when the leader of Fianna Fail,

Bertie Ahern, asked the Greens to enter discussions with a view to them joining him in government. Publicly discussions between the parties were about these issues plus the use of Shannon airport by US troops going to Iraq and the building of a motorway through the most important archaeological site in the country. In fact it transpired that the real negotiations were about how many posts they would get in government. The Greens surrendered on every single one of the issues claiming in return commitments to a carbon tax and greenhouse gas emission reductions described by the Green’s first ever TD as ‘waffle.’ Any illusions that the party as a whole was any more progressive than its leaders were scuppered when the membership voted by 86 per cent to support going into government. Even for cynics the collapse of the Irish Green Party has been astonishing. Such a capitulation is not explained by the particularly rotten nature of the Irish party. It is the result of the nature of Green politics, which is opposed to the only project that can save humanity and the planet it inhabits – the one based on the working class taking political power.

does not mean that the forests started burning themselves, but because of the dryness of the land, it is much easier for forests to catch fire and harder to put out the blazes. The government had put the issue of privatising a big part of the public forests at the top of its agenda. It was also trying to change the 24th article of the Greek constitution that protects the forests from private use. This gave one more reason for people to start fires. This is why there seem to be more fire starters than ever – fire starters that neo-liberalism recruited! To make matters worse the state apparatus found itself unable to react and prevent the disaster. Being a loyal

neo-liberal servant, the government has continuously reduced public expenditure and destroying the country’s infrastructure. They have ruined the forestry fire services and the fire brigade, by cutting the money devoted to forest protection. It is now one fifth of the amount that was decided by the bipartisan commission of 1993. There are 4000 unfilled firefighter vacancies. Not enough money was spent on the upkeep of the fire stations. At the root of this disaster is capitalism and its neoliberal policies. The governments which have imposed these policies on Greece have blood on their hands.

Climate and capitalism Ian Angus is the editor of the indispensable Climate and Capitalism blog (http://climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com ). Several times a week he posts an eclectic mix of articles giving a global ecosocialist perspective. The Toronto based blogger is especially strong on providing English language reports of events in Latin America. These span articles describing the Paraguayan government’s attempts to drive peasant smallholders off their lands to the Cuban foreign minister’s address to the United Nations. In his speech Felipe Perez Roque expressed Cuba’s hope that the forthcoming Bali Conference will produce a clear mandate for the developed

countries to reduce, by 2020, their emissions by no less than 40% as compared to their 1990 levels. Reports like these show that in Latin America and the Global South the ideas of ecosocialism are part of the everyday discussion of socialists and anti-capitalists. Without the work that Ian Angus puts in trawling the Internet for these articles there would be no easily accessible spot in which they could be tracked down. If you want to keep up to date with the debate around carbon pricing or to get a reliable stream of information about ecological and class struggle developments right around the world Angus’ site should be on your favourites list.

MORE READING A Socialist Resistance anthology of articles from a range of authors, edited by Jane Kelly and Sheila Malone £10 plus £1 p&p from Socialist Resistance PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU

18 Socialist Resistance

Ecosocialism WHY NEW LABOUR SUPPORTS EXPANSION OF NUCLEAR POWER Phil Ward October 10 sees the end of a public “consultation” to “help the government take a decision on the future of nuclear power in the UK”. The exercise is completely cynical. In February the government were found in court to have prejudged the issue, having held a previous consultation, described by the judge as “seriously flawed, misleading and unfair”. They were forced to launch a new, longer consultation, which has now been boycotted by Greenpeace, CND, WWF, Friends of the Earth and the Green Alliance on the grounds that it also was biased in favour of nuclear power. The consultations were all carried out on the same day, September 8, when 1000 selected people went through a 207-page document “The Future of Nuclear Power” in nine public meetings organised by a specially commissioned polling organisation. Unsurprisingly, they came out 45 per cent in favour of nuclear power, with 23 per cent against. The consultation, which people can also take part in on the web, does

not present alternative plans if nuclear power is not accepted. New Labour has by default committed itself to nuclear power in any case, due to its inability to cut back on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the face of global warming. They are setting up a situation where the argument for nuclear power will appear unanswerable in the

face of climate change, when in fact their main interest is making sure that energy supplies are “secure” – the other theme of the consultations. It now seems likely that the government will not be content just to give private companies the option of building new nuclear power stations, but will seek methods to “incentivise” them. High prices in the oil and

Thousands on the march against banana pesticides in Nicaragua James Haywood

Over the last few months Managua, capital of Nicaragua, has seen thousands of farmers and their supporters camped outside the National Assembly building protesting against the use of the pesticide Nemagon in banana plantations across the country. In February, workers and those poisoned by the industrial pesticide began an 86 mile march from the region of Chinandega, where the bulk of Nicaragua’s banana plantations are based, to the capital and have been camped out since then, gaining wide publicity in the national press. It is estimated that over 26,000 banana workers have been poisoned by Nemagon, a pesticide used to destroy microscopic worms that live in

the roots of the trees. Just a action against the multifew of the known side-effects nationals responsible for its of Nemagon (also known as production and use. Furmazone) include infertility, Companies responsible for reoccurring migraines, kidney its manufacture include Shell diseases, cancer Oil, Occidental Those and skin Chemical and Dow companies Chemical; all US pigmentation. The US known to use companies. Those Environmental known to Nemagon are the companies Protective Agency use Nemagon are the Dole Food banned its use in Dole Food Company 1979, yet it is still Company , (called Nicaragua believed to be Standard Fruit in used throughout Chiquita Brands Nicaragua), Chiquita Central America, and Del Monte Brands (the notorious the Caribbean and United Fruit Company) the Philippines. and Del Monte. The march was called by the ASOTRAEXDAN held its first Association of Workers and march in 1999, and has done Former Workers with Claims so every year since. Against Nemagon and Throughout this fight the Furmazone (ASOTRAEXDAN), farmers have won some an organization set up to fight important gains. On January for compensation and legal 11, 2001, a court ruling was

won in the Nicaraguan National Assembly, which passed Law 364; this legislation laid the ground work for workers to sue US corporations. Consequently, in December of the following year, the Nicaraguan Court ruled in favour of the banana workers and charged Dow Chemical, Shell Oil and the Dole Food Company to pay US$490 million to affected workers. The capitalists showed the same contempt of Nicaraguan courts as they did the US, and as of printing have yet to pay a cent. They are demanding the trial to be held in the United States. Naturally there have been no reports of Shell, Dole or Dow executives being arrested for breaking both US and Nicaraguan law.

carbon emissions markets will also make the technology more attractive to the capitalists. In the USA, two new power stations have been applied for, the first application for 30 years, with government guarantees against loan defaults, and Italy has just broken its post-Chernobyl moratorium into nuclear research. One thing to recognise is that many environmentalists’ arguments against nuclear power are weak. When weak arguments are refuted, they expose their proponents to ridicule and some of the stronger arguments get ignored. Defeated proponents of such ideas can become sudden “converts” as well. An example of this is Patrick Moore, a leader of Greenpeace up to the late 80s, who accuses his former comrades of “abandoning science and logic, in favour of emotion and sensationalism” who wrote in The Independent “Nuclear Energy? Yes, please…” George Monbiot has also pointed out how many in the environment movement basically distort the facts on this issue. While some claim nuclear power emits more carbon dioxide than fossil fuel power stations, Monbiot understands that the emissions are just 2-4% of coal and gas (taking into account construction, fuel enrichment, decommissioning and waste disposal). He shows that, for example, the estimate in The Ecologist that building a nuclear power station uses 14 million tonnes of concrete is 130 times too large. Monbiot points out that the argument that there is not sufficient uranium does not hold water either: this is an economic argument that depends on energy prices. In the earth’s crust, uranium and thorium, which is also fissile (and is used in India) are both

more abundant than tungsten, used in tens of billions of light bulbs. He also admits that “an accident like Chernobyl could not take place in a new nuclear power station” and he is probably right: technologies mature and people learn from previous mistakes. After all, capitalists do not want to lose such expensive pieces of kit (workers are another matter). Environmentalist arguments that nuclear waste disposal has not been solved, are valid, as Monbiot acknowledges, but in fact the main case against nuclear power is economic and political, not technical. For countries that already have nuclear weapons, these are that the ruling class wants to ensure that it maintains tight control over its electricity generating system. A system with a cowed workforce under quasi-military occupation, is used as a means of political control. Secondly, maintaining the interests of a large energy sector is more important than energy conservation. The moves to look (again) at the Severn barrage are part of the same kind of thinking. “Energy security” is vital for the ruling class, as the dependence of the capitalist system (and us as well) on reliable electricity supply has never been greater. This was shown in the June floods in Yorkshire, when the possibility of the inundation of a substation that served the whole of Sheffield caused panic behind the scenes amongst emergency planners, while the public were kept in the dark. Perhaps it’s useful to wonder where the government’s priorities lie as you walk down your local high street, passing the chain stores with massive open entrances and heaters above blasting hot air straight into the street. Maybe there should be a “consultation” about that?

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Socialist Resistance

Ecosocialism Class issues central to real change

Checking the parties’ green credentials Derek Wall

During the Green Party Conference Nick Hildyard leaned over to me and said ‘The problem with Zac Goldsmith and John Selwyn Gummer is that they lack a class analysis’. This cracked me up – the comedian and campaigner Mark Thomas is on record as claiming that Nick is the poshest person he has ever meet and he has an impeccable old Etonian accent. Posh or not, Nick stated the obvious about the Tory and indeed Liberal Democrat attempt to deal with climate change. Both the Lib Dems and the Tories have produced substantial documents full of policy promises that ignore the central issues: class and capitalism. It is possible to critique the Tory green document on the basis that it is merely a policy discussion document; any voter friendly headline grabbing policies will be cherry picked by Cameron and moves such as a moratorium of airport expansion will be vetoed. Indeed, it seems that the document only puts forward suggestions for a discussion of flights rather than a cast iron halt to Heathrow expansion. The Liberal Democrats look good on paper too, but have, with a few exceptions such as the push by Woking Council towards carbon cuts, been poor in action. Liberal Democrats supported motorway construction in Scotland, and the building of major new roads in the 1990s around Bath and Newbury despite huge protests. They continue to advocate neo-liberal globalisation with a Shadow Chancellor, Vincent Cable, who used to be chief economist for an oil corporation. Liberal Democrat and Tory attempts to deal with the environmental crises ignore the root cause of destruction, capitalism, with its built in imperative to perpetual growth and waste. Reforms

that slow climate change are essential but the danger is that a long and even detailed list of policy reforms fail to grasp the nettle that capitalism is incompatible with sustainability. Without a class analysis, attempts to deal with environmental problems will let corporations off the hook and put the pressure on the mass of humanity. Biofuelled Lear Jets may be some way off but the market based solutions of carbon trading mean the rich and the powerful can buy the right to keep on polluting. The whole Kyoto framework has produced huge city bonuses for those who trade carbon cutting financial instruments. Fraud and corporate lobbying mean that Kyoto has failed to halt emissions; in Europe, the corporate carbon allowances are larger than the CO2 that is

Biofuelled Lear Jets may be some way off, but the market based solutions of carbon trading mean the rich and the powerful can buy the right to keep on polluting.

being generated at present. The Liberal Democrat push for biofuels says it all. Yes, it is a vital goal to go for a petrol free economy – and a difficult one. How-ever, at present the bulk of biofuels come from energy crops such as palm oil, grown in plantations from land stolen from

Derek Wall local people by enclosure. Biofuels have been identified as the fastest growing threat to rainforests. Making Biofuels from waste products, a huge expansion of public transport and cycling together with the preservation of local hospitals, schools, shops and other services under threat would be ways of moving from oil addiction without throwing people in the Global South off their land. The most basic awareness of class means that we have to recognise that even the best policies can be captured for the benefit of a minority. Green politics is irrelevant unless it takes the issue of power and especially economic power seriously Nick Hildyard is a particularly interesting figure with a long track record of challenging capitalism, both theoretical and practically. He was sacked by Zac Goldsmith as Editor of the Ecologist after he had criticised the Malthusian myth of over population; he was centrally involved in putting together ‘Whose Common Future’, a critique of both state and market based solutions to ecological problems. In its celebration of the commons and its opposition to enclosure, it is essential reading for ecosocialists, along with John Bellemy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology and Lowy and Kovel’s Ecosocialist Manifesto. The Corner House, a green think tank, has taken on the New Labour government over the BA Saudi bribery scandal and have been main movers against the carbon offset con. Take a look at www.thecornerhouse.org.uk. ! Derek Wall is Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales. He blogs at http://another-greenworld.blogspot.com and his keynote Green Party Conference speech on Ecology and Power is on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=A6qkn81CPzQ

Trade unionists mobilise against Climate Change

Build February 9 trade union conference Bob Whitehead

others suffer the consequences of intolerably hot workplaces. It is a long time since the role The workers in other countries of trades unions was confined face even worse problems in to “wages and conditions”, terms of flooding and violent while leaving wider matters to extremes in the weather. So it direct political representation. is vital that we discuss and Health and Safety, develop a united response to discrimination on grounds of the problem. gender, race, disability and The overwhelming majority sexual orientation might be of scientists link the rise in the considered to come under the Earth’s temperature of 0.6 former heading, but war, jobs degrees over the last century themselves, privatisation and or two to the impact of the outsourcing have become industrial revolution. Their routine matters for tradesforecasts for the future of a unionists. further rise of up to 6 degrees Political funds, for unions in a relatively short that have them, have not only been The CCC Trade time span could be catastrophic for life on used to fund the Union this planet. Labour Party, but Conference on We must have also for direct campaigning from February 9 will something to say on the way the economy needs the unions be held in ULU, to be changed to avert themselves. London Union, more disasters such as Witness the Katrina. contributions to from 11am to hurricane As George Monbiot “Unite against 5pm. has illustrated in Fascism”, for “Heat” 1, the example. professional sceptics can, as But now, an even greater often as not, be traced back to issue is looming over us; the oil company sponsorship. environment in general and the Trades-unionists are familiar causes and effects of global with the misinformation and warming in particular. We devious tactics used by cannot remain silent on these employers, and should press matters. ahead with the assumption that Global warming can be a the environment is too difficult and divisive issue for us. Some workers in the power, important to be left to them or their spokespeople; we must aviation and car industries are develop our own perspectives daily obliged to add to carbon and priorities. dioxide production, while many

But how can we protect jobs, wages and conditions, while pointing out the harmful effects of the plane, the car and fossil fuel burning? What is our answer to the stated intention of the Brown government to go for an expansion of nuclear power? How can we ensure that our ideas and concerns are taken seriously by the New Labour friends of big business? On February 9 2008, we will have the opportunity to meet and discuss a united response to the threat of global warming, in particular. The Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Conference will be open to delegates from all unions and will be held in the University of London Union, from 11am to 5pm. There will be workshops to maximise the input and discussion from ordinary trades unionists as well as key note speakers. Trade unionists have an interest in countering the greatest threat to our conditions of all, the destruction of the natural environment by its ruthless exploitation by big business. Please commit your union, at whatever level, to sponsor or attend this important conference. For further information or to get involved in planning the conference please contact :[email protected]

20 Socialist Resistance

Ecosocialism Demonstration on Climate Change, London

ALL OUT December 8! Terry Conway George Bush convened a special Conference on Climate Change in Washington, on September 28-29 in a transparent attempt to pre-empt and derail the official UN Talks in Bali this December. Us activists organised actions in Washington and elsewhere to highlight the cynicism of the President Anger, frustration and determination are growing across the globe at the lack of progress in dealing with this threat to humanity’s survival. The countdown begins to worldwide protests on climate on December 8 as a worldwide movement for action on Climate Change gathers pace. December 8 was chosen because it is the Saturday midway through the Bali talks. The protests will demand that world leaders take urgent action to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate, before it’s too late. This means an equitable and effective international emissions reductions treaty with binding targets as soon as possible. On November 4 2006, just before the Nairobi Climate Talks, there were demonstrations and events in more than 30 countries involving more than 90,000 in Australia, 30,000 in the UK, and thousands in France, Bolivia, Kenya, the USA and other places. This year more and bigger demonstrations are expected with marches, rallies and other types of action all around the world from Helsinki to Taipei,

from Dhaka to Cochabamba, from Beirut to Johannesburg and from Ankara to Ottawa. This is not to mention Bali itself, where a huge mobilisation is expected on the day. Phil Thornhill of the Campaign against Climate Change in the UK, speaking on behalf of the ‘Global Climate Campaign’, said “Bush’s climate conference is a transparent attempt to divert the world down the blind ally of ‘aspirational goals’ and ‘intensity targets’, before the UN can make serious progress on absolute and binding targets at the official Talks in Bali this December. “But people all round the world – many of who stand to suffer enormously from Bush’s delaying tactics and the failure of world leaders to act decisively on climate – are coming together in a rapidly growing global movement to force world leaders to take real effective action fast – before it becomes too late.” In Britain, the campaign is gearing up to ensure a sizeable turnout. A lively London meeting in September wanted to ensure that if there is a general election between now and December we ensure that climate change stays at the top of the political agenda by organising hustings where we can put candidates on the spot. Socialist Resistance readers should be doing everything they can to ensure their trade unions are well and visibly represented on December 8 as well as building for February’s conference.

Two decades on, no justice, no lessons learned

The Bhopal Disaster Patrick Scott In 1984 a mass leakage of toxic gas from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal created the world’s worst industrial disaster. Thousands died immediately, thousands more have since died and continue to die through health complications after breathing the toxic gas. According to the most conservative estimates the death toll to date is 20,000 and it is still rising. The impact of the disaster continues to the present though in other ways. The local water supply became contaminated and remains so today. In 2004 the Indian Supreme Court ruled that because of contamination local communities had to be provided with safe drinking water from outside. Needless to say this ruling was ignored by local politicians. Since 1984 there has also been a substantial increase in the number of babies born with birth defects in the Bhopal area. Twenty three years later the people of Bhopal are still seeking proper restitution from the US based Union Carbide Corporation. That the Bhopal disaster was caused by gross negligence is beyond dispute. Documents uncovered in 2002 during a lawsuit against

Union Carbide abandoned its Bhopal plant in 1984 without cleaning it up, ensuring that it remains a source of pollution.

Union Carbide in the US revealed that the company had knowingly exported technology to Bhopal that was both untested and hazardous. Furthermore this had all been authorised by Union Carbide’s chief executive Warren Anderson. Anderson himself had been arrested by the Indian authorities in 1984 on manslaughter and other charges but jumped bail back to the US where he still is. Wholly inadequate compen-

sation of US$ 470 million was agreed in 1989 between Union Carbide and the Indian government. And much of this money has found its way into the hands of corrupt government officials rather than those who suffered in the disaster. Union Carbide abandoned its Bhopal plant in 1984 without cleaning it up, ensuring that it remains a source of pollution. In 2001, the company was taken over by Dow Chemical. Dow are very mindful of the fact that when they bought Union Carbide they not only bought the assets of the company but its liabilities as well. Naturally this includes Bhopal and currently Dow Chemical is offering to clean up the Bhopal plant and provide further investment in India. However all this is conditional on the Indian government guaranteeing that there will be no further litigation in the Indian courts against Union Carbide/Dow over the Bhopal disaster. The arrogant, cynical and downright criminal actions of Union Carbide and now Dow Chemical are not just motivated by corporate greed. They are also underpinned by a thoroughly white racist mindset. It is inconceivable that Union Carbide would have allowed the same dangerous practices that caused the

Bhopal disaster in any of its US plants. If it had, and a disaster on the scale of Bhopal has happened in one of Union Carbide’s US plants the story would have been very different. The company would very probably have been bankrupted under the impact of numerous lawsuits and its top executives might have ended up serving lengthy jail sentences. For Union Carbide though India was a distant country and on top of that its inhabitants had a different skin colour. In a neoliberal world the possibility of a disaster on the scale of Bhopal is if anything more likely today than in 1984. The drive to maximise profits through economic deregulation includes reducing regulations ensuring safe working practices and ensuring the environment and people’s lives are protected against industrial contamination. As such it is not so much a question of if there will be another Bhopal disaster, more a question of when and where.

Online Sources

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal www.bhopal.net Students for Bhopal, www.studentsforbhopal.org

Socialist Resistance

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Our history “James Connolly: ‘a full life’” by Donal Nevin (Gill & MacMillan 2006) 16.99 Euros. Reviewed by Piers Mostyn

NAME a revolutionary Marxist anywhere assassinated by imperialism but still celebrated in song almost a century later; who left school with little formal education but whose books were sold by the thousand in his own lifetime, and who debated with the great socialists of his era; who formed the world’s first full time workers’ militia, leading it in an insurrection; who was a national union leader but also a street corner agitator; and who has the main rail station of a western European capital city named after him? James Connolly of course. Sadly his high status is primarily due to the co-option of his name by the Irish labourist and nationalist traditions which each claims him as their own, rather than a critical appreciation of his qualities. Read this new 800 page biography (the first for 20 years) and you will not recognise the dewyeyed republican version of the “martyr of 1916” or the bureaucrats’ celebration of his role in the founding years of the Irish labour movement. Both airbrush his 20year history as a professional revolutionary Marxist. Even some left currents, attempting to fit an economistic brand of Marxist orthodoxy round his life have baulked at his embrace of the national liberation struggle, ignoring a long history of agitation and writing on the national question that preceded the 1916 rising. Not least this was apparent in his confrontations with loyalist workers in Belfast, where for several years prior to the First World War he was a union organiser. Connolly’s dire warnings of the perils of partitionism have yet to be heeded. Edinburgh born and initially active in Scotland, he kept in contact with his Scottish comrades for over two decades. Connolly played a key role in the split of the Socialist Labour Party (which had a strong base in Scotland) from the dogmatic and stultified Social Democratic Federation led by Hyndman. His inheritance is surely vital to the unique flavour and strength of socialism in Scotland In the USA, he was an organiser of the International Workers of the World, continuously stressing the inter-relationship between political and industrial struggle – against syndicalists who opposed

CONNOLLY: A BEACON TO GUIDE THE LEFT

James Connolly standing in elections or even building parties. In the final years prior to the rising he synthesised this by simultaneously acting as general secretary of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, founding and commanding the Irish Citizens Army, leading the Socialist Party of Ireland and editing a revolutionary Marxist weekly paper (Workers Republic). He also polemicised against dogmatic and sectarian Marxism, developing a vision and practice of revolutionary Marxists organising within broader socialist parties – breaking from De Leon’s SLP to join Debs’ Socialist Party in the USA and then seeking to apply these lessons on his return to Ireland. He served in the British army, possibly in India, for seven years

in the 1880s, a seminal experience about which he spoke little but which must have informed both his internationalism and his military leadership. His military writings reflect thorough research into the lessons of a wide range of insurrectionary and guerrilla struggles including the 1905 revolution in Russia, the Paris Commune and France 1848. Although he was the military brains behind the 1916 insurrection, Connolly’s fatal mistake was in theorising that it would not face artillery fire as a capitalist state would not cause widespread destruction to capitalist property. He had a profound understanding of the potential for radical militancy among working class women and of the relationship between feminism and socialism. This was informed by experiences

in organising women workers, but also his work with the great socialist feminists of the age – including Eleanor Marx (who joined his Irish Socialist Republican Party) and Sylvia Pankhurst and Charlotte Despard (with whom he shared a platform during a mass meeting in the 1913 Dublin Lock Out). This is best exemplified in his famous quote from “The Reconquest of Ireland”: “None so fitted to break the chains as they who wear them, none so well-equipped to decide what is a fetter. In its march towards freedom the working class of Ireland must cheer on the efforts of those women who feeling on their souls and bodies the fetters of ages have arisen to strike them off, and cheer all the louder if in its hatred of thraldom and passion for freedom the women’s army forges ahead of the militant army of labour. But whosoever carries out the outworks of the citadel of oppression the working class alone can raze it to the ground”. There have been few better socialist defences of self-organisation. Connolly had his weaknesses. A headstrong personality, his habit of falling out with his comrades perhaps motivated his migrations from Scotland to Ireland to the USA and back to Ireland as much as his undoubted proletarian internationalism. Connolly was a life long Catholic, although not practising. And he regularly campaigned alongside priests There is some ambiguity as to whether this was an opportunistic pose to limit the ability of the clergy to drive a wedge between him and his working class audience. But he also made regular and ferocious attacks on the church hierarchy and was consistently secularist and non-sectarian. Standing for Dublin Council he distributed the first and only election address in Yiddish in Irish history. In New Jersey he learnt fluent Italian so that he could

address the thousands of radicalising immigrants in his street corner meetings. His relationship to religion leaves many questions unanswered and this was subject to some critical comment from his atheist comrades in the international socialist movement. But there is a lot to be learnt from his open and non-dogmatic approach to how Marxists should engage in united front work with an oppressed community with a strong religious adherence - an issue of contemporary relevance. Similarly his “feminist” credentials are marred by his opposition to divorce, though motivated by an understanding of the family’s role as survival mechanism for the most deprived and oppressed more than by reactionary moralism. And prior to the rising he joined the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the provisional government as vice president despite his consistent and firm advocacy of class independence. But he also advised his ICA comrades to keep their arms after the rising – anticipating conflict with the nationalist bourgeoisie. These points provide food for thought. But they shouldn’t obscure the fact that his Marxism was open minded and practical – at all times he had his eye on the crucial importance of broad unity in struggle. So he bent the stick and took risks but in doing so, but achieved much. In the process his uncompromised revolutionary socialism became relevant and accessible. Don’t be put off by the author’s background as a former general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions – the type of person Connolly spent his life struggling against. Nevin lets Connolly speak for himself – drawing on a wealth of articles, letters, speeches and contemporary accounts. However the book is short on context. The Lock Out seems to spring out of nowhere. And little is said of the cross-currents of international Marxism at the time, though Connolly shines like a beacon against the dry chauvinism that dominated much of the left. Connolly comes across as incredibly modern. The issues he highlighted - like the relations between class, gender, nation, race and religion; and problems of party building, programme and unity - have a direct application today. This is a very rich and intense history. Revisiting it has a contemporary relevance with the demise of the Irish anti-imperialist struggle and the marginalisation of the left.

22 Socialist Resistance

Our politics Socialist Resistance AGM integrates ecosocialism into activities

Building an ecosocialist movement Chris Brooks

Socialist Resistance’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) has adopted a new manifesto calling for a broad ecosocialist and anti-capitalist current to be built in the labour movement, amongst young people and in the environmental movement. The September meeting endorsed ‘Savage Capitalism’, and the other reports given to the meeting, unopposed (some votes had a few abstentions). Alan Thornett introduced the first discussion on Britain under Gordon Brown. He pointed out how Brown’s popularity honeymoon makes an early general election likely.

Foundations of Christianity – Marxist classic reissued by Socialist Resistance Karl Kautsky’s wrote The Foundations of Christianity (Der Ursprung des Christentums) in the early years of the twentieth century. He would probably have been astonished that one hundred years later in England, probably Europe’s least religious country, the largest demonstration of migrant workers demanding their rights was organised not by trade unions or socialist organisations but by a coalition of Christian churches. This alone is some part of Socialist Resistance’s justification for choosing to republish the work after an interval of three decades during which it has been unavailable in English. There is also a political purpose in the choice. This is to reassert the classical Marxist understanding of religion and to remind readers that it is both possible and necessary to scrutinise the re-emergence of religion using the analytical tools employed by Kautsky and later Marxists. Drawing heavily on contemporary biblical scholarship the book was an attempt to examine the birth of Christianity using the Marxist method. E ven allowing for the enormous advances in our knowledge of this period Kautsky’s work still stands as a good example of how an ideological phenomenon, in this case a religion, can be subjected to a materialist analysis. The book will be available from November either through your local Socialist Resistance readers’ group or from Amazon.

Because the Southall by-election shows that Respect is in no shape to fight an election, a new crisis is opening in that party. However, struggles by public sector workers will build up pressures in the unions. Tides are also turning internationally, as Phil Hearse pointed out introducing ‘Savage Capitalism’. The worst series of floods in living memory has struck every continent. The climate crisis connects with the international food and water crisis to produce the basis for a new savage capitalism which is harsher, more war-like and increasingly opposed to civil rights.

Savage anti-capitalist: Phil Hearse led discussion on the keynote document outlining an ecosocialist policy Hearse and other speakers mate change into all the stress that ecosocialism is not aspects of our activity. a new campaign, or someLiam MacUaid opened a thing separate from and cam- discussion on tasks arising paigning on Iraq or Respect. from the ecosocialist orientaIt’s a change in our overall tion. identity and the way we use He explained that our newsclass analysis to connect cli- paper will change in three

ways: first, articles need to spotlight the issues, organisations and people who take an anti-capitalist approach to climate change; second, we will bring together an advisory board to guide us; thirdly we are inviting discussion and suggestions about the name of the newspaper. The ecosocialist theme was continued in discussions on the Climate camp, the Campaign against Climate Change trade union conference, and Latin America. Terry Conway introduced a discussion on developing our organisation. She noted that it was our first two-day AGM:, with 36 comrades attending, most from outside London. She outlined the substantial development of SR supporters groups over the last year, especially in Birmingham and Manchester. Stronger local groups have allowed us to publish seven new books over the last year. The AGM also accepted reports on our upcoming Women’s Liberation Forum and the International Youth Camp. It elected a steering committee and an editorial board.

FI Summer camp 2007 Tracy Nguyen

Resistance sent a delegation of nine people to this year’s Fourth International Summer Camp at Barbaste in south-western France, which was attended by 418 people overall. There was a good balance between people going for the first time – 3 members of the delegation – and those who had been before. We had hoped a few others would join us, but in the end they could not. But thanks to everyone who helped us make our fund drive target and gave those of us who did go such a positive experience. Our delegation ran three workshops: on Ecology and the Global South on the backlash effects of legislation and the systematic oppression of LGBT people and on queer theory. We found ways through quite informal approaches of making sure the discussions on these topics were organized in a way that

allowed everyone to contribute. In terms of other sessions, my particular favourites were Portugal’s workshop on decriminalization of abortion, Daniel Bensaid on changing the world without taking power and Belgium’s one on climate change. I also really enjoyed the practical workshop on barricading techniques Other highlights for me were the women’s day and women’s party, which were both highly enjoyable and educational. I’m glad that Penelope Duggan will be speaking at our forum on Women’s Liberation in November because she gave a great presentation that day. It was coherent, historical yet very up to date with struggles of today. The forum on Marxism and ecology given by Klaus Engert was clear, concise and led to a high level of debate. Alain Krivine also

spoke on the lessons of the Russian Revolution. He was passionate about learning from our history. But I think most people would have preferred a forum on Socialism of the 21st Century. We also spent time meeting with groups of comrades from other countries in inter-delegation meetings which gives you the opportunity to ask lots of

questions about what’s going on in other countries – as well as giving the challenge of presenting what going on here in a way that makes sense to others. It’s an exhausting and exhilarating week – and if you think you might want to come with us this coming year please get in touch with me [email protected]

THE 33DAY WAR by Gilbert Achcar and Michel Warschawski

Israel’s War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and Its Aftermath SPECIAL OFFER £10 including post and packing, from Socialist Resistance, PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU.

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Socialist Resistance We welcome letters of up to 400 words. Longer letters may be cut for space reasons. You can email us, or post text to PO Box 1109 London N4 2UU

What’s On

Protestors picket Shell in Southend Norman Traub On September 5, twenty activists from Southend Stop the War Coalition staged a demonstration and picket at a local Shell Oil garage during the early morning rush hour. Banners proclaiming “Hands Off Iraqi Oil” were hung from a pedestrian bridge above the busiest road leading out of the town. Below, protesters picketed the Shell Oil garage and handed out leaflets to motorists and pedestrians. The leaflet warned that a new oil law presented to the Iraqi parliament for ratification in May 2007 proposes to fundamentally restructure Iraq’s oil industry, to give the primary role in oil development to multinational companies, under contracts of up to 30 years. Yet most Iraqis firmly believe that oil production should remain in the public sector. The law is opposed by all of Iraq’s trade unions, by over 60 senior Iraqi oil experts and by other civil society, political and religious groups. Shell has worked closely with the British and US governments as military occupation powers, to create the framework for multinational companies to take control of Iraqi oil In 2007 the US government took the lead in pushing for the passage of the law. It became the most important of

Activist’s DIARY Monday Oct

8 Antiwar protest

Tuesday, October 9

London US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1. to mark the 9th anniversary of the arrest of the Miami Vigil to mark the 9th anniversary of the arrest of the Miami 5. Organised by: Cuba Solidarity Campaign. 17.30pm19.00pm. President Bush’s “benchmarks”–political developments which he demanded that the Iraqi government fulfil. Shell has worked tirelessly to ensure that the oil law is in place to confirm the rights of the multinationals to Iraqi oil. In September 2006, Shell’s chief executive announced that things were on course for his company. “we have done all our homework for Iraq. I’m not going to speculate on the timing, but we are ready to move.” The Iraqi Minister of Oil met multinational oil companies at the beginning of this month in Dubai ahead of the reopening of Iraq’s parliament on September 5 when the controversial oil law was back on the table. The Southend demonstrators received a good response

from motorists as well as pedestrians. Both Essex radio and the local daily paper gave publicity to the demonstration. The campaign against the multinational oil companies taking control of Iraqi oil is being spearheaded by “Hands Off Iraqi Oil” a coalition in Britain that includes Corporate Watch, Iraq Occupation Focus, Jubilee Iraq and War on Want. Their website is www.handsoffiraqioil.org Over 100 MPs have signed an early day motion warning the British government ‘that decisions on the Iraqi oil industry should be made by the Iraqi people without outside interference’. Other MPs can still sign the motion until the end of October and readers are urged to write to their MP now.

Wednesday, October 10

London: Confronting the Climate Change Crisis by Building a Global Ecosocialist Movement. Co-hosted by Socialist Resistance and Green Left. Speaker: IAN ANGUS, from Toronto, Canada, is a member of the Convening Committee for the international ecosocialist conference in Paris, October 7-8.

Saturday October 13

Liverpool What we can do to stop the war? Trade union day school with speakers including Mark Serwotka (PCS general secretary – pc), Sabah Jawad (Support group for Iraqi Oil Workers). Friends Meeting House, School Lane. Crèche available. To register phone

07845 930 610, text 07968 581 336 or email [email protected]

Tuesday, October 16

London : Socialist Resistance Public Meeting The US War Drive in the Middle East Is the US losing the war in Iraq? Will it attack Iran? What is the current situation in Lebanon? Speakers: Gilbert Achcar coauthor (with Noam Chomsky) of Perilous Power .Shadi Georges Lebanese Communist Party 7.30pm, Indian YMCA 41 Fitzroy Square nearest tube: Warren St .

Wednesday, Oct 17

Birmingham Socialist Resistance Forum, Alan Watkins, New Labour and pensioners, 7.30pm Bennetts Bar, Bennetts Hill.

Thursday October 18

London National Rally for a Trade Union Freedom Bill, organised by: United Campaign to Repeal the Anti-Trade Union Law House of Commons, Committee Room 14, 7pm

Friday – Sunday, October 26-28, Co. Wicklow,

School “Irish society and economy today” Cost 50 euro waged and 25 euro unwaged. Transport available from Belfast and Dublin Places are very limited – Reserve your place by sending details to [email protected]

Saturday November 3

London NHS Together coalition of trade unions to hold a national demonstration in central London 11am: Assemble Victoria Embankment.

Saturday and Sunday November 17 & 18

Respect Annual conference. Names of delegates must be registered with the national office by 19 Oct. University of Westminster, 309 Regent St, London W1

Saturday November 24

London Socialist Resistance Forum on Women’ s Liberation, London. Hands Off Venezuela National Conference University London Union, Malet Street, London WC1, from 9.45am to 5.30pm.

Socialist Democracy Weekend

If you like what you’ve read or you want to find out more about Socialist Resistance, get in touch with us by ringing 020 8800 7460, or email [email protected]

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No more deaths: no more cynical pre-election photo opportunities

Get the TROOPS OUT of IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN STOP THE WAR Annual Conference, 27 October, 10 - 5pm Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London