Solidarity 574, 2 December 2020

New focus on Nation-State Law

A recent court case in Israel has brought into focus the implications of the country’s “Nation-State Law”, passed in 2018 by (then and now) prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite huge protests. The law implied downgrading the rights of the large non-Jewish (mainly Palestinian Arab) minorities in Israel. On 30 November, a judge cited that law when dismissing a court case brought by Palestinian Arab parents in Carmiel, an Israeli city with a Jewish majority but a 6% Arab minority. The parents wanted an Arabic-language school in Carmiel, or failing that funding for students to travel to Arabic...

Labour suspensions spread

Following the suspension of multiple members of Bristol West Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Executive (EC) from the Labour Party for allowing a motion to be discussed, the regional office has postponed the CLP’s Annual General Meeting with two days’ notice, because of alleged “problems” with communication about it happening. It has been postponed until February, and our CLP meetings banned during the same time period. It’s not clear to me that there were any major “problems”. The meeting was set to attract hundreds, and the left to maintain control. The unelected officials’ motivation is...

Young Labour stands firm

Young Labour chair Jess Barnard was “instructed” by Labour Party HQ on 23 November to “take down” a tweet by Young Labour in favour of restoring the whip to Jeremy Corbyn. Barnard stood firm, so the tweet is still there, and there’s no news of moves by Labour HQ to suspend Barnard or shut down YL.

Antisemitism overstated?

Phil Pope ( web comment ): Do you think the scale of antisemitism in Labour was understated, overstated, or defined precisely as it is? Do you think there is more or less antisemitism in Labour than in other political parties or in society at large. As you have quoted the CST (which you generously describe as a community charity) you might want to refer to their research . Rhodri Evans replies: Antisemitism in Labour — “understated, overstated, or defined precisely as it is?”, asks Phil Pope. The current blow-up in the Labour Party started with Jeremy Corbyn choosing (when he could just have...

"Love jihad": why Hindu fascists are attacking Netflix

The Hindu nationalist far right in India and beyond is waging a campaign against Netflix for showing the BBC TV series A Suitable Boy (adapted from Vikram Seth’s novel, set in India in the 1950s). Their objection is to a romantic relationship between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man (though it's clear they object to other aspects of it too). They have minimally dressed up their bigotry by saying they are offended by the lovers kissing by a Hindu temple. Members of the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party are calling for the Indian government to investigate Netflix – and in fact the Modi regime has...

General strike in India

On 26 November many tens of millions of workers took part in a general strike against India’s far-right government. Indian unions gave a figure of 250 million. Alongside its fascistic Hindu-chauvinist and anti-migrant policies, which it has intensified during the pandemic, Narenda Modi’s regime has consistently pursued an aggressively neoliberal, anti-working class economic and social agenda. The strike, also backed by a mass farmers’ mobilisation, was for the withdrawal of Modi’s anti-worker changes to labour law, expansion of social provision, the restoration of subsidies and price...

The Potentate and the Brotherhood

Stephen Wood continues the story of the pioneer black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Part 1 of this account was in Solidarity 573 here . Garvey thought the trade unions in the American Federation of Labor were unreformably racist organisations. Garvey had his own solution to the lack of black workers’ rights; and that was black-owned and black-run businesses. Such businesses, he claimed, wouldn’t discriminate against black workers because they would be founded on the black nationalist principle espoused by Garvey. Chief among his projects was the Black Star Line. It was initially set up to...

US unionists pass historic general strike vote

This report from Daniel Randall as Assistant Chair of the Bakerloo branch of the RMT rail union is taken, with thanks, from RMT London Calling , the website of RMT London Transport Region. . Three activists from the RMT Bakerloo branch attended, via Zoom, the Saturday 21 November convention of the Vermont State Labour Council (AFL-CIO) as observers. The convention was attended by nearly 100 delegates and guests, from local union branches and campaign groups, as well as a number of elected city councillors. As a state-wide federation, the rough equivalent to the Vermont AFL-CIO in the British...

Trump trashes the house on the way out

During the influenza pandemic of 1918 the bishop of Zamora defied the health authorities by ordering evening prayers for nine consecutive days in honour of St Rocco, patron saint of plague and pestilence. The epidemic was according to him down to the sins and ingratitude of the population. His congregation were encouraged to kiss the holy relics of St Rocco. Zamora suffered the highest death rate from the disease in all of Spain. Fast forward a century to the USA, and there’s another “historic victory” of religious superstition over science. The US Supreme Court has blocked New York State...

The digital, Covid and new ways of living

The 2021 edition of the Socialist Register is entitled “Beyond Digital Capitalism — New Ways of Living”. It’s about how an increasingly digitalised capitalism works and alternatives across a wide range of human activities. Why digital capitalism? Firstly, because of the increasingly central role of the tech sector in the economy, seen through both a growing economic dominance of monopolies based on digital platforms and the increased use of digitised forms of production, distribution and exchange. The top four largest tech companies — Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook — now account for 20...

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