Solidarity 579, 27 January 2021

Letters: Bothered by the mob; Not singling out; QAnon in the UK

Bothered by the mob John Cunningham objects ( letter, Solidarity 578 ) to the word “mob” being used to describe pro Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. He argues that “mob” is often misused by the right wing politicians and their media lackeys to describe strikers. That was certainly the case during the 1980s miners’ strike, though of course the real violent mob at Orgreave and elsewhere were those wearing blue uniforms. Thatcherites at the time were also in the habit of calling Nelson Mandela a “terrorist”. By John’s reasoning we should therefore not call anti working class outfits like...

Pay guarantees needed with "one job" rule

A study on the impact of coronavirus in care homes in England has indicated that care homes often had higher levels of coronavirus infection among staff when they employed staff who worked across multiple sites. The government has consulted on new regulations to limit staff movement between care homes, and between care homes and other health and care settings. The regulations would mean residential and nursing care home providers in England must restrict the movement of staff providing personal care or nursing care in their services. Minimising work in multiple locations is sensible to control...

Seize wealth to mend inequality!

The impact of the pandemic has been worsened by, and in turn worsened, many forms of economic and social inequality. In Solidarity 578 I summarised evidence from the Marmot and Deaton reports. As the Marmot report puts it: “mismanagement during the pandemic, and the unequal way the pandemic has struck, is of a piece with what happened in England in the decade from 2010 [i.e. the period of ‘austerity’]… Since then, with the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has changed dramatically. But in England the changes have been entirely consistent with its existing state when the pandemic hit…” Even the...

After Twitter bans Trump

Anyone who is not amused by the tantrum of a spoilt child who at long last breaks that gratingly noisy toy some distant relative unthinkingly gave them has a heart of stone. But just as most of us have qualms about openly mocking upset children, many on the left kept to themselves the warm glow of satisfaction that followed from Trump having his preferred trumpet of Twitter snatched from his hands. Our reticence is likely the result of a fear of damaging the cause of free speech. The internet has been for many years a realm where free speech has been assumed. It has been the rise of Trump, and...

Barriers to Trumpism

Part of an ongoing debate: see here for all the contributions In the White House there is no longer Donald Trump. In US politics, though, there is still a large if inchoate Trumpist movement which believes that the November 2020 election result was rigged and Joe Biden is president only thanks to a coup by the “deep state”. Donald Trump is a fascist in the sense that he aims for rule unregulated by bourgeois-democratic constraints, and has worked to build a mass plebeian movement to help him overthrow those constraints. He is an incompetent, uncourageous fascist, unsteady of purpose, and...

Trump: lock him up?

Part of an ongoing debate: see here for all the contributions Barrie Hardy in Solidarity 578 makes some not unreasonable points about whether Biden administration should seek to prosecute Trump. I remain unconvinced that it is the job of the left to be the cheerleaders for what would undoubtedly be a media circus of chest-beating and bravado rather than a nail in the coffin of Trumpist thought in the future. Barrie says that the lesson of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 “is that white supremacists must be made to pay for their crimes”. But Johnson was being impeached for...

The fight on climate adaptation

Fish returning to ponds not spotted in in decades, birdsong becoming more audible, goats invading Welsh towns, and pterodactyl spotted flying above the river Tyne. Such were the reports of the ecological bounce back in the first UK lockdown of 2020. Indeed, the most featured climate paper of the year in mainstream and social media was on reduced global CO2 emissions, globally, due to lockdowns. Nonetheless, emissions were still vast, and built on years and decades of ever-accelerating greenhouse gas emissions, to deliver the joint-highest global surface temperatures on record — alongside 2016...

Much more needed on student rents

There are now around 70 student rent strike and tenants’ groups at universities across the UK and the organisation and politics of the movement is taking a clearer shape. At the same time some University and private landlords are offering inadequate rent rebates, though inadequate ones. The National Union of Students held a high profile rally on Monday 25 January, under the banner Students Deserve Better, with UCU General Secretary Jo Grady, Owen Jones and rent strikers speaking. The grassroots organising is being co-ordinated by local groups, a new committee of rent strike groups and local...

24-25 April conference

Workers’ Liberty’s annual conference will be on 24-25 April 2021, online. First draft versions of the main policy documents and reports are being circulated among our people this week. Together with alternative documents, amendments, etc. they will be sifted and discussed at three further committee meetings and nine wider online meetings (in three groups: 20-22 February, 20-25 March, 14-16 April) so that the final discussions and decisions on 24-25 April are well-informed. The conference will also elect new committees. Even the best online conference falls short of an in-person event, so our...

Sage strikers out again 4-8 February

Care workers at the Sage care home in North London struck from 15-17 January, demanding wages of at least £12/hour, parity of conditions, including sick pay, with NHS staff, and recognition of their union, United Voices of the World (UVW). They will strike again 4-8 February. Legal advice obtained by UVW, which suggested the exemption previously afforded to protests and picket under lockdown restrictions may have been withdrawn, scuppered plans for a safely-distanced physical picket line on the first day of the strike. A well-attended virtual strike rally took place instead, at which numerous...

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