Solidarity 582, 17 February 2021

Kino Eye: Silences of the Palace

After last week’s article on Saudi women filmmakers, here is a Tunisian film: The Silences of the Palace (1994) by female director Moufida Tlatli. It is set in the 1950s, while Tunisia is still a French colony. Alia (Ghalia Lacroix), a cabaret singer revisits the place of her birth – a now deserted palace where her mother was a servant. As she wanders the empty building, she relives scenes from her childhood and particularly the sexual humiliations and drudgery endured by her mother. Due to her wonderful singing Alia breaks away but her visit brings back many poignant and often painful...

Don't let British gas off the hook

The GMB union called off strikes of British Gas engineers planned for 12-15 February, after British Gas agreed to further negotiations over the terms of a new contract the company plans to introduce. GMB activists report that British Gas said it would “suspend” its “fire and rehire” threat, according to which any worker who has not signed up to the new contracts by 31 March faces dismissal. The exact meaning of this “suspension” is unclear. In practical terms it may simply mean that, if talks are still ongoing on 31 March, the deadline will be extended to allow them to continue. It clearly...

The labour movement and Covid: a debate

This is a tidied-up transcript of a speech in a discussion with Emma Runswick of ZeroCovid at the Workers' Liberty Zoom forum on 14 February 2021. I'm not an epidemiologist, and the labour movement is not a university faculty of epidemiology. So we don't think we can second-guess the scientists about the science of the pandemic. We try to educate ourselves in the science, and we try to make intelligent judgements and comments where the scientific opinion is divided, as it often is, but we understand our limits. So in the pandemic we've argued for the labour movement to focus on social measures...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.