Solidarity 479, 19 September 2018

The repeal of section 377

In 1861, during British colonial rule, Section 377 was introduced into the Indian Penal Code: a law with origins in England’s Buggery Act of 1533. This marked, in Victorian language, India’s criminalisation of homosexuality. With the independence of India in 1947, Section 377 survived. In 2009 the Delhi High Court, in response to a petition by the Naz Foundation, ruled that Section 377’s references to homosexual sex were unconstitutional, thus effectively decriminalising homosexuality. Various petitions attempted to challenge this ruling, one of which made it to the Supreme Court of India —...

Democracy review in danger?

As we go to press (17 September) the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party is finalising the Party’s Democracy Review which will be voted on at conference. Both Momentum and the press have jumped on rumours that the unions will attempt a “power grab” for the selection of leader. The five biggest unions have apparently come to a compromise position on the election of Leader in the case of a vacancy. According to the Guardian the change would stop someone from both the far left of the Parliamentary Party and from the right being able to stand. A proposed increase in the...

Stop Brexit! Fight Poverty!

At its conference on 22-26 September Labour has the chance to galvanise its new and enthused activist layer into becoming a serious force against the Tories, their disastrous policies for working-class people pushed through over eight years. To do that Labour needs to overhaul its democracy and commit itself to a radical programme. Top of the kind of political shift Labour needs to make is on Brexit. With over 100 motions submitted by local Labour parties, it is likely that t full debate on Brexit and the demand for another referendum or “People’s Vote” will be aired at the conference...

Labour and Israel-Palestine

Over the past decade the situation for the Palestinians has gone from bad to worse. Continued occupation, continued settlement expansion in the West Bank, no end to the conflict, the US moving their embassy to Jerusalem (undermining the widely held view that Jerusalem should be shared as a city after a settlement between Israelis and Palestinians) and now Trump has pledged to withdraw all US funding for the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians UNWRA, while also closing down the PLO’s offices in Washington DC. But the election of a Labour government in Britain could be some small boost for the...

US socialists debate electoral strategy

In the US, self-described socialists running on Democrat ballot lines have produced shock electoral successes. The successes include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory over Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th congressional district and, more recently, Julia Salazar’s victory over incumbent New York State Senator Martin Malave Dilan to become the Democratic nominee for the 18th district. These successes have revived a long-running debate on how the American left should approach elections. Much of the current debate centres on a “blueprint for a new...

Tories accommodate soft-fascism

Even right-wing media outlets like the Spectator have denounced the Tory MEPs who recently voted against or abstained on the European Parliament initiating Article 7 proceedings against Hungary. That procedure allows MEPs to refer a member-state to the Europe Council to determine if it does not respect human rights, democracy, rule of law and so on. But this is hardly news! Since being elected in 2010 the Fidesz government of Viktor Orbán has: • Rewritten the constitution so that key checks and balances (including judicial ones) on executive powers were removed. • Bought up the media. This...

Back GRA reform, but go further

The government is consulting on changes which would allow people the right to change their legal gender through self-declaration, an important if limited step forward for trans, non-binary and intersex people. The consultation is on the 2004 Gender Recognition Act (GRA), and proposed changes to this Act. It is open until 10 October. The GRA allows successful applicants to get new birth certificates in the gender they have transitioned to. These are used for some pension provisions, marriages, and a few other things, while gender on passports and elsewhere is changed independently. The current...

Idlib, the next humanitarian disaster

With Russian support the proposed assault on the Syrian province of Idlib could be one of the bloodiest of the war. Idlib is the last outpost of significant rebel control. It’s 2.5 million civilians, many who are internally displaced, may face a determined regime campaign to conquer the territory no matter the outcome. Idlib does not resemble an ordinary province, it has hundreds of thousands of people living in camps or out in the open, people who are already the victims of the regime, Iranian troops and Russian bombs. As troops amassed on the border, civilians were advised to accept...

Labour movement gears up to fight Brexit

As it rolls closer, Brexit continues to embolden the right wing of society and promote a corrosive anti-migrant prejudice in political life. Most fatally, the right-wing attitudes that have been boosted by Brexit are corrupting the Corbyn-led Labour Party. Recent policy announcements show the party collapsing backwards under the weight of Brexit, calling for more border guards, restricting freedom of movement to those migrants deemed “economically useful” and inflicting on us the woeful hashtag #FairReasonableManagedMigration (suggesting that there is something unfair, unreasonable, or out-of...

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