Solidarity 550, 3 June 2020

The brutal murder of George Floyd on 25 May by police in Minnesota has sparked a rebellion by working-class African Americans and anti-racists across the US.

Ruth Cashman, co-secretary of Lambeth Unison and Labour for a Socialist Europe convener, is standing for the Momentum National Coordinating Group after she nominated in the Forward Momentum primaries as part of the Momentum Internationalists slate, but was bureaucratically barred from standing . She sent us this statement. I’m standing for the Momentum National Coordinating Group as a trade union activist with a wide range of experience in a union branch and local left that have organised numerous struggles, in workplaces and the wider community, around a range of issues – from cuts to...

Nurse, Unite activist and socialist Mark Boothroyd spoke to Sacha Ismail. What are the most important things for the left to argue and fight for in this crisis? How does the dominant labour movement response measure up? The labour movement needs to campaign for more extensive economic support, to expand the furlough and self-employed schemes, extend them to those not covered and so on. People need to be able to stay home and sustain themselves. Clearly sick pay and the right to self-isolate on fully pay are essential. The level of statutory sick pay is utterly scandalous, it needs to be raised...

With Biden currently well ahead in the polls for the November US Presidential Election, we should be very concerned about how Trump’s cult of street thugs, simpletons, and Klansman are going to react when he loses the presidential election. They are convinced there is a conspiracy from the “deep state” and that the election will likely be rigged against him, despite all the evidence suggesting it is in fact his Republican Party who are attempting to rig it through attacks on the press and voter suppression. We have seen over the past month two different sides of America, both prepared to...

Workplace activists in Workers' Liberty met via Zoom on Saturday 30 May 2020, for a joint meeting of Workers' Liberty's industrial “fractions”, groups of members in particular industries and sectors. Workers' Liberty currently has four industrial fractions – school workers; civil servants; higher education workers; and rail workers – and two cross-industrial union fractions – Unison, covering local government and health; and Unite, covering a range of industries and sectors. The meeting began with a survey of industrial and workplace issues thrown up by the pandemic, and union responses to...

China's National People’s Congress decided on 28 May to introduce a National Security Law in Hong Kong. It represents the most direct change of governance on Hong Kong, imposed by the People’s Republic of China, without any discussion with Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.

On 25 May, George Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Covid-19 death toll across the USA is now into six figures. Major cities are in flames in protest against the casual killing of black men by police officers and white racist vigilantes.

With migrant workers making up the vast majority of recent Covid-19 cases in Singapore, there are renewed calls for the government to reduce Singapore's dependence on migrant labour. On the surface, this appears to be a progressive proposal, given that it is being made in response to the cramped and unsanitary nature of the migrant worker dormitories. In reality, however, these are xenophobic demands to reduce the number of foreigners and these demands have nothing to do with improving conditions in migrant worker dormitories. Many have compared migrant labour to a drug to which Singapore is...