Solidarity 591, 5 May 2021

Climate activists remobilise on 1 May

Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion (XR) supporters took part in non-violent direct action on 1 May over the lack of progress on the climate crisis. Many were arrested as sit down protests blocked major roads in many towns and cities across the UK, including London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Cambridge, Bradford, Newcastle, and Swansea. Home Secretary Priti Patel accused them of using “dangerous tactics” and said the protests showed why increased police powers were required, via passing the Tory Police Bill. In Nottingham a Climate Camp has been set up outside the Notts County Hall, by Trent...

On the streets with Solidarity

The year from March 2020 to March 2021 was the first big break in the activity of Marxists selling socialist newspapers on the streets, in protests, door-to-door, and in meetings, since the Social Democratic Federation launched its weekly, Justice , in 1884. Even before that, the Chartist movement, and the “Owenite” socialist movement, centred much of their life round the production and selling of newspapers. But for the last year we have had no in-person meetings; most of the time, relatively few street protests; and street stalls and door-to-door sales have been more difficult. As they start...

Women's Fightback: Students rebel against uniforms

Girls at King David High School, a Jewish school in Childwall, say they want to be able to wear trousers like the boys — as well as questioning policy over a ban on leggings in PE. They have handed in a petition, calling for changes, which has so far attracted more than 300 signatures. The petition, started by pupil Laura Starkey, states: “We want justice for female students in our school and the freedom to express ourselves without being limited to things that boys can do and we cannot.” King David head teacher Michael Sutton has defended the uniform on religious grounds, as if that were...

The Wretched of the Earth, 60 years on

Frantz Fanon was only 36 when he died but in his short life he wrote one of the classic anti-colonial works of all time. The Wretched of the Earth became one of the best-known revolutionary texts of that stormy decade. It was first published in France in 1961: an extract in May, exactly 60 years ago, in the magazine Les Temps Modernes , then the whole book in December. Fanon was born into a relatively privileged background in the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean. He left, aged 18, to join the Free French forces towards the end of World War 2 and went on to study medicine and...

Scrap the Thatcher anti-union laws! No shortcuts!

On 1 May a “May Day manifesto” by John Hendy and Keith Ewing was published in the Morning Star , under the headline “A New Deal for Workers”. A New Deal for Workers is a slogan that has been used by the TUC and various unions, particularly the CWU [Communication Workers' Union]; this is a new attempt to flesh it out. There is much in the document worth comment and discussion. On the crucial issue of the right to strike and repealing the anti-trade union laws, it is weak. Hendy and Ewing are leading lights in the Institute of Employment Rights (IER). In recent years the IER has focused heavily...

Alliances, "anti-monopoly" and other

Andrew Northall, in his reply to Jim Denham on the “Anti-Monopoly Alliance” in Solidarity 589 , writes: “Jim says... the Labour Party and unions are the arena for the debates and struggles that take place within the British working-class movement’. Really? So Black Lives Matter, Reclaim These Streets, the Sarah Everard protests, opposition to the Police Bill etc., are down to the Labour Party and the trade unions or not relevant to ‘the British working class movement’?” By contrast, Andrew writes: “The strategy of the BRS [ Britain’s Road to Socialism , the Communist Party of Britain program]...

Wave of student action

Students are protesting in occupations and rallies on campus around UK universities, finally able to employ in-person direct action after a year of mostly online organising. Rallies have been organised at the London School of Economics (LSE), Goldsmiths and SOAS in London, and the rent strike campaigns have launched a wave of occupations in Manchester, Nottingham, and two Sheffield universities. On Wednesday 28 April, 300 people rallied at LSE in central London. The lively crowd heard speeches from the fee and rent strikes going on at the university, as well as from the SOAS fee strike...

NEU: make defence of reps central!

Chaired by victimised National Education Union (NEU) rep Tracy McGuire, the Defend Victimised NEU Reps Zoom meeting on Thursday 29 April heard from victimised NEU reps and how the fightback is shaping up. First to address the meeting was Louise Lewis, NEU rep at North Huddersfield Trust School, suspended last year after seeking to secure safer working during the pandemic. NEU members at the school voted for strike action to defend Louise and are striking for two days, with more to follow. Kirstie Paton, a teacher at the John Roan School in Greenwich, London, for 20 years, NEU rep, and an NEU...

Gains at Go North West

A nine-week long strike by bus drivers has forced Go North West to back down from a plan to impose new contracts via “fire and rehire”. Drivers who were sacked or disciplined for social media posts during the dispute will also be reinstated and have disciplinary sanctions dropped. Although the details of the settlement are yet to be finalised, this appears to be a significant victory and a testament to the resolve of the workers involved in launching determined, indefinite strike action. For now, drivers are rightly continuing their strikes until a settlement is agreed. Activists say that Go...

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