Solidarity 041, 20 November 2003

Korean general strike

By Harry Glass Tens of thousands of Korean workers staged a one-day general strike on 12 November against the government's anti-working class policies. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said more than 150,000 of its members joined the one-day walkout - including more than 25,000 workers from the Hyundai Motor Company. Demonstrations took place in 20 cities across the country, despite the police banning street rallies. The walkouts came after police sought arrest warrants for 56 protestors suspected of throwing stones and firebombs at riot police during a rally on Sunday 9...

Iraq: support the workers' movement

By Clive Bradley The suicide attack on a police station in Nasiriyah, which left 19 Italian soldiers and 8 Iraqis dead, confirmed the pattern of recent weeks. The violent resistance to the US-led occupation, which seems to consist mainly of those loyal to the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, has increased the scale of its attacks. A week earlier, another bomb laid waste to the Red Cross in Baghdad - one of four that day; the day before, a missile hit a hotel where Donald Rumsfeld was staying. Panicked by these developments, Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator, flew back to Washington for...

National Officer election: A chance for a new direction?

Matt Wrack , London Region FBU, told Solidarity about the importance of the National Officer elections The National Officer election ballot is extremely important. It is an opportunity for ordinary members to influence the direction the union is going to take in the coming period. There are some activists who argue that elections are of secondary importance to winning votes for "action". However, I think that the recent dispute has clearly demonstrated that we need to address all aspects of how the union is run. That means fighting for democratic control over officials and for democratic...

The firefighters' dispute: one year on

Paul Woolstenholmes , Brigade Secretary of the Suffolk Fire Brigades Union (FBU), spoke to Nick Holden about the ballot which the union has called to accept or reject the employers' plan to pay the current 7% instalment of their wages deal in two stages, 3.5% now and the other 3.5%, backdated, only after 'verification' of changed work conditions. Solidarity: What is at stake in the 'consultative ballot'? Paul: We have again been painted into a corner by our own side. The Executive have given the members only two choices, when clearly there are more. An 'accept' vote means closure on our fight...

How the Bolshevik party was built

Click here for the series on The Roots of Bolshevism of which this article is part Between 17 July and 10 August 1903, in the course of 37 sessions, the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party held its Second Congress in Brussels and London. In reality this was the first, the constituent, congress of the RSDLP. The 'First Congress' held in March 1898 in Minsk had lasted one day and all nine delegates were arrested! The 'party' it proclaimed existed only as scattered, uncoordinated local groups and circles. The 1903 Congress had been prepared by five years of practical work by local circles and...

European Social Forum: Tous ensemble!

By Vicki Morris That 50,000 people registered for the European Social Forum in Paris is moving. The vast majority were - are - motivated by the wish to see change for the better in this rotten world. Add to that 50,000, the thousands of volunteers (including the volunteer interpreters of the Babels network), and the 50,000 more who joined in the demonstration on Saturday 15th, and you have something very worthwhile, the building blocks of an alternative to European capitalism. The ESF represents a big leap forward. But there were - are - many shortcomings. On the purely practical level, that...

Debate & discussion: Jewish community left out in the cold

The following letter (slightly abridged here) has been sent to the Stop the War Coalition. It raises important issues which need to be widely discussed. As Jewish anti-war activists, who support the work of the Stop the War Coalition and value its achievements in mobilising so many people, we write to express our grave disappointment and concern about how the coalition's officers handled the clash between the STWC demonstration and Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on 27th September… we are raising this issue in the hope that errors which have undermined the STWC can be acknowledged and...

Debate & discussion: The betrayals of Elia Kazan

Victor Navasky, in his classic study Naming Names, reported a story about Elia Kazan. In 1955, after Arthur Miller had completed A View From The Bridge. Miller sent a copy to Elia Kazan. The play is about a Sicilian waterfront worker who in a jealous rage informs on his nephew's 'illegal' immigration status. Kazan had directed Miller's Broadway hits - All My Sons and Death of A Salesman - but had broken with him over the issue of naming 'communists' to the McCarthyite House of Unamerican Activities Committee. Kazan had named names - and destroyed lives. "I have read your play and would be...

Standing Fast part 2: Julius Jacobson (1922-2003)

Julius Jacobson - Julie to his many friends and comrades - was the founder and editor of the American socialist journal, New Politics. He died in March of this year. Barry Finger continues his appreciation of his life and work. During the 1950s Julie became editor of The New International - a journal of the Independent Socialist League/Workers' Party, the Trotskyist organisation founded by Max Schachtman. But by the middle 50s, Shachtman was shifting rapidly to the right purportedly in pursuit of new opportunities for movement-building. The Communist Party was in disarray, traumatised by...

Family friendly New Labour?

By Cathy Nugent Government social policy has focussed heavily on issues to do with 'the family'. Some of this is warm and friendly - policy geared towards balancing work and family life, for instance. Some of it is more aggressive - measures to tackle problem, 'anti-social' families: parents who don't get their children to school or teenagers who roam the streets after 9pm. The National Family and Parenting Institute has produced a report which gives a snapshot of life for parents and their children in 2003: the conditions of work, the quantity and quality of services available. They also...

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