Solidarity 124, 10 January 2008

On Sunday 13 January, activists from the labour and anti-climate change movements will meet in Nottingham to develop the Workers’ Climate Action network. This network aims to fill a void among those fighting climate change; to create unity of purpose and tactics between these often-divergent forces, with a purposefully working-class focus. Looking at the numerous political campaigns that my union runs, there is no mention of the environment or progressive policies that seek to slow or halt runaway climate change. Not content with simply turning a blind eye, UNITE and GMB belong to a pro...

Shop workers have been on strike in Berlin (and other parts of Germany) — a number of supermarket chains, department stores, the biggest bookshop chain, and also H&M. The employers want to abolish the bonuses for late and Sunday shifts — 20% bonus after 6.30pm Monday-Friday, 50% bonus after 8pm, 120% bonus on Sundays and public holidays, 20% bonus on Satudays after 4.30pm. These bonuses make up a lot on top of the basic pay. When abolished, a full time worker would lose 180 Euro per month (or the equivalent in time). The union have attempted to hold talks with the employers since January. They...

This series: The Northern Ireland crisis of 1968-9 and the left Part 7 Section 2 of this article Next in series: Part 8: IS/SWP conference, September 1969 Part 1: Why Northern Ireland Broke Down Part 2: The Irish Workers' Group, I S and the "Trotskyist Tendency" Part 3: Why Northern Ireland Split on Communal, Not Class, Lines Part 4: When militant sloganeering meant promoting communal war Part 5: When socialists looked to "Catholic Power" ; and Part 5 Section 2 Part 6: SWP (IS) and Northern Ireland in 1968-9: Advocating civil war — until it starts! ; and Section 2 Part 7: The end of the old...

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In my last summary article on Iraq (Solidarity 3/117, 13/09/07) I wrote that the Bush "administration now seems to have no strategy but to bash on and hope it can keep things relatively under control until it hands over the mess to another US presidency in January 2009". And I suggest that it might achieve that limited objective. "The tighter division of Arab Iraq into Shia-only or Sunni-only neighbourhoods - now separated off, in Baghdad, by high concrete walls and checkpoints - should tend to reduce the number of killings". It has done so. The rate of killings remained high through to...

TGWU/Unite members in the homelessness charity Shelter have voted by an overwhelming 87% to reject a raft of proposed cuts to pay and conditions, in favour of a strike ballot. To summarise the worst of what the organisation's management are proposing: Immediate downgrading of one third of frontline advice posts by £3k Removal of pay increments currently worth around £2.5k over three years Extenstion of the working week from 35 hours to 37.5 hours Introduction of new, disastrous, working practices which would effectively create a two or three-tier workforce of housing advisers doing the same...

Kosova, formerly the Albanian-majority province of Yugoslavia, is likely to declare independence in February 2008. The European Union, the USA, and NATO will support independence, despite Russia (a longstanding ally of Serbia) blocking UN approval for independence and declaring that independence will be "outside international law". That the people of Kosova should have their right to independence respected is good, and a damning condemnation of those on the left who backed Milosevic in the 1990s. Many things about the way independence is happening are bad. Kosova was, in effect, a colony of...

The British National Party is in the throes of a major crisis after a series of high profile expulsions and resignations. The root of the crisis is the outspoken fascism of leading BNP member Mark Collett and the contradictions implicit in an organisation attempting to hide its real politics. Download two leaflets from the "Notts Stop the BNP campaign" (pdf): BNP in Turmoil and Stop the BNP in Kimberley . The BNP rebels - far from condemning Collett's politics - have labelled him a mere 'embarrassment' and a threat to the BNP's current 'legitimate' turn. The crisis burst into the open with a...