Solidarity 132, 14 May 2008

We are probably on the way to a Tory government. In the local elections on 1 May, not only did Labour do badly; the Tories did well. An opinion poll on the weekend of 7-8 May showed the Tories ahead of Labour by 49% to 23%. Where working-class voters have turned away from Labour in disillusion, generally left or leftish parties have failed to gain. No-one should exaggerate the electorate’s shift to the right, or suppose that it is fixed in stone. Just one sizeable working-class victory in struggle might reverse it. But it is the culmination of a steady drift for the last ten years. Many people...

In a television interview on Sunday 4 May Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander suggested she was in favour of an early referendum on Scottish independence — “Bring it on!” was the expression she used. Later Alexander said she wanted a referendum during the next twelve months and that Gordon Brown backed her position. On 7 May Brown said Alexander’s position had been misunderstood — neither he nor Alexander supported an early referendum! The following day Alexander told the Scottish Parliament that she wanted a referendum “now”. By the close of the week Brown and Alexander had issued parallel...

The “official” rate of inflation currently stands at 3% (for April 2008). The government uses a method to calculate it, called the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rise in prices for a specific set of consumer items, weights them by the proportion of money that is spent on each group (say 20% on fuel, 30% on food etc...) and averages it out across income brackets. That the CPI does not take mortgage repayments into account suggests it is a less than reliable measure. But worse, the CPI positively distorts the real cost of living increases for low-paid workers. Surprisingly, the...

At the start of May, US troops blockaded Sadr City, the huge mainly-Shia district of Baghdad where two and a half million people live and is the stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. They stopped food ration supplies. They moved in to the area close behind Iraqi government troops (close, probably, to deter the troops from deserting, as many did when the Iraqi army attacked the Mahdi Army in Basra in March/April). They bombed the area. They build huge dividing walls to limit Mahdi Army movements. On 8 March, the Iraqi army told residents of a part of Sadr City to move out of their homes...

I attended the first ever Social Forum in Kiev, Ukraine. Called by a coalition of Ukrainian independent trade unions and left wing groups for 1 and 2 May 2008 it included speakers from trade unions, and the anti-fascist movement, and special guest Dashty Jamal, an Iraqi trade unionist and refugee rights campaigner. The Forum started with a demonstration and march from Kriesthatyk to counter the state Stalinist-influenced May Day trade union march. 100 independent campaigners from Ukrainian anarchist and social movement organisations most notably antifa, a leading anti-fascist group. Dashty...

In France, students and teachers are continuing a huge strike against the Sarkozy government’s planned attacks on education which threaten to demolish state education, and open the way for a Blair-style “choice agenda” and private-sector expansion into education. French teachers and students, especially in lycées (equivalent to FE colleges), have been striking since February. Although the major teaching unions have been trying to “exhaust” the movement, calling occasional “days of action” over a long period, and holding back from sustained strikes, teachers and students have been organising...

From a statement by the International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe After the elections enthusiasm, as we revert to our routines, we are faced with the critical task of implementing our Central Committee resolutions — amongst them, unconditional but critical support to the MDC. This, obviously, will be difficult for comrades who had been firm with our previous perspective of no to elections arguing for the formation of an alternative to the MDC. Two things need to be carefully considered now. Firstly, how tactically to jump onto the changing wagon as late-comers who vehemently opposed the...

Comrades from all sides of the AWL’s debate on Iran/Iraq summarise what they they thought of the debate, what they think were the important arguments in the discussion and where they think the discussion can now go. Solidarity will continue this debate. Please send in (short) contributions. All members of the AWL agree on three basic points: 1. opposition to the occupation, 2. the clerical-fascist nature of the various sectarian movements and 3. that we give exclusive political support to the Iraqi labour movement, women’s and LGBT organisations. We wish to see these particular movements take...

Sheffield was to be the second city in England to host a Hooters franchise — the American restaurant chain where young “cheer leader/surfer girl-next-door” waitresses, wearing a uniform of “white Hooters tank top, orange shorts, suntan hose, white socks, solid white shoes, brown Hooters pouch, name-tag and of course...a smile!” are the main employee (http://hooters.com). Now the franchise contract has been discarded under pressure from a campaign. The AWL were not a part of the campaign. But I’m not sure about our reasoning. It was suggested the main anti-campaign — mounted by the Sheffield...

The split between the SWP and Galloway-sycophants in Respect has politically destabilised and reduced both sides. Destabilised in the sense that the SWP was presented with the problem of sticking to its perspective of building a populist alternative to New Labour whilst the Galloway faction lost its best organisers and activists. Reduced in the sense that both sides fared miserably in the recent London elections. The SWP, having lost the “cachet” of the Respect name through purely legalistic manoeuvring, resorted to running a campaign under the “Left List” title. In the face of major obstacles...