Solidarity 138, 11 September 2008

At a recent NUS training event held at York University, Craig Cox, the newly elected education officer at the University of Nottingham, claims his sign reading "Bring back slavery" was simply a wind up. Cox, a Conservative Party activist, was responding to remarks made by a fellow Tory, who suggested that African-Caribbean students might increase knife and gun crime on campus. Cox was presumably suggesting the re-introduction of the enslavement of black people as a solution to this. The Nottingham University Black and Minority Ethnic Students (BME) Committee is determined to campaign for Cox’s...

Treasurer Michael Costa and Premier Morris Iemma resigned from the New South Wales Labor government on Friday 5 September. Fundamentally, it was a victory for the huge vote at the New South Wales Labor State Conference in May against their plans to privatise electricity. Iemma and Costa tried to push ahead with the plans, defying the conference vote, but eventually they were brought down. No NSW Labor Government will defy State Conference in a hurry again. For the first time in living memory New South Wales has a Labor Premier and Deputy Premier both from the “left” faction, although Nathan...

The second meeting of the “Checks and Raids” strategy group of the Campaign Against Immigration Controls was on Sunday 7 September. Activists, many new, discussed the situation facing migrant workers in London, with 150 workplace raids happening a week, where hundreds of workers are harassed by immigration officers and the police. Many have been detained and deported. Thousands more are now fearful of these raids. This is the outcome of the introduction in February of employer fines of up to £10,000 for every “illegal worker”, and a concerted campaign by government and the media to scapegoat...

An appeal from Education International (the international confederation of teacher trade unions) and the Swedish teachers’ union. Farzad Kamangar, a 33-year old teacher and former trade unionist from the Kurdistan Province of Iran, is at risk of execution following the ruling issued at an unfair trial. In spite of joint efforts from various national and international organisations to have death sentence of Farzad Kamangar commuted, it was upheld by the Supreme Court on 11 July 2008. Iranian trade union and human rights activists who show solidarity with Farzad are being subjected to...

Born in London in 1757, William Blake lived through both the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, and witnessed the vicious repression in Britain after these events by the ruling class. Although a deeply spiritual, religious, man, he was nevertheless appalled by the condition of his fellow human beings and laid the blame squarely on the twin evils of Church and state. Blake was part of a group of close-knit skilled artisans who placed more weight on the moral value of their products than the market value. The fierce independence Blake sought throughout his life manifested...

Review of The Duchess The reviewers said it would be pants (bloomers?) and so it was in the main. I went to see it because I’m a sucker for costume-drama feminism. And really, if the story had been told as it should have been, I would have been appalled, moved... something other than bored and slightly irritated. Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, is married at 17 to the most powerful aristocrat in England at the end of the 18th century. Her husband is a complete prick, albeit one with half a dozen gigantic houses (which in the film seems to make life worth living for Georgiana)...

Review of Her Naked Skin This is the first play written by a living woman to be staged at the Olivier (National Theatre). It is a love story set against the backdrop of the suffragist struggle of the early 20th century. The scene is set with the appropriate props — the sash, the placard, the banner, and shocking original footage of Emily Davison’s fatal leap in front of the King’s horse — before the characters are introduced to us one by one. Each have been imprisoned for crimes associated with their involvement in the Women’s Social and Political Union. At this point the play is both funny...

Responding to Sean Matgamna’s dicussion piece in Solidarity 3/136, “What if Israel bombs Iran”. Was Sean’s article scandalous? No. Was Sean’s article badly written? Is it clear exactly what his position is from reading it? Yes and no respectively. Was Sean’s article balanced? Is it adequate? Does it give a rounded view of the issues? No, no, no. Sean’s analysis of the situation is essentially no more than that Israel is threatened by the clerical fascists and “homicidal religious lunatics” that make up the ruling circles of Iran. There is assumed to be no class or political differentiation...

Perhaps the most positive development at the TUC congress was the formation of a new Trade Union Co-ordinating Group, led by left-wing MP John McDonnell and bringing together the RMT, PCS, NUJ and FBU (with the POA, NAPO and BFAWU expected to come on board soon). The group aims to act as a workers’ voice in parliament and coordinate the parliamentary work of trade unions. Its formation is a positive step, and is a clear indication that at least the leaderships of some key unions are thinking practically about the issue of working-class political representation rather than just making...

As the new term begins, teachers will be discovering the full extent of the chaos and incompetence which plagued this year’s SATs tests. They face the arduous task of reviewing returned scripts and considering whether to spend precious time and money on the appeals process. The SATS debacle has left the government vulnerable over testing. The Anti-SATs Alliance has begun to re-mobilise. It may soon launch a petition against testing, and plans a conference in the Autumn. Consideration of a new boycott call, or other action against testing, has begun inside some unions. Why is this action...