Solidarity 180, 9 September 2010

Jimmy Reid – the people’s Stalinist

Who was the Jimmy Reid who died in August of this year? What, if any, was his political legacy? And why was he the object of such outpourings of posthumous praise from even right-wing political commentators? Reid was born in Govan in Glasgow in 1932. After a brief spell in the youth section of the Labour Party (the Labour League of Youth, LLY) he joined the Young Communist League (YCL) at the age of 16. In his autobiography Reid attributed his switch from Labour to the YCL to his revulsion at the careerist aspirations of local LLY members, his disillusionment with the record of the then Labour...

Australia: the mining bosses shape the Government

Speaking at the University of Queensland (Australia) on 26 July, former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz told the audience: "The mining companies have just sacked your Prime Minister". Now the mining companies have semi-sacked the whole government. If labour movements run in the face of strong-arm tactics by the bosses, then they overtake you and stomp on you! On Tuesday 7 September, the deadlock following the 21 August federal election was finally broken by two of the three ex-National-Party independents in the House of Representatives backing a Labor administration. That gives Labor just...

The "Ground Zero mosque" controversy

The controversy over the proposed Islamic Centre — The Cordoba House, now known as Park51 — several blocks from the site of the World Trade Center evokes a rather strange memory from my own youth. During the 1950s, the Jewish community in a small Long Island town, to which my family belonged, wished to build a Jewish Center on that town’s Main Street. After all, that was where all the other communities had built their churches. Of course, the Jewish community was reassured that building a house of worship and community center was certainly within its rights. And no one would dream of denying...

After Bradford: an open letter to the SWP Central Committee about anti-fascist activity

Comrades: Yet again the racist thugs of the English Defence League were able to stage a major provocation without significant molestation from the organised left and labour movement. Any honest assessment of the events in Bradford on 28 August would demand a serious rethink on your part. The main report on the Socialist Worker website is not only short on honesty but verges on the edge of delusion. In place of honesty, your comrade Mark L Thomas describes the day as ending in “utter humiliation” for the EDL and claims that credit for that rests ultimately with the efforts of Unite Against...

Vote Abbott, transfer to Ed Miliband, organise the left!

Ballot papers for the Labour Party’s leadership election were sent out on Wednesday 1 September. As the contest reached its last stages, Tony Blair, while promoting his memoirs, intervened to defend (his) New Labour record and implicitly to back David Miliband over his brother Ed. Blair fears that Labour in opposition could be pushed to the left. He thinks David Miliband becoming leader could stop that. For once Tony Blair is not wrong. If David Miliband becomes leader it will galvanise those suited careerists in the Labour party and unions who think with fondness about New Labour political...

Defend William Hague!

William Hague is a scummy Tory, Foreign Secretary in the anti-working-class Tory-Lib-Dem coalition. His sexuality has nothing to do with it. He could be gay, straight, bi, celibate, or an avid life-long molester of pink Pomeranian poodles, and it would be nobody's business but his own and that of his partner, Ffion. It is shameful that he may be driven out of politics by a mudstorm of allegations about his sexuality. For enemies of the Tories and of the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition government to exult, and if goes to shout, "One down, 22 to go" would be to miss the point. His going would make no...

Guided by the light?

Tom Unterrainer reviews Strategy and Tactics by John Rees (Counterfire). At a time when the abject disarray of the British left is its overwhelming feature, we would normally appreciate some – any – effort to ‘think things through’. But when the ‘thinking’ is little more than a screed of dishonest mysticism and self-congratulation – as is the case with John Rees’ new book – we should be wary. At the SWP’s ‘Marxism’ event immediately after Rees’ magnificent severing of links with George Galloway and Respect, you could overhear long-standing members comment on “the biggest joke” of the year...

No, the pope is not welcome here!

The website Socialist Unity is not exactly a bastion of socialist thought. Andy Newman, the man behind it, supports everything from Iran’s mature democracy to foxhunting, and defends articles attacking Peter Tatchell’s ‘gay imperialism’ (translation: not supporting religious homophobia). His recent article, Pope Welcome Here (see here ), really takes the biscuit. Not only does Newman defend the government’s decision to spend £12 million hosting the Pope, he also claims that religious leaders deserve not merely our tolerance but our respect, writing ‘Christianity is still a major cultural and...

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