Solidarity 204. 18 May 2011

Anarchism and a classless society: response to AWL from North London Solidarity Federation

Recent issues of Solidarity have carried debate on the differences and similarities between Marxist and anarchist traditions. Here, North London Solidarity Federation (an anarcho-syndicalist group) responds to “Working-Class Struggle and Anarchism” which appeared in Solidarity 3/195. Anarchism, as the author points out in Working Class Struggle and Anarchism , is a rather broad label, so it would be hopeless to try and identify a single tendency with all of its various groupings. Similarly Marxism, historically and currently, has a million and one offshoots ranging from North Korea and Open...

Egypt's new unions reach out

Egypt New political voices are emerging within the independent trade union movement which has exploded into existence since January. The unions themselves now have 250,000 members and have begun to organise groups of workers previously unorganised even by the old official unions — in fishing, street cleaning and farming. A doctors’ strike in May was successful — with an 80% turnout — despite opposition from the leadership of the Doctors’ Syndicate (the leader of the Syndicate broke the strike). The newly-formed Workers Democratic Party, which aims to be a political voice for the working class...

The hardest anti-colonial war

Outside the Law is Rachid Bouchareb’s second film to deal with the colonial relationship of France to his native Algeria. It focuses on the Front de Liberation Nationale’s (FLN) guerrilla war against France in Paris from the early 50s up to Algerian independence in 1962, as seen through the story of three brothers. The film sets the context in two scenes which show their family being evicted from their ancestral land on the orders of a French colonialist and the death of their father in the Sétif massacre, in 1945, after French police opened fire on peaceful Algerian nationalist demonstrators...

Return of the slums?

In this programme, author and journalist Michael Collins reviewed the history of council housing and interviewed some of the people whose lives were shaped by it. He presented it as a social experiment with a legacy of failure, and described the vision of “council housing for all” as “utopian”. The programme nonetheless went some way to redressing Tory and right-wing denigration. Before the great council house building programme of the 1945-51 Labour government, “the slum landlord” was king; most working-class people lived in hovels, often paid exorbitant rents, and had no security of tenure...

E is for exploitation

Which workers do you think of when you hear the word “exploitation”? The list will include contracted-out workers for some of the biggest brand names — Nike, Primark, Apple — domestic servants, immigrant farm hands, workers who toil hour upon hour for a pittance in pay. They live under constant threats, they work in dangerous conditions, and many are forced to live like indentured slaves. The bosses who employ these super-exploited workers can make a lot of money very quickly. But making a profit from production does not rely on such extreme conditions. The owners of fully unionised workplaces...

Why super-injunctions are good

It is rare to find an issue that unites all of the press — left, right and centre. Still harder when that issue is considered controversial, involving complex moral and legal issues. How then to explain the unanimity of the press? The matter under discussion is the use of so-called “super-injunctions” to prevent the publication of sex scandal stories involving celebrities. The daily diet of the British tabloids is stodgy with tales of which premiership footballer slept with which model and which C-list soap star is having it off with which “Big Brother” housemate. Hence the outrage that they...

Ugandan vote on death penalty for gays deferred

The Ugandan parliament adjourned on 13 May, leaving homophobic legislation undebated. However, independent MP David Bahati pledged to re-introduce the bill after the elections. LGBT rights organisation AllOut call the lack of progression on the bill a “victory”, congratulating the signers of its 1.4 million strong petition which has put enough international public pressure on the Ugandan president to ensure the bill’s deferral. But the bill itself and the attacks against LGBT activists in Uganda in the wake of the bill are still terrifying. Although Bahati proposed withdrawing the clause that...

Will Greece default?

At the start of May, Portugal followed Greece and Ireland into a European Union/ IMF financial “bailout”. At about the same time, the clamour of economists predicting that Greece’s bailout cannot possibly work became deafening. “This effort has failed: the cost of borrowing [for Greece, etc.] has risen, not fallen... The chances of renewed access [for Greece] to private lending on terms that the country can afford are negligible” (Martin Wolf). “Here’s a hint for Europe’s politicians: if the math says one thing and the law says something different, it will be the law that ends up changing”...

Tidemill: second push for academy

On 4 May the Governors of Tidemill Primary School in Deptford voted to make a second application to become an academy. The school had hit the national news headlines last year because of the £142,500 salary of the headmaster, Mark Elms. The first application to become an academy was met by a vibrant local campaign led by parents of children at the school. That application was shelved when the parents exposed misleading financial figures in the initial application, and made a legal challenge. But, despite the opposition of local MP Joan Ruddock, Lewisham Council, Lewisham NUT and a large number...

Victory at Rawmarsh

Teachers at Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham have struck a significant blow in the battle against job cuts by saving the last remaining job under threat. Although NUT rep Ralph Dyson will not be returned to full-time work, the threat of redundancy has been withdrawn and Ralph has been offered a 2.5 day-per-week contract (he will also be on 1.5 days union facility time). The dispute has been long-running and shows very clearly what is possible when unions take action in pursuit of specific, clear demands (in this case, no redundancies) rather than striking simply to register a protest at...

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