Solidarity 213, 3 August 2011

South Australia's unions do what Britain's unions should have done

South Australia's unions have just done what Britain's unions should have done before 2003 at the latest: sacked the right-wing Labor premier. Unions have been campaigning to oust Mike Rann as Labor leader for some time. Wayne Hanson, state secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), the most conservative of Australia's big unions, moved a motion at the South Australian Labor Party conference to demand Rann resign. “The reason why the Labor Party was established was because the unions [knew] we needed to elect our own representatives to parliament to make the laws that cared for workers...

Labour Party: the Hain report, and the need to make the unions fight for their own policy

The "Hain report" on Labour Party democracy has been published (or at least a "summary report" has been: it is not clear whether any fuller document will appear later). It is disappointing. Union and Labour activists need to fight a rearguard action to salvage what can be salvaged at Labour Party conference in September 2011. The Hain report has gone to Labour's National Executive Committee and you can download it here . Jon Lansman, joint secretary of the Labour Party Democracy Task Force , which has been campaigning for the review to democratise and open up Labour Party conferences so that...

Marxism 2011: thoughts on a disunited left

A few weeks ago, I attended the Socialist Worker’s Party’s Marxism Festival. Despite the fact that I disagree with some aspects of the SWP’s political programme and some of their methodology, I approached the Festival with an open mind, and mainly as an educational opportunity. The timetable read like a who’s who of today’s left: John McDonnell, Mark Bergfield, Judith Orr, Alex Callinicos, and Terry Eagleton were all on hand to share their wisdom. Marxism 2011 didn’t explicitly advertise itself as an educational event, but the implication was there. The subtitle of the event was ‘ideas for...

How the Bourgeois Press Moulds 'Public Opinion'

James P Cannon reviews The Big Wheel by John Brooks (in four parts) 1. The Mind Molders at Work What would people think about the larger questions of general interest and concern if they were free to make up their own minds; if they got full information and heard all points of view, and were not pressured, badgered, bulldozed and blackjacked into thinking what they are supposed to think? If the reference is to the state of affairs in the police-ruled and regimented domain of Stalinism behind the Iron Curtain, it will be recognised at once that this question is in order. When one source...

Mass murder in Norway: far-right political terror

By bomb and by bullet, Anders Behring Breivik delivered mass murder upon Norway. The ‘motive’ for his rampage, which resulted in the deaths of at least 76 people, is not the stuff of a psychological thriller. The truth of his ‘motive’ – or what we know of the truth so far – is much worse. Breivik’s actions were based upon a cool, considered and in their own terms ‘rational’ political calculation. For political ends he took innocent lives and he is now set to use the Norwegian courts as a stage to justify himself. A more macabre pantomime it would be hard to imagine. What do we know of Breivik...

Is Ireland becoming a proper bourgeois republic?

If you’ve been following the news from Ireland you will be aware that the 26 counties are throwing off Rome rule and becoming a republic, a proper modern capitalist secular republic. The latest investigation into child abuse in the Cloyne Diocese has revealed that the Vatican has been advising the Vicar General of the diocese that the joint State-Church guidelines on reporting sexual abuse are optional. This is the third diocese to be exposed for systemic abuse. The UN initiated an investigation into the “Magdelene Laundries” concentration camps for girls and young women who had babies out of...

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