Solidarity 225, 17 November 2011

Anti-euro? Anti-capitalist?

Should the left campaign for Greece to quit the euro? Or should it campaign for anti-capitalist demands, accepting that this may lead to a break-up of the euro, but aiming for a united Europe restructured on different lines? That was the key issue of dispute in a well-attended debate in London on 12 November, organised as part of the annual conference convened by the journal Historical Materialism. The platform speakers were: • The French Marxist economist Michel Husson, speaking to the approach he advocated in Solidarity 224 (www.workersliberty.org/node/17731); • Costas Lapavitsas, a...

Nuclear power: decisions shaped by class interest

In Solidarity 224 Les Hearn argued for socialists to welcome some of the latest developments in nuclear technology as one alternative, amongst others, to fossil fuels. Stuart Jordan debates the issues. This year a group of scientists in Tel Aviv successfully replaced a part of a rat’s brain with a computer chip. This remarkable achievement could be the first step, along with other developments such as cochlear implants and prosthetic limbs, to a future human civilisation where human organs are enhanced by machines — a world of cyborgs. Whether or not such technologies are desirable will not be...

Italy: a crisis also for the left

As the world’s financial markets closed in to kill off Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, his equally odious Minister of Defence, the ex-fascist Ignazio La Russa, underlined sarcastically the grim paradox of the dramatic events unfolding in Rome. “It makes me laugh to see how all the leaders of the Italian left are so happy to celebrate the arrival in government of their class enemy Mario Monti and with him the world of finance, bankers, capital and the forces that they stand for.” For once, La Russa was spot-on! Berlusconi’s ignominious exit owed little to the left. It owed everything to the...

Greece: down with the bankers' government

On 10 November, Greece’s two main parliamentary parties, Pasok (roughly similar to Labour) and ND (equivalent of the Tories), agreed after marathon negotiations to appoint Lucas Papademos as prime minister. LAOS, the ultra-right populist party, and DHSY, a split from ND, enthusiastically supported him. The Green Party and DHMAR (a centre-left split from the Eurocommunists) discreetly supported him. All the above parties form a “black coalition” to meet the demands of the EU-ECB-IMF Troika, the financial speculators, and the asset strippers, and make the majority of the Greek population pay for...

An Iranian road?

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chair of the National Transitional Council in Libya, has declared that post-Qaddafi Libya will be governed by Islamic sharia law, and so polygamy will be legalised and usury banned. In Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly elections at the end of October, the Islamist party Nahda won over 41% both of the votes and of the seats, a better result than had been predicted. An October opinion poll in Egypt (Al Masry Al Youm, 11 October) found fully 67% undecided, 10% refusing to answer, 13% opting for liberal or secular parties, and 9% for Islamist parties. (Though on Egypt’s peace...

Unite workers to remake Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for “completing economic union” and “building political union in Europe step by step”. Urging radical new moves to save the collapsing eurozone, she advocated on 14 November that the European Union’s Council of Ministers be redefined as an upper house of the elected European Parliament, and direct election of a president of the European Commission. Working-class activists and socialists should want a democratic united federal Europe. Within Europe, “capitalism in one country” — a system of each country managing its capitalist affairs on its own, with...

Maximum wage in local government?

What would we think of saying councils should pay top execs no more than, say, 10 times the lowest paid? As propaganda but also as something achievable, i.e., abolish bottom or top grades? Of course it doesn’t say all we need to say — no cuts, build more homes, etc. But it would highlight the obscenity of £160k public servants cutting care homes, play services, nurseries and mainly low paid jobs.

Iron Lady

The “Iron Lady” movie, out on 6 January, would be a good opportunity to do a meeting about what Thatcher was really like and show a film of the miners’ strike. The trailer is horrendous; the blurb on the website says this: “The Iron Lady tells the compelling story of Margaret Thatcher, a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and intimate portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman.” Critics have called the film Thatcher without Thatcherism. It’s our...

An olive branch to anarchists?

By Jordan As an anarchist I would like to congratulate Yves Coleman on his article What Trotskyists should know about today’s young anarchists ( Solidarity 224), and the AWL for publishing it. It’s obviously a generalisation, as the author admits, but it captures parts of reality that it would be a mistake to miss. I’ve been reading the releases on the AWL website for a while now. It’s the first time I’ve found something that feel genuinely talks about anarchists (other than anarchist rebuttals that occasionally appear), not endless strawman attacks on particular individuals within the...

Tory press struggles with border controls

Last week the Express, Mail and Telegraph were, unsurprisingly, leading on the scandal around Theresa May and the “relaxation” of passport checks by the UK Border Agency. But aside from the predictable xenophobia it wasn’t at all clear what they actually made of it. It is striking that, despite this being the subject closest to their hearts (challenged only by the linked obsession with Europe), these papers are not the place to go if you want to understand what the problem is or what has caused it. In Parliament the debate has focused on whether May was acting improperly by rushing to blame a...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.