Solidarity 239, 21 March 2012

French killer targets Jews and Africans

Between 11 and 19 March 2012 a lone gunman shot dead three soldiers, three children and a teacher in the Toulouse region of France. Two of the soldiers were of North African descent and the third was from Guadeloupe; the teacher and children were Jewish, killed when the gun man randomly fired at crowds outside their Jewish school. The killer – it is almost certainly the same killer — is still at large. We only know that he appeared to target his victims and plan the killings carefully. We don’t know the exact motivation for these horrific killings but the possibility that this is the act of a...

Labour HQ: unholy alliances, hidden agendas

The Labour Party is creating a new Executive Board. Jon Lansman comments. There are some unholy alliances and hidden agendas here that the leakers are not keen to expose. Firstly it seems that Sir Charles Allen, Labour supporter, senior adviser to Goldman Sachs, former CEO of Granada and ITV, appointed to help review Labour’s management structure to make it fit for purpose, is himself to chair the new board. So Labour’s national executive is not going to get the board of six the executive approved, appointed and led by their chosen general secretary. Instead, a totally different structure has...

Brooks arrested, cancer persists

“But don’t rejoice too soon at your escape The womb he crawled from is still going strong” Bertolt Brecht It is good news that former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was arrested on 13 March, along with five other senior News International officials, for conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Brooks is one of Rupert Murdoch’s top aides. She is close friends with both David Cameron’s family and Tony Blair’s. It is relatively rare, in this society, for such big fish to get reeled in. Also pleasing is the fact that she did not seem to know that the arrest was coming. It is...

Don't let Mugabe jail Zimbabwean socialists!

Six Zimbabwean activists arrested in February 2011 at a meeting about the Egyptian revolution face up to ten years in prison after being convicted of “inciting public violence”. They were due to be sentenced today, Tuesday 20 March: they face up to ten years in prison, or a fine of $US2000, or both. The six convicted are Munyaradzi Gwisai (a former Movement for Democratic Change MP, before the MDC purged its left wing and then entered government with Mugabe), Tafadzwa Choto, Tatenda Mombeyarara, Edson Chakuma, Hopewell Gumbo and Welcome Zimuto. They plan to appeal the verdict. Please send...

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