Solidarity 287, 29 May 2013

Until recently we knew Syriza would at least support all workers’ struggles. Syriza might not take the initiative for struggles, it might not propose a plan for them, but at least Syriza would support them. The Greek secondary school teachers’ strike was due to start on 17 May. Syriza collaborated with Pasok’s trade union network, Paske, and New Democracy’s, Dake, to call it off. Syriza, which is seeking a popular mandate from the Greek working class to form a government of the Left and overthrow the EU/ECB/IMF Memorandum, could not even carry through the mandate from the General Meetings of...

A report by the charity Oxfam, published ahead of EU talks on tax evasion, shows that there is £12 trillion hidden in tax havens around the world. This figure is enough to eliminate “extreme poverty” worldwide, twice over. The figure represents a daily loss of £156 billion. Two thirds of the amount is stored in EU tax havens, including Luxemburg, Andorra, and Malta. £4.7 trillion of the total sits in British Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies. A 2012 study by the Tax Justice Network into similar practises showed that 0.001% of the world’s population control 30% of its financial wealth...

A City Hall discussion on possible reforms to the Transport for London pensions scheme provoked an angry response from the Rail, Maritime, and Transport workers union (RMT), which organises workers on London Underground. Some London Assembly Tories want the scheme reformed to bring it in line with the (worse) scheme available to local government workers. A London Assembly budget committee is also discussing possible cuts to the travel pass scheme which currently allows Tube workers to nominate a family member for a free travel pass. The City Hall discussions follow another recent attack, in...

This year's TUC Disabled Workers' Conference roundly condemned government attacks on disability rights, and pledged action against cuts in jobs and benefits. Meeting in London on 23 and 24 May, around 200 trade union delegates debated issues including work capability assessments, benefit cuts and the propaganda war against claimants. On the first day, Conference adjourned an hour early to take part in direct action against the cuts, blocking Tottenham Court Road for an hour. Two Conference fringe meetings discussed autism and neurodiversity in the workplace, and disabled access to public...

This year’s Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) conference (21-23 May) heard that the union will be taking action in early and late June and hopes to link up with the teaching unions for their action from 27 June. DWP and HMRC members have a week of regional one-day strikes from 3 June; smaller departments and commercial organisations will strike on 30 or 31 May. Conference finally voted to support the introduction of a strike levy and the inclusion of selective action as a tactic, after years of Workers’ Liberty supporters and others unsuccessfully proposing this. The leadership has...

RMT members working for Northern Rail have voted by a 58% majority to strike against management’s use of agency labour in new areas. Northern Rail has been using the Trainpeople and G4S agencies to carry out work, including checking tickets. Management claims this is only a “trial”. Under the Agency Worker Regulations 2010, agency workers employed in equivalent work to directly-employed staff are entitled to the same pay, terms, and conditions. But employers have found loopholes in the law, and do not guarantee agency workers the same job security as directly-employed staff. If Northern Rail...

Around 30 prominent Palestinian leaders, most from Fatah but some from other groups within the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, have signed a statement saying the two-state solution in Israel-Palestine is no longer viable; the only “realistic” demand is for one democratic, secular state for Arabs and Jews, made up of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The PLO has had a “two states” policy since 1988. The group, calling itself “Popular Movement for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine”, say they are frustrated with zero progress on negotiations and Fatah’s passivity in the face of...

In the aftermath of the Woolwich killing on 22 May all of the press, to one degree or another, and within the constraints of their own individual styles and prejudices tried to make sense of the horror. Events like Woolwich are straightforward for the right-wing press to deal with. Crazed Muslims attack an off-duty soldier in the most brutal way imaginable in broad day light on the streets of the capital. The killers obligingly hang around to deliver on camera a religiously-inspired rant against “the west” warning that “you people will never be safe”. Cue recycled reports of hate speeches from...

The murder of an off-duty soldier in Woolwich, South East London on 22 May should be unequivocally condemned. The young men who did it seem to have been ultra-Islamists — supporters of violently reactionary theocratic politics. Islamists — whether ultras or softer varieties — are a threat to many others besides off-duty soldiers. Islamism is a threat to the working class, in the first instance the Muslim working class. It is also directed against women, LGBT people, atheists and secularists, dissidents and critical-minded people in Muslim-majority countries and in some Muslim communities in...