Solidarity 466, 11 April 2018

Part three of Jill Mountford’s series on the history of the struggle for women’s suffrage. Part one of this series was published in Solidarity 462 ( here ) and part two in Solidarity 463 ( here ). Parts four and five will appear in future issues. The story of women’s suffrage is conventionally divided into the militant suffrage campaign led by the WSPU and the constitutional one led by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Not until research done during the second wave of feminism, the women’s movement of the 1970s, was a third strand added to the story — the radical...

In the recent furore about antisemitism on the left triggered by the uncovering of Jeremy Corbyn’s 2012 defence of Kalen Ockerman’s mural Freedom for Humanity, much of the coverage found it unnecessary to explain the nature of the mural’s antisemitism. But explained it should be, if we want to learn from the episode rather than just use it as a factional gambit. First, there is the Eye of Providence which is depicted on the dollar bill, but is a common piece of antisemitic iconography (see below). Then, the depiction of the bankers and capitalists. Most clearly, the banker on the left...

The consequences in Ireland of Britain leaving the European Union are among the many strong reasons why Labour should oppose Brexit and demand a second referendum before Britain actually leaves the EU. For Britain, the consequences of Brexit will be dire as well as being reactionary. For Ireland they may be catastrophic. Brexit means recreating a full-scale border between the two Irish states, Six Counties and 26 Counties. The independent Irish state will remain in the EU. The Northern state, despite the vote of the majority there to stay in the EU, will leave the EU as part of the UK. A...

On 23 March — the day that has been dubbed “Black Friday”— tens of thousands of predominantly young activists descended on the centres of Poland’s major cities demanding the far-right Law and Justice government drop its plans for abortion reform. Abortion law in Poland is already one of the most restrictive in the western world. The only exceptions under which a woman can obtain an abortion are in the case of a threat to the mother’s life, severe foetal abnormality or where conception is as a result of a crime (incest and rape). The reform proposes to remove the exception in cases of foetal...

The Israeli army has killed 44 Palestinians, and injured hundreds more, after Israeli Defence Force (IDF) snipers opened fire on demonstrations on Israel’s border with the Palestinian territory of Gaza, on Fridays between 30 March and 27 April. One protestor, 18-year-old Abdel Fattah Abdel Nabi, was shot in the back as he turned to flee IDF fire. Another victim was Gazan journalist Yaser Murtaja, killed by a bullet to the abdomen underneath his bullet-proof vest clearly marking him out as a member of the press. While the bulk of both demonstrations have been peaceful and unarmed, some...

In news that will surprise almost no one, the country’s most comprehensive data collection on pay by gender has shown that men are paid more than women. The figures show men are paid more than women in 7,795 out of 10,016 companies and public sector organisations in Britain, in terms of median hourly pay. No sector pays women more. Men are also paid higher bonuses than women. Though there are cases where women are paid less for the same job, this is not the cause of the gender pay gap. Many low-paid jobs are predominantly done by women, particularly in the caring and service sectors. High paid...

Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian woman, was filmed slapping and kicking Israeli soldiers outside her home in response to their repression of a demonstration in December 2017, when she was 16. She was arrested and jailed, and has now struck a plea bargain to serve eight months in jail, with a NIS5,000 fine (around £1,000). According to the Israeli human rights campaign B’Tselem, this is an example of ongoing mistreatment. B’Tselem says: “The conviction rate in Israel’s military courts in the West Bank is almost 100% — not because the military prosecution is so efficient, but because...

As I write on 10 April, US stock markets are recovering after dipping in the wake of tit-for-tat tariff announcements by US president Donald Trump and by the Chinese government on 4-5 April. Trump and then the Chinese authorities have announced new 25% tariffs on a range of imports from each other. Those are bigger than and additional to the new tariffs introduced by Trump in March on steel and aluminium, and the Chinese retaliations for them. With China running a more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger, responsible-adult pose, majority plutocrat opinion is now hoping that the announcements are largely...

On 8 April Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011 and until recently the leader in opinion polls for Brazil’s next presidential election in October this year, surrendered to police to begin a 12-year jail sentence for corruption. Brazilian politics has been swamped for the last four years by corruption scandals. They got Lula’s successor as president, Dilma Rousseff, removed from office in May 2016. Since Lula is already 72 years old, this jail sentence may take him out of politics for good. Under Brazilian law he is now disbarred from the presidential election. That...

On Sunday 8 April 2018, Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ party (Hungarian Civic Alliance) and his partners, the Christian Democratic Party, won 134 seats out of the 199 in the Hungarian Parliament. This is Orbán’s third victory. He has the two-thirds majority he needs to run roughshod over the Constitution. The campaign was in effect run on a single issue – immigration, although Hungary has the third lowest level of immigration in the whole of the EU. Xenophobic rhetoric of the worst kind spewed out from the Orbán camp. If you believed him, Hungary was about to be overrun by Jihadists, terrorists...