Solidarity 471, 30 May 2018

The Third Irish Revolution?

Have you heard the ultimate “Irish” joke? In a referendum on a united Ireland the Protestant Unionists of north-east Ulster campaign for “no” on the grounds that the South is too liberal. The people no longer fear God, maybe scarcely believe in God, and refuse to listen to their spiritual advisers. The two-to-one vote on 25 May to rip up the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution — entrenched there by a referendum in 1983 — was a great empowering and liberating event for the women of Ireland, Mná na hÉireann. Legislation to allow abortion will soon follow. The yes vote in the referendum on...

Diversifying sexuality

This book that is simultaneously poignant, thought-provoking, ground-breaking and refreshingly honest. Subtitled as ‘A Trans and Non-Binary Guide to Intimacy, Pleasure and Relationships,’ Queer Sex is really a first foray into the possibilities of trans sexuality, intimacy and desire. This foray dovetails with Roche’s own experiences as a trans woman seeking intimacy and fulfilling sexual relationships. As Roche illustrates very clearly, for some trans people, the genitals and sexual organs they were born with may be seen by themselves or by society as a “problem” to be mitigated with hormone...

The 1980s and left antisemitism

Consider Ken Livingstone and the Labour Party, Al Capone and the US government. They jailed Alphonse Capone, a multiple-murderer gangster, for tax evasion. That was odd, but I think it better they got him for that than that they didn’t get him at all. So with Ken Livingstone’s separation from the Labour Party on antisemitism. Livingstone has for nearly four decades been a public purveyor of political antisemitism. Here I want to consider how serious antisemitism has spread into the Labour Party by way of the ostensibly revolutionary left — the WRP and the SWP — and their ex-members migrating...

Labour and Brexit: members must decide

In response to the continuing fiascos and scandals about the shape of Brexit, the Labour Party is edging towards a “less-Brexit” stance. But it remains evasive. Labour members and trade unionists must be able to debate this out at Labour conference on 23-26 September this year. The labour movement needs a policy debated through the ranks, not just “managed” by self-accredited sages and scribblers in the Leader’s Office. Only then can it have ideas which it can take out to the unorganised and the wavering voters, to convince them. The latest eye-opener came from Britain’s tax chief on 23 May...

The financial fantasy of "Scotland's Future"

After two years in the making, the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission Report “Scotland – The New Case for Optimism – A Strategy for Inter-Generational Economic Renaissance” was finally published last week. The 354-page report is meant to remedy the deficiencies of the SNP White Paper “Scotland’s Future”, the basis of its pro-independence campaign in the 2014 referendum. “Scotland’s Future” was criticised at the time for its facile economic assumptions, reckless predictions, and glib optimism about the economy of an independent Scotland. The new document effectively concedes the validity of...

Bastani: why won’t you debate Brexit?

Aaron Bastani, co-founder of online news platform Novara Media, has responded to an article in the Guardian on 26 May about calls for a debate on Brexit at the 2018 Labour conference... by trying to witch-hunt the AWL. The article quotes three anti-Brexit Momentum members in support of the call for a debate. On Twitter Bastani accuses the AWL of being behind a “plot” with the Labour right to destabilise the Corbyn leadership through a debate on Brexit policy. To build up his ludicrous picture of an AWL plot, Bastani says Rida Vaquas, one of the activists quoted in the Guardian , is a member of...

New Gaza violence likely on 5 June

On Tuesday 29 May the Israeli military launched new air strikes on Gaza, after mortar rounds were fired from Gaza into Israel. The Israeli military said they had targeted Islamic Jihad and Hamas bases, but one bomb fell in a kindergarten playground, not killing anyone. None of the mortar rounds reached Israeli targets. Hamas, the Islamic clerical-fascist group which rules Gaza, has given some signals that it currently wants to get a temporary deal for economic relief, rather than military escalation. Islamic Jihad, rather than Hamas, may have fired the mortar rounds. However, Hamas has called...

Macron: next big protest 2 June

On 26 May, the mass mobilisations against French President Emmanuel Macron’s anti-social reforms continued, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in demonstrations billed as a “popular tide”. Macron wants to cut jobs on the rails, close rural branch lines, break up the state rail company and make it easier for employers in the transport sector to hire workers on insecure, low-paid contracts. These reforms come alongside a raft of other attacks, on education and health in particular. The demonstrations came on the back of an internal referendum conducted in the state railway company...

Italy: Salvini sets the pace

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has refused to confirm the appointment of Euro-critic Paola Savona as Minister of Finance in the new coalition government of the populist Five Star Movement and the Lega Nationale. With Mattarella’s decision (taken, he said, “to save the constitution”) and the subsequent resignation of the newly-appointed Prime Minister, the obscure Professor Conte, the government has collapsed. As the markets took fright after the government’s fall, the cost of financing Italy’s two trillion dollar public debt has risen alarmingly, to its highest point since 2014...

Once left wing, now corrupt

At least 83 protesters have been killed so far as Nicaragua’s once-left-wing president Daniel Ortega deploys police and troops against street demonstrations and blockades demanding his resignation. The protests first exploded in mid-April against Ortega’s plan to increase workers’ social-security benefits and cut pensions. On 22 April, Ortega retreated on that. Protests have continued. They reached a new high on the weekend 26-27 May, after talks mediated by the Catholic Church broke down. Ortega’s main bases of support have been the bosses’ group COSEP (Superior Council of Private Enterprise)...

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