Solidarity 474, 4 July 2018

The elections on June 24 have unsurprisingly resulted in Erdoğan being elected as president of the new political setup which was narrowly voted for in a constitutional referendum about a year ago… All state resources were employed, 90% of the media have been turned into government bulletins, the image of Erdoğan appeared like Big Brother on every media outlet, while opposition candidates were largely kept away from public view in almost every field. The Erdoğan regime, composed of the state, party, religious orders and the media merged into an organic whole, had a free hand in resorting to all...

With the support of 119 Labour MPs the government got a proposed third runway at Heathrow through the House of Commons on 26 June. The government cites numerous benefits from expansion — to international trade and new foreign direct investment for example. Unite and the GMB, the largest unions representing workers at Heathrow, are uncritical backers of the project, citing only the prospect of new jobs as the key factor in assessing whether an infrastructure project is good or bad. The Transport Select Committee’s report on the proposal stated that the government were unclear on the...

Q: Labour’s current policy on Brexit is framed by Keir Starmer’s “Six Tests”. These tests, if applied, would almost certainly rule out Labour endorsing any Tory Brexit. Why aren’t the six tests enough? A: We know that a Tory Brexit deal will not meet those six tests or be compatible with socialist values like defending migrant rights or workers’ rights. So, what happens next is key. That’s why we’re campaigning for a people’s vote: a referendum on the deal, with the option of remaining in the EU. Because democracy is about people being able to change their minds — and that’s especially...

As the Tories stumble, grassroots opposition to Brexit is swelling. Some 100,000 marched in London on 23 June to demand no Tory Brexit formula go through without a referendum on it — many times more than marched the next Saturday for the NHS. The “Left Against Brexit” tour organised by Another Europe is Possible starts on 4 July in Manchester. In many cities Workers’ Liberty people are helping to set up “Left Against Brexit” committees, for the tour meetings but also to continue and grow after that, with debates, street stalls, motions and speakers to labour movement bodies. Crucial here is to...

The thermometer-busting moment of the 2008 economic crash was the collapse on 15 September 2008 of Lehman Brothers, then the USA’s fourth-largest investment bank. It was the biggest bankruptcy in US history. After it, it seemed doubtful for a while whether the other big investment banks could survive without drastic reshaping. By 2017, so the Financial Times reports (12 June 2018), “group-wide profits last year of $78.4 billion across the top nine investment banks — excluding the much-changed Bank of America — were higher than the $75.4 billion recorded in 2007”. Investment banks are...