Solidarity 439, 24 May 2017

From the Iranian Workers’ Action Committee On 19 May 2017, the Iranian regime yet again held phoney [Presidential] “elections”to disguise the basic fact that it is one of the most repressive capitalist dictatorships in the twenty-first century. Along with the “presidential elections” there were also “local elections”in Iran’s cities and villages. Adopting the policy of an active boycott as on previous occasions, activists of the Workers’ Action Committee (WAC) went on the streets of many cities and towns in Iran sticking up posters, distributing leaflets and spray painting slogans against the...

Chelsea Manning was released from Fort Leavenworth, the maximum security prison on 18 May, after seven years of harassment, brutality and enforced solitary confinement. Manning was sentenced in August 2013 for leaking classified wire cables and military records to WikiLeaks. At the time she was a military intelligence analyst and for slightly bizarre reasons will remain classified as a member of the military for a period after her release. Soon after she was sentenced she went public with the fact she was a transgender woman. The US military continued to hold her in an all-male prison...

Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey unleashed a legal and political crisis. With the Justice Department appointing a special prosecutor to investigate over [Trump’s] objections, he could still claim he’s the victim of “the single greatest witch hunt in American history”. Don’t expect Trump’s downfall by the end of the month. In fact, don’t discount a Trump rebound if his handlers can somehow rein him in. Trump’s main adversary in the internal Washington power struggle is the law enforcement and intelligence services bureaucracy, which more than anything else wants a return to the status...

Only a rebirth of social hope can cut the roots of the vindictiveness-obsessed, death-obsessed political-Islamist movements. The bombing at the Manchester Arena, which as we go to press has killed 22 and injured 59, has been claimed by Daesh as its own. Experts say that may be inaccurate and macabre boasting; but almost certainly the killer was an Islamist clerical-fascist of some sort. We join many others in extending our solidarity to the families and friends of those killed and injured. It will be good if the police can arrest any who collaborated with the attacker, and good if the Iraqi...

#Rapeclause was one of the four most popular Twitter hashtags used by SNP MPs and MSPs in the run-up to the Scottish council elections held earlier this month. SNP MSP Humza Yousaf tweeted about “Tory born-again Brexiters and rape-clause advocates.” Fellow SNP MSP James Dornan explained: “If you’d rather vote for the Tories than SNP, you’re a right-wing Rape Clause supporting enabler.” (Ex-)MP Paul Monaghan tweeted: “The rape clause is beneath contempt and reveals nothing but a callous disregard for human life.” Fellow (ex-)MP Pete Wishart appealed: “Now more important than ever. Vote till you...

The British Center of the Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe, in its London conference, October 22-23, attended by delegates or observers from local Labor Parties, the Independent Labor Party, the Commonwealth and Fabian Societies, as well as several unions and pence organizations, produced a series of resolutions which are of importance to the world socialist movement. The resolution on "Political Relations Between Europe, Britain, the Commonwealth and Empire" point up the independent and democratic program for the unification of Europe as opposed to the "integration" scheme...