Viva Venezuela!

An important gathering of progressives from the labour movement and beyond will come together in London on April 16, to discuss how we can learn from and further build support for Venezuela, a country at the forefront of the struggle for peace, justice and socialism in the 21st century, writes Richard Irons.

Reading the coverage of the corporate press of the country, very few people would know that since the election of Hugo Chavez as President of Venezuela in 1998, enormous changes have taken place in that country, transforming the lives of millions, including:

• the eradication of illiteracy after 1.5m people learnt to read and write in just two years


• the introduction of free education for all, with the number of university students trebling


• a free National Health System being introduced, which is estimated to have saved 240,000 lives.


• 4 million Venezuelans being lifted out of poverty since 1998 with poverty rates falling by half and extreme poverty by two-thirds


• The adoption of a new constitution and social policies that guarantee rights for women, indigenous and black communities and disabled people


• Measures to protect and extend workers’ rights, with the minimum wage now the highest in Latin America, with the privatisation and outsourcing of public services now illegal.

The sum total of this is that Venezuela has met the UN Millennium Development Goals, on poverty, gender equality, inequality and many more, way ahead of schedule – unlike most countries that are going to miss them.

A Voice for Peace and Justice in the World

But Venezuela’s progressive role goes beyond social progress at home, it is also a leading voice for peace, justice plus non-alignment, seeking an end to neo-liberalism internationally and a new, multi-polar world order.

Examples of this include playing a leading role in both ALBA – a ‘bloc’ of progressive nations in the region such as Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua that is putting trade in a context of social development rather than private profit- helping them remove the ‘dead hand’ of debts to the West and bodies such as the IMF plus World Bank.

Additionally, President Chavez has been a vocal opponent of the adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya, recently arguing that "We know what's going to happen: bombs, bombs, war, more suffering for the people, [and] more death," when asked about the air strikes on that country. Venezuela is also a great friend of the Palestinian and Libyan people, and their quest for justice against Israel’s illegal occupations – for example, expelling the Israeli Ambassador during the bombardment of Gaza in 2009.

Lessons to be Learnt & Solidarity Needed!

Here, in Britain, and in many other places in Europe and the world, millions of people are looking for alternatives to the failed ‘solutions’ of cuts and privatisation. To these people, Venezuela can show that governments can put people first – despite the effects of the global recession, Venezuela has continued to both lift people out of poverty and expand their social spending!

Many lessons can be learnt from specific struggles and social programmes in that country, which is why so many are looking to it as a progressive beacon. Of course, equally as a leading critic of neo-liberalism and US imperialism, the Venezuelan Government has many enemies, both across the world and in Venezuela itself, including those worried about ‘the threat of a good example.

Venezuela’s government is still under constant attack from the former ruling elite who previously ran the country into the ground, and their allies on the hard right in the US who, following recent electoral gains, have regained confidence in calling for intervention and ‘regime change,’ with Republican Connie Mack recently arguing for the US to "confront Hugo Chavez directly."

Of course, the continual electoral victories (14 out of 15 national elections) of Chavez and his coalition (led by his own United Socialist Party, and including the Communist Party of Venezuela and others) does not alter their perspective in this one bit! Additionally, allies of the Venezuelan Opposition in the international media continue to propagate disinformation in an attempt to isolate the government internationally and prevent the truth about social progress from reaching a wider audience.

It is therefore vitally important in the run-up to 2012’s presidential elections in Venezuela that we continue to spread the truth and counter media misrepresentations. All who support social progress should show their solidarity by joining the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign and attending our major event on April 16, which will bring together guests from Venezuela, elsewhere in Latin America, Europe and Britain to discuss not only what we can learn from Venezuela but what we can do to offer support.

The Venezuela: Defending the Majority, Not Punishing the Poorest Conference , supported by the TUC, and many others is on April 16 at Conway Hall, London, WC1R 4RL. Speakers include Venezuelan trade union leader Jacobo Torres, women’s leader Juana Garcia, a former Higher Education Minister Samuel Moncada, and Andreína Tarazón, youth and student leader of the Hugo Chavez-led PSUV political party.

You can register online and get more information at http://www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk/ or register by post by sending a £9 (£5 concession) cheque to ‘Venezuela Solidarity Campaign,’ c/o PO Box 56210, London, N4 4XH. The event is followed by a dinner and celebration of Venezuela at Bolivar Hall with live Latin music – contact info@venezuelasolidarity.co.uk for more information.

No War for Oil!

By New Worker correspondent

OVER 100 demonstrators, many of them Libyan students, took part in an peace protest against the London Conference on Libya at Lancaster House last Tuesday. The protesters, hoisting green flags, chanted 'Stop bombing Libya', “Hands off Libya', “No war for oil”, 'Down down Cameron', and ' Down, down Obama”.

No one was allowed to get near the conference venue and the protest was confined to a street leading to Lancaster House. “As always when they get these people together there is an exclusion zone or a security zone,” said Chris Neiman of Stop the War Coalition. “We are protesting because we think Western intervention in Libya is a disaster,” he said. “ We are here to say that Western leaders should have learned by now from Iraq and Afghanistan that you can't bomb a country into democracy. What is liable to happen – what is already happening – is that Western bombs are causing civilian casualties. They are creating a situation which will be perceived as one in which Western powers are leading a third war against a Muslim country. I just can't understand why or how this can possibly help any move towards democracy by the people of Libya. I think this is liable to draw the country and the draw the West into a widening war, possibly lead to the partition of the country but do nothing to improve the lives of the people of Libya”.

“I am protesting here today because we don't believe that military might is the way to stop complex political problems”, said Kate Hudson the General Secretary of CND. “Our concern is that the increasing use of military force, including the quite substantial use of cruise missiles and other missiles will result in large numbers of civilians casualties. We think it is up to the Libyan people to decide for themselves who runs their country and how their country is run and they should come to their own conclusions about that. We are here today particularly outside this conference because increasingly the agenda is looking less like the supposed humanitarian mission that was spoken about a week or so ago. Now the talk seems to be about regime change for Libyan, the West's role in political change in that country, the West's role in helping to rebuild that country and helping to determine its future. It is clear that the West has had a long history of involvement in North Africa and in the Middle East. That involvement has generally led to the disenfranchisement of the people of those countries and that process has to end. Foreign countries should be out of Libya and other Middle Eastern countries and those countries should decide for themselves what relationships they wish to have with other independent states. So our view is Libya must determine its own future without Western or any foreign military intervention”.

“We are against the war, we don't want our children and our families to be killed”, said Dekhil Ramadan a Libyan student. “That is the reason why we are here. We are supporting our families and our country. We support Colonel Gaddafi. All the tv news you are seeing is a lie. They don't tell us the truth. They are only portraying one view. They just show all the news for one view. The people they call the revolutionaries or the rebels they are not revolutionaries. They destroy all the buildings. If you want to have a demonstration it has to be peaceful. Like in Egypt and Tunisia. This is not a demonstration. There are people from Egypt, Tunisia and Pakistan so we see that Al Qaeda is there. The people who have been captured are from Algeria, from Afghanistan and from Yemen. So it is not the Libyan people who are taking part in this demonstration. The Libyan people have to demonstrate, not people from other countries”.

“I want this bombing to stop. That is why I am here,” said Huda Shebani a Libyan student who has taken a break from her studies to defend her country. “I want these countries to take their hands out of my country because we can solve our problem ourselves. That is why I am protesting. Every day my family is calling me and telling me they started bombing us in my home town. They destroyed even my college. They say they are saving the civilians. What civilians are they saving? They want our oil and say they are saving civilians. Why don't they just say we want your oil? We will defend ourselves”.

We've marched together...

...now let's strike together!

By New Worker correspondents

NEW COMMUNIST Party comrades from all over the country descended on London to join more than half a million demonstrators last Saturday to take part in the TUC’s March for the Alternative to the massive cuts in public jobs and services being implemented by the Con-Dem Coalition.

The protesters came from every trade union you can name and from every city, town, hamlet and village in the country. They came by coach, train, bus, bicycle, wheelchair and on foot. And there were solidarity contingents from Europe. The march through the heart of the capital was so big that five hours after the head reached Hyde Park marchers were still thronging past the giant statue of Achilles, festooned with banners, placards, balloons and ribbons. The marchers could be heard coming from far away – armed with whistles, vuvuzelas, brass bands, jazz bands, songs, chants and slogans.

The Fire Brigades Union brought a banner expressing solidarity with the firefighters of Wisconsin. FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: ““I am sure many of you will have been following the remarkable struggles in of trade unionists, students and local communities against attacks on public services and trade union rights Wisconsin and other US states. To send solidarity greeting, the FBU has produced a special ‘Stand with Wisconsin banner for the demonstration’.” He also said: “Cameron and Clegg have launched a war on working people and today’s demonstration is the start of the fight-back. They expect us to suffer tax increases, pay cuts, unemployment and devastation of our pensions to pay for the crisis their friends in the city caused. They should expect the fight of their lives.”

At the rally in Hyde Park there was a long list of speakers from the galaxy of the union movement including Len McCluskey of Unite, Michael Leahy of Community, Brendan Barber of the TUC, Dave Prentis of Unison, Bob Crow of RMT, Mark Serwotka of PCS, pensioners, leaders of Black and minority ethnic organisations, representatives of European trade unions, students, disabled workers and people from the world of show business – all introduced by TV presenter and comedian Tony Robinson.

In his speech Len McCluskey repeated his call for the Met police to “keep your sleazy hands off our kids”. He called on Labour MPs to come to “the barricades” and saying that the country needed “coordinated industrial strike action” and more “direct action”. Few Labour parliamentarians would go that far these days. But some were part of the vast crowd in Hyde Park which heard Labour leader Ed Miliband declare that he was “profoundly moved” by the turnout. “David Cameron, you wanted to create the big society. This is the big society,” he declared. Miliband was the first Labour leader to attend a demonstration of any kind since Michael Foot back in the early 80s. In the past most of the people filling Hyde Park were workers of the kind that the bourgeoisie called the “the salt of the earth”. Yet Miliband was attacked in the bourgeois press and media for associating with them.

The lines for a serious class war are being drawn – by the ruling class. In his speech PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka restated his union’s opposition to all cuts and called for joint strike action. He began: “What a fantastic turnout. Now, let me start with a story. Before Christmas, I went with the leaders of the TUC to meet the Government. Do you want to know something amazing about the Government – everyone on their side of the table was a multi-millionaire.

“And these multi-millionaires, they tell us we’re all in it together. But they don’t use our services and they don’t use all the things we care about in our community. “And let me tell you another thing, they have no mandate whatsoever for these cuts… “Now listen. Let’s be clear about this demonstration and something my union feels passionately about. And let the journalists and the media hear it loud and proud. We must oppose every single cut in public spending. No cuts. No Cuts whatsoever.

“And why do we oppose every cut? Because if we don’t we will have to choose between young people and pensioners; between public sector and private sector; between those on welfare and those in work. We should defend every student, every pensioner and every worker wherever they are.

“So, let’s also be clear about two things to finish. There is an alternative to the cuts, and I’ll tell you what the alternative is. Let’s collect the tax that is avoided by the rich people in this country.

“And while we’re at it, while we’re at it, let’s start naming the scroungers. Sir Philip Green from Top Shop – what a scrounger he is. In one body swerve he avoided paying a quarter of a billion pounds in tax by investing it in Monaco….

“Now look around you in this park. Imagine what it would be if we didn’t only march together, we took strike action together across all of our public services.

“And let’s be clear, whether you work in health, in schools, in the civil service, in private industry, wherever you work. We are stronger when we march together, so let’s ensure that we strike together to let the government know we won’t accept it.”

Thoughts on the Commune

By New Worker correspondent

COMRADES and friends recalled the heady days the Paris Commune at the Fitzrovia community centre in central London last week. The Communards established the first workers’ government in 1871 following France’s defeat in the war with Prussia. Though it was brutally suppressed by the French bourgeoisie the Commune’s acts and decrees during its two months of freedom were, as Marx said, the prototype for a revolutionary government of the future. The meeting, organised by the London District New Communist Party, began with tributes from Neil Harris of the NCP, Thierry Schaffauser from Left Front Art and Mushtaq Lasharie from Third World Solidarity followed by a round-table discussion on the meaning and lessons of the Commune for workers today.

photo: Andy Brooks making a point during the discussion

Bahrain's struggle for freedom

By New Worker correspondent


The struggle of the Bahraini people for democratic rights was the topic of the meeting of the Metropolitan New Worker Supporters Group last week. London supporters were briefed on the developments in Bahrain by Karen Dabrowska who has written many articles for the New Worker over the years. This was then followed by a general discussion on the current struggles throughout the Arab world.
The Metropolitan supporters group is chaired by Andy Brooks and it meets every month in the Sid French library at the Party Centre in south London and membership is open to all regular readers of the New Worker .

No to War!

by Theo Russell

Peace campaigners gathered opposite Downing Street on Sunday for an emergency protest called by the Stop the War Coalition against the Western-led military aggression against Libya.
Left Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn told protestors that the action “is all about oil, it’s about control, and it’s sending a message to the rest of the region that we can do this if we want to,” adding “I fear we will are going to be involved in a ground war”.
“There is unbelievable hypocrisy here. Thirty people were killed in Yemen on Thursday, last week protestors were shot in Oman, and the Saudi army is now occupying Bahrain.”
Condemning the Arab League’s support for the so-called “no-fly zone”, Corbyn asked “Which leader of the Arab world is not under pressure from his own people who want human rights, freedom and democracy?”
“You reap what you sow, and we have sold arms to every country in this region. Only three weeks ago we were happily trading and buying oil from Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya,” Corbyn said, and added that as yet there is no undertaking from the British government not to us use cluster bombs or depleted uranium weapons.
George Galloway of the Respect Renewal party reminded the protesters that Sunday marked the eighth anniversary of the launching of “the Shock and Awe savagery against Baghdad”, and predicted: “This bombardment of Libya will not succeed. This will be a long war, and the radicalisation of the Arab world will proceed apace”.
Recalling the involvement of European colonialism in North Africa, he said “the last time Italian forces were in Libya, they were wearing the uniforms of Mussolini Fascism. Only last year Silvio Berlusconi agreed to pay €5 billion in compensation for war crimes committed during the Italian occupation of that country.”
And he recalled that “the Algerians had to give one million martyrs to drive the French out of their country.”
Galloway said that when asked last Saturday which Arab countries were participating in the operations in Libya, a senior Pentagon spokesman had replied: “those countries prefer that their names are not mentioned in public”.
Linsday German of the Stop the War Coalition said “the coalition government is taking us into a third war in this region,” and said “The people of Libya will not be helped by this intervention, they will be harmed, just as the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have been harmed.”
She said Cameron, Sarkosi and Berlusconi were using this opportunity “to cover up their failed domestic policies by launching another war.”
“The Arab League signed up to this attack as a quid pro quo so that Saudi forces could enter Bahrain. There are now 400 political prisoners in Bahrain, including the leader of the opposition, yet there’s not a word from our government or the BBC.”
German ended by listing the demands of peace campaigners: “Hands Off the Middle East, no interventions, stop all the wars, and bring all the troops home”.

Police officer taped his own offence

A POLICE officer engaged in trying to arrest a student during one of the anti-tuition fees demonstrations at the end of last year incriminated himself, it appears, when he apparently forgot he was wearing equipment often carried to record suspects as he chased the 20-year-old.
He detained the student, who suffered a chipped tooth during the incident on 9th December, after he breached a cordon.
The Met officer then discussed making up reasons to arrest him with two colleagues, internal investigators believe.
All three are on restricted duties and warned they face a criminal probe for conspiracy to pervert justice. They could also be sacked.

Remembering Marx

At Highgate…


By New Worker
correspondent

A NEW COMMUNIST Party delegation joined other communists and progressives in saluting the memory of Karl Marx at the annual ceremony in Highgate Cemetery in north London last Sunday.
NCP leaders Andy Brooks and Alex Kempshall, along with Robert Laurie, and Daphne Liddle from the Central Committee represented the New Communist Party, along with New Worker supporters from London. The turnout included Library committee members, members of other communist parties around the world and delegations from the London embassies of socialist countries, including Cuba, People’s China and Vietnam and the Sudan, and Iraq many of whom laid flowers at the grave.
Every year a representatives of the working class movement are asked to give an address and this year Robert Griffiths, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, opened with a brief tribute to Marx and the Paris Commune. This was then followed by a keynote speech from the Cuban ambassador Esther G Armenteros Cárdenas.
She spoke of her first encounter with the name of Karl Marx as a schoolgirl in Cuba. The day after the Batista regime was thrown out, for the first time she and her schoolfriends were free to play on the beach that had been fenced off for the exclusive use of the very rich – certainly not for young black children from very poor households. As they were playing a small plane from Florida passed over, scattering pamphlets that called on them to fight the new “Marxist dictatorship”.
Comrade Cardenas and her friends were well pleased with the new freedoms and improvements in living standards and within a few weeks, thousands of workers who had never heard of Marx before, were ready and willing to fight to defend their Marxist state – as they did in the Bay of Pigs incident.
The ceremony on Sunday ended fittingly with a rousing chorus of the Internationale!

photo: Andy Brooks at the tomb of Marx

...and the Party Centre

by New Worker
correspondent

THE IMMENSE contribution of Karl Marx to the cause of socialism was remembered by comrades and friends at the New Communist Party’s London Centre last Saturday at a reception to mark the 128th anniversary of the passing of the founder of scientific socialism.
As usual the main meeting room and the print shop were transformed for the bar and buffet and during the formal part of the celebrations tributes to the work and struggle of Marx were given by Dermot Hudson of the UK Korean Friendship Association, John McLeod of the Socialist Labour Party, Ernie Hunt from the RCPB (ML) and NCP General Secretary Andy Brooks.
No NCP event goes by without a collection for the New Worker and Dolly Shaer from the Politburo spoke graphically about the struggle to ensure that our communist weekly comes out every week. The comrades responded by raising some £200 for the fighting fund. Most comrades left at 10.30pm but the die-hards kept the bar open till well gone twelve!

photo: digging deep for the fighting fund

For service to the movement

By New Worker
correspondent

ROBERT LAURIE’S long service on the committee of the Marx Memorial Library was recognised at a presentation at the Star pub in Highgate Village following the graveside address at Marx’ s tomb last Sunday.
Robert, a member of the Central Committee of the NCP, resigned from the Library’s governing council when he moved back to Scotland last summer. But he follows the progress of the library through its newsletter and keeps in touch when he comes down to London for events and meetings.
The gift was presented by the Marx Library Chair Fred Williams and it was appropriately an inscribed whisky decanter, which Robert said would be put to good use when he got back home!

Progressive London conference

“The worth of a city is how it treats its people”.

By Theo Russell

LABOUR movement and trade union activists came together at the TUC’s Congress House in London on 19th February for the third Progressive London conference, at which two of the main topics were Ken Livingstone’s campaign to become mayor in 2012 and mobilising for the TUC demonstration on 26th March.
Linda Perks, secretary of Unison’s London Region, told the session on spending cuts that in the coming financial year 80,000 public sector job losses were expected in the capital along with “increased charges across the board”.
She said the “Pathfinder” bodies replacing NHS primary care trusts and supported by private companies, would see “large trusts gobble up failed ones”, and said “in 10 years there will be no NHS hospitals left, and hospitals could be listed on the Stock Exchange”.
“Academy schools will also effectively become private businesses, while whole college and university departments and London’s three Royal Mail sorting offices are expected to close,” she said. “This will have a major impact on employment in London and lead to a huge rise in welfare benefit costs.”
Hackney Mayor Jules Pipe, who is leader of London Councils, said: “Tory health advisor David Halpern is proposing European-style ‘patient hotels’, in which patients and partners are shown how to clean wounds, to put in drip lines, and manage their own treatment.” He said this was part of a wider Tory agenda of renouncing government responsibilities, such as providing lollipop ladies to ensure children get to school safely.
On the vital question of the role of Labour councils in implementing cuts, Pipes said: “It’s pointless protesting against councils where cuts are being made. Protests should be against those people who question the foundations of almost every service.”
This position was supported by Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, who said: “Not all Labour councils are the same – some engage more than others”. He gave the example of Greenwich, which was sacking Unite stewards and “acting like the worst Tory councils”.
James Mills, from the campaign to save the Education Maintenance Allowance, said that getting rid of EMA would actually cost millions more and was therefore driven by Tory ideology. According to the Audit Commission, “NEETs” (people not in employment, education or training) cost far more in benefits than if they were doing courses.
He said the think tank “experts” who proposed scrapping EMA now all have jobs at the ministry of education. Looking at the grim prospects for young people, Mills said some middle class families were “auctioning” their children for city internships costing up to £4,000.
He also quoted Katharine Birbalsingh, the teacher who became the star of the Tory conference with a rabid attack on comprehensive schools, as describing young people on EMA as “i-pod-listening goons”.
McCluskey said the cost of servicing Britain’s national debt was less than any time between 1945 and 1977. “This is class warfare that we are seeing against us, and they try to make us believe there’s nothing you can do about it.” He recalled how Margaret Thatcher, who at the time seemed unassailable, was brought down over the Poll Tax and predicted: “Justice will prevail – we will achieve what we want”.

Ireland – “A depression, not a recession”

Mitchel McGlaughlin, senior Sinn Féin negotiator, told the session on Ireland: “When Sinn Féin proposed transferring fiscal powers from London to Belfast it was opposed by every other party. Now every party in the Assembly supports that idea”. The Treasury’s response was to warn if this went through grants would fall by £300 million.
“The banks are now targeting small businesses under EU laws which allow them to change the terms of loans, making peoples’ savings and homes liable,” he said.
McGlaughlin called for a “coalition of the left” after the election in the Republic, saying that “replacing Fianna Fail with Fine Gael will not get a stable government. It won’t be long before people’s anger boils over again”.
He also warned: “The Franco-German pact at the last EU summit giving Brussels control over government deficits, will not be subject to a referendum and so rules out the indexing of wages and prices.”
Michael Burke, an expert on the Irish economy, said the country was experiencing “a depression, not a recession, with a 20 per cent fall in economic activity”.
“The government deficit is now twice the level of GDP as Greece and three times that of the UK. And the Fianna Fail-led coalition is cutting unemployment benefits by a quarter to encourage emigration as a safety valve”. More than 100,000 people have already left Ireland since 2007, many young and skilled.


London: “A tale of two cities”

Labour front bench member John Trickett told the final conference session that one in five households in London with work are also in poverty and described London as “a tale of two cities, with the shameful sight of US-style food parcels being handed out”. Of the 200,000 new jobs created in London in 2010, almost 95 percent were only part-time. Meanwhile average pay at Barclays Capital went up almost 50 per cent in 2010-2011 to £236,000.
He said: “After 1945, when the national debt was 250 per cent of GDP (compared to around 70 per cent now), we built an NHS, we built an education system, and we built affordable housing.”
Diane Abbott described the erosion of hard-won rights for women and minorities in the NHS, one of the main employers in London, and said “in the new NHS, it will be last in, first out. We are fighting for nothing less than the NHS itself.
“On top of this women will now have to work to the age of 65, housing benefits are being cut, and tuition fees are being tripled”. She added that she had voted against the introduction of tuition fees and the Iraq War.
Shadia Edwards-Dashti from Students Stop the War said that in higher education “social sciences are being bled dry, the very source of ideas”. She called for “a broad education, accessible to all and to all communities” and pledged that students would continue to fight despite being “kettled like cattle and deprived of liberty”.

Livingstone: bring back rent controls

In his keynote speech Ken Livingstone said spending cuts began early in London: “Under Boris Johnson every capital spending programme has been cut except the bike hire scheme sponsored by Barclays.”
He predicted fares in London “will eventually increase by 50 percent”, and 13,000 fewer new houses would be built during Johnson’s term. He also quoted research showing that most of Johnson’s campaign donations had come from hedge funds – among the most reckless and profitable financial speculators in existence.
“All this is happening,” he added, “in the richest city in Europe, with a GDP 20 per cent ahead of the next richest city, Brussels, and twice the European average. Despite this London has by far the worst poverty and social inequality of any major city in Europe.”
Livingstone said: “During his three years in office “Boris has held seven press conferences, 43 meetings on policing, 60 meetings with government ministers, and 70 meetings with bankers.”
He called for the restoration of the rent controls which were abolished by Margaret Thatcher, pointing out that New York still has controls on private rents even now.
“The proportion of GDP going into wages has dropped from two thirds to 54 per cent in 30 years. There is no crisis requiring international intervention in the immediate future,” he said, adding that Britain’s national debt was substantially higher than the European average “because we need weapons to fight America’s wars – against the Soviet Union and now against Middle East”.
Referring to the election of Ed Milliband, he said that “for the first time since John Smith I’m confident that we have a Labour leader I can talk to,” adding that John McDonnell was “the first left-wing Labour candidate to get onto the leadership ballot for 20 years”..
“I’m delighted that my campaign is proudly supported by trade unions.”
On the vital question of how Labour councils should respond to spending cuts, Livingstone recalled the stand taken by George Lansbury and 29 Labour councillors in 1921, who went to prison for refusing to implement a large increase in the rates in Poplar, East London. ”The worth of a city,” he said, “is not its buildings and towers, but how it treats its people”.

Supporting the struggle in Bahrain

By New Worker correspondent

LONDON comrades, including NCP leader Andy Brooks, joined hundreds of other protesters outside the Bahrainian embassy in London's Belgravia last Saturday in support of the pro-democracy demonstrations that have swept across the oil-rich Arab Gulf state.
The demonstrators called for a halt to the brutal suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrations, the release of all political prisoners and the end of King Al-Hamad al Khalifa's dictatorship in Bahrain.
Speakers included members of the Bahrainian community in London, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and members of the Stop the War Campaign.

Make the rich pay!

by New Worker correspondent



MORE than 100 protesters gathered outside Southwark Town Hall in south London last Tuesday night to tell Southwark Labour council: “Stand with us; Don’t do Tories’ dirty work; make the rich pay!”
They were lobbying a full meeting of the council that was set to implement cuts imposed by the Con-Dem government.
The protest was organised by Southwark Save Our Services and the Coalition of Resistance, who warned: “If the council push this budget through we will get: 580 vital council jobs cut including housing, children’s services, health and more.
“Early years centres cut; youth services cut; Orient St Respire Home cut; play schemes cut temporary accommodation cut; housing repairs, emergency furniture, hostels cut older and disabled people’s support services cut; day centres cut …” The list went on a long way.
At the rally outside the Town Hall Sue Cane from the local trades council spoke of the promises the Labour councillors had made during the election when they took control of the borough from the Liberal democrats to protect the jobs, wages and conditions of all their workers.
Tracy Edwards from the PCS civil service union spoke of billions of pounds in tax that the banks and other big businesses – who were rescued two years ago from economic collapse by taxpayers’ bail-outs – are avoiding paying by the use of tax havens and other measures.
And Tony Parsons of Southwark Pensioners’ Action called for more people to get involved in the fight against the cuts.

• Lewisham
  
  AROUND 1000 people defied the rain last Saturday to take part in a Carnival of the Cuts. The protests began in the morning with groups with placards, megaphones and leaflets outside various libraries, unemployed centres, children’s centres and other places threatened by the cuts.
  At 1pm the protestors made their way to Lewisham Town Hall where they assembled for a noisy and colourful march through the High Street to Lewisham Library.
  Earlier in the week protesters had occupied New Cross library, which is threatened with closure.
  
  
  
  
  

Rallying for Livingstone in London

By Theo Russell

LABOUR movement and trade union activists came together last Saturday at the TUC’s Congress House for the third Progressive London conference, at which two of the main topics were Ken Livingstone’s campaign to become mayor in 2012, and mobilising for the TUC demonstration on 26th March.
Livingstone told delegates that spending cuts had begun early in London with the election of Boris Johnson, hitting every capital spending programme. He said the proportion of GDP going into wages has dropped from two thirds to 54 per cent in 30 years, and declared: “I’m delighted that my campaign is proudly supported by trade unions.”
Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary, pointed out that the cost of servicing Britain’s national debt was less than any time between 1945 and 1977. “This is class warfare that we are seeing against us, and they try to make us believe there’s nothing you can do about it.”
He recalled how Margaret Thatcher, who at the time seemed unassailable, was brought down over the Poll Tax and predicted: “Justice will prevail – we will achieve what we want”.
Diane Abbott pointed out that the NHS is Britain’s largest employer, especially for women, and recalled the past struggles for minorities to achieve equal status, and said “in the new NHS, it will be last in, first out”.

Defending the NHS

By New Worker correspondent

DEMONSTRATORS protesting against proposed NHS cuts stood outside the headquarters of the British Medical Association (BMA) in central London last week while doctors debated and eventually voted overwhelmingly to oppose the Government’s plans.
An overwhelming majority from the BMA’s London regional council backed a motion calling on the BMA to dump its policy of “critical engagement” with the Con-Dem coalition and move to stop the health and social care bill in its tracks.
The debate was opened by BMA council chair Hamish Meldrum who stressed the importance of “separating some of the rhetoric from the reality” surrounding the Health and Social Care Bill.
Dr Meldrum highlighted the BMA’s opposition to the Government’s “reforms”, which were defended by Tory health minister Simon Burns and opposed by his Labour Shadow minister Diane Abbott.
Some doctors openly jeered Burns during his speech. When he finished the Tory minister had to face a string of questions from doctors demanding to know why the Government had not tested its plans and also why many of the key elements of the health bill were not included in the coalition’s manifesto.
The call for all-out opposition the NHS cuts is being debated in all the BMA’s divisions across the country and this will be the central issue on the agenda at a special representative meeting in March to agree on future national policy.

What lessons can we learn from Queer DIY activism?

By Anton Johnson

AS GREATER London Association of Trade Union Councils LGBT Officer I get to go to a wide range of LGBTQ events in London and I am constantly impressed with the innovation and energy of the Queer DIY events. These events have the origins in the DIY and party scene of the early 1990s and have evolved with each new generation of participants.
The Queer DIY scene in the early 1990s gave rise to groups such as OUTRAGE! and ACT-UP London which did not sit easily with the more traditional Lesbian & Gay campaign organisations at the time, such as the then Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights (LCLGR), while others such as Organisation of Lesbian and Gay Action collapsed into OUTRAGE! I straddled the divide as LCLGR community officer in the early 90s and a working relationship was developed where the skills of both types of work were recognised.
These approaches worked within the National Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition that was set up to resist attacks on Lesbian and Gays in 1991 by John Major’s government – attacks that spanned the Operation Spanner to fostering regulations in Paragraph 16.
In 1992 the NLGRC organised a conference bringing together LGB / Queer activists together – to learn from each other in order to work together for liberation. The conference had speakers from LCLGR, UNISON, Lesbian & Gay Anti-Racist Alliance, Feminist Library, Queer Anarchists, Socialist Outlook now called Socialist Resistance and the then called Socialist Organiser and was supported by the then National Communications Union. This conference brought together LGBQ activists from different traditions in some joint working. With the NLGRC shutting down in 1993 that formal link ended.
Over the years connexions have been made between the formal LGBTQ labour movement organisations and the DIY activists that has worked well. From 1999 – 2002 Queer activists were involved in the high profile Freedom to be Yourself Campaign – the right to go naked – these activists marched naked at the London Pride in 2001 and supported LCLGR initiatives in the early 2000’s. Those same activists are still involved and linked to Left Front Art through their involvement with Q&A café and Behind Bars and other LGBTQ art events.
Queeruption that started in Brixton in 1998 and grew to be a successful gathering in different cities around the world till 2008 was a great example of LGBTQ grassroots activism that worked with the formal LGBTQ Labour movement – I attended the ones held in London and Amsterdam in 2004.
Today we see the large Behind Bars events and the smaller but incredibly creative clubs such as KAOS and Antagony bringing young LGBTQ people into activism – though a different activism – one that requires practical participation, one that says everyone’s voice is valid and heard, one that addressed racism, one that allows Queers to be themselves but be involved in political activism, one where there are no “leaders” but collective action and people are accountable – all the things union broad lefts state as an intention.
Some involved loosely label it as anarchism yet this is not how the majority label themselves – not at all in fact. What it does allow them is to be involved and fuse their activism with other areas – art/music/discussion/pleasure/sex. Behind Bars events in London and similar in other cities such as Berlin and Barcelona attract thousands of predominantly young LGBTQ people.
The organisers of these events are not hostile to trade unions or organisations as such – they are in fact members of the GMB but they do feel alienated from the structures, which they rightly see as overly hierarchical, not supportive of grassroots activism or their sexuality and culture.
The events such as Behind Bars are brought from nothing – simply an empty building – those skills and creativity go on to inform LGBTQ events such as ACTART and the annual Sertuc LGBT Network event in February. These activists have regular jobs – teaching, shop work, public services and so on. Yet they are able to inspire and mobilise people from their communities, which the traditional labour movement struggles to do. Why is this? For whatever reason many in the LGBTQ communities do not feel comfortable in the traditional labour movement structure. As stated many see it as a vehicle for opportunist careerists.
So how do LGBTQ activists in this area achieve the sort of working approach that union broad lefts aim for but fail to achieve in many cases? It could be that those Queers are shaped by their experiences and the struggles they faced from discrimination and possible alienation from their families and they have put into practice the ideal of collective working and creation of safe spaces.
The negatives that I have observed over the years are that quite often people in this scene revert to an individualist positioning and adopt a libertarian approach in other areas of life – end up in fact a Tory of the worst kind. Look at how many former 1970’s hippies now adopt assertive management policies to attack workers terms and conditions.
Though there are opportunities to exchange and for learning with the new onslaught from the Con-Dems we are seeing LGBTQ grassroots groups spring up all over the country in opposition to the Con-Dem ideologically driven cuts. In Brighton, London, Bradford and Manchester creative actions such as the recent one by Queer Riot in Manchester are coming together under Queers Against the Cuts, which now meets at TUC Congress House. Ronan McNern of Queer Resistance spoke at a anti-cuts rally organised by Lambeth TUC – since that rally he has decided to join the union covering his workplace.
There is a good exchange of ideas going on at the coal face – through the positive work being done. With Queer DIY activists joining trade unions, organising the unorganised, there is now an organising list set up by a GMB activist of over 200 male sex workers in London and they will be having meetings at Bonnington café in Vauxhall soon. A group of Queer activists is setting up a rural commune in Europe over the coming year.
Through initiatives such as Prolecult we have materials for the TUC National demonstration and regular Morning Star stalls and the New Worker at Queer DIY events.
Rank and file labour movement activists can learn the practical skills and new ways of communicating and of working while showing by example what communism means.
With the resistance against the Coalition government growing, if you have a Queer anti-cuts group in your area, include them. You will find they are very open to working together.
The Queer DIY scene gives a fresh injection into the practical aspects of communism and this allows for an exchange.

Thierry Schaffauser from Left Front Art will be one of the speakers at the New Worker public meeting on the Paris Commune in March.
The next Queers Against the Cuts meeting is on Monday 21st February 2011 – 7pm at TUC Congress House London WC1.








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Joining Hands with Egypt's millions

By a New Worker correspondent

IT WAS to have been a demonstration in support of the struggle to end the Mubarak dictatorship. It turned out to be a festival of solidarity with the Egyptian people rejoicing at the departure of Hosni Mubarak and the end of his 30 years of tyranny.
Thousands packed the square to see scenes from Cairo’s Liberation Square beamed via a video link onto a giant screen and hear speakers from the labour and peace movement.
Last Saturday’s rally in London’s Trafalgar Square was called by the TUC, Stop the War and Amnesty International as part of a “Global Day of Action” in solidarity with the Egyptians, who had taken over central Cairo three weeks ago kicking off pro-democracy protests across the country that eventually forced the hated dictator to stand down on Friday.

Korea: A Birthday celebration in London

By a New Worker correspondent

LONDON comrades joined other friends of the Korean people at a seminar and reception at the RCPB (ML) headquarters last week to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Kim Jong Il.
The seminar at the John Buckle Centre was organised by the Friends of Korea committee and the proceedings were opened by Dermot Hudson, whose contribution was followed by those of Michael Chant and Chris Coleman of the RCPB (ML) and Andy Brooks of the NCP.
A message of congratulations to Comrade Kim Jong Il was unanimously adopted with great enthusiasm followed by a buffet reception and continued political discussion for some time on this happy occasion.

photo: Michael Chant

Bahrain's day of rage: Popular revolution spreads to the Gulf

By Karen Dabrowska

AS THIS issue of the New Worker goes to press around 3,000 pro-reform demonstrators have laid out blankets in the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the Bahraini capital, where a massive pearl sits at the apex of a circle of inward-sweeping arches.
Bahrain is the first Gulf state to which the popular revolution has spread, inspired by the examples of Egypt and Tunisia.
Bahrain’s security forces foiled plans for a mass gathering in Manama on 14th February. Rubber bullets and tear gas were fired at demonstrators. More than 20 people were injured, two of them critically in clashes in Shia villages that ring the capital.
According to the Bahrain Freedom Movement columns of Saudi army trucks crossed the causeway between the two countries in the wake of the coming protests. "This Saudi intervention will have incalculable consequences", the movement's London spokesperson Dr Saeed Shehabi told the New Worker, emphasising that Bahrainis are determined to pursue their peaceful revolution.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry said those involved in the deaths of two people have been placed in custody. "We express our regret over those who died or were injured in the latest incidents and extend our sincere condolences to their families and to the people of Bahrain," a statement on the ministry's website said.
On 16th February thousands of people gathered for a peaceful funeral procession for Fadhel Matrook (31) killed when clashes erupted during another protester's funeral procession, Nabeel Rajab President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights said. Demonstrators took the body from a mortuary and marched to a cemetery with no police presence on the streets.

While demonstrators gathered in the Shia villages, among them Diraz, Daih, Newidrat and Karzakan in Manama, supporters of the government honked car horns and waved Bahraini flags to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the referendum (14th February) in which 98.4 per cent voted for a constitutional monarchy in which the Emir would become “king” and the state would change the country’s name to the kingdom of Bahrain. This was a resurrection of the abandoned 1973 constitution. The emir took this popular mandate as a carte blanche to deliver a heavily edited version of the constitution in 2002.

The pro-reform demonstrations were organised by Bahraini youth on Facebook (over 8,000 members) and Twitter.

Nabeel Rajab emphasised: “We are only asking for political reforms, right of political participation, respect for human rights and and end to the systematic discrimination against Shias. All the demands are to do with human rights and nothing to do with the ruling family and their regime”. But he warned that if the government continues to resort to violence the people may be forced to demand a complete change of those in power.
In a declaration circulated on the internet, Bahraini Youth For Freedom stated: "Our demands and aims are constructive, our means are peaceful, and they are not stained with the sectarianism and division that the regime has sown over the years. There is no difference between Sunni and Shia, rich or poor, between Bahrani, Ajami, Houli or members of tribes – we are all Bahrainis.
We all sacrifice ourselves for this beloved land. Let us be proud that we emerged on this day to demand our right to a dignified life that embodies our legitimate rights, and to create a state that represents our aspirations and dreams.
The demands made on 14th February were: A new constitution written by the people and the establishment of a body that has a full popular mandate to investigate and hold to account economic, political and social violations, including stolen public wealth, political naturalisation, arrests, torture and other oppressive security measures, institutional and economic corruption.
Tension in Bahrain has been fuelled by the by the ongoing trial of 25 Shia activists, accused of plotting against the state. The detainees have alleged police torture and being forced to sign confessions. Their lawyers withdrew from the case after the judge refused to investigate the allegations of torture and appointed new lawyers whom the defendants rejected.

Although it did not comment directly on the protests the government is clearly worried. An injured 21-year-old protestor is being flow overseas for medical treatment. Last week King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa granted each Bahraini family the equivalent of nearly $2,700 and media monitors began talks with newspaper publishers to draft new rules to limit state controls. The official Bahrain New Agency launched a multi-media service.

Bahrain is a small oil-producing state in the Persian Gulf whose majority (70 per cent) Shia population have long complained of discrimination by the ruling Sunni Al-Khalifa family. The ruling family is strongly supported by both Britain and America. The US Navy’s fifth fleet is stationed there.

In a statement on Twitter the protestors said: “We would like to stress that 14th February is only the beginning. The road may be long and the rallies may continue for days and weeks, but if a people one day chooses life, then destiny will respond.”

The immovable royal family faces the unstoppable force of pro-reform protestors led by Sunni and Shia youth.

* Comrades wishing to support the demands of the Bahraini people can contact ARRAIGN: The International Committee to Pursue Crimes Against Humanity in Bahrain set up in London on 20th October, 2010. The committee is campaigning for a fair trial for a British national, Jaffar Al Hasabi, who was imprisoned and tortured on trumped up charges of planning to overthrow the government. It is also working to bring Bahraini torturers to justice through due process of law.

London protest round-up

Westminster

HUNDREDS of trade union members, community groups, service users and agricultural workers descended on Old Palace Yard, Westminster last Wednesday 9th February, prior to lobbying their MPs.
They included agricultural workers representing thousands of public servants, all set to lose their jobs when the Government pushes through its reforms.
They urged their MPs to stand up against the coalition government’s so-called “public service reform” in the form of the Public Bodies bill.
The union Unite says that bodies as diverse as the Agricultural Wages Board, the UK Arts Council, the Forestry Commission and advice services all have a vital role in underpinning public life.
The union believes that sweeping these bodies away, in this manner, is an act of political vandalism which will shut ordinary people out of the decision-making process.


Wandsworth

PROTESTERS besieged Wandsworth Town hall in south-west London last Wednesday 9th February to protest at cuts that include the closure of a very popular library, cuts of £600,000 to the Sure Start scheme, a 15 per cent cut in technical services, the withdrawal of age-related service concessions and increases for care for disabled children.
The schools repair and rebuilding scheme also faces drastic cuts and £165,000 is to be cut from services for children with mental health and learning needs – with nurses, therapists and admin workers losing their jobs.
The protesters pointed out that Wandsworth is a wealthy borough with £105 million in reserve and has no need to make cuts that wreck people’s lives.


Woolwich

A MARCH by Greenwich Council workers and unionists against cuts to public services and jobs will be held in Woolwich on 12th February.
Campaigners from Greenwich Save Our Services will march against proposed cuts to jobs, services and pay.
They say Greenwich Council’s plans to cull £67 million from its budgets is the “most devastating attack on our communities” for decades.
Paul Callanan said: “Now is the time to send a loud message to this Council. We will not accept these cuts. We call on the Council to get up off its knees, stop apologising and instead join with us, the people, the communities, the workers, students and the elderly and tell this Con-Dem government that we will not pay for this crisis, a crisis caused by bankers and financiers, a crisis of a system where profit comes before people.
“The tragedy is that these cuts are not necessary.”
The march through the town centre will start at 11.30am from Riverside House.

No Cuts! Lambeth people lobby town hall

by New Worker correspondent

PROTESTERS besieged a meeting of Lambeth Council in the town hall in Brixton last Monday evening to demand that councillors implement no Con-Dem cuts.
And among them was former Lambeth councillor Ted Knight, who in the 1980s made just such a stand against cuts being imposed by the Thatcher government.
He faced being surcharged, made bankrupt and disbarred from standing for re-election for making that stand.
But on Monday night he spoke outside the town hall, reminding the councillors inside that they faced no such penalties and had nothing personal to lose by making a principled stand against the cuts.
Over 100 protesters included dozens of service users – disabled people, campaigners fighting against the scrapping of the borough’s park rangers, pensioners, women’s groups, people who are defending council housing, campaigners to save the libraries and to save school crossing attendants.
The school crossing attendants have already scored a success by winning a reversal of planned cuts after threatening strike action.
Workers at the local Remploy factory – which employs people with disabilities – are also contemplating strike action after being threatened with closure and the loss of their jobs.
But none of the protesters present wanted to save one service just to have some other service cut instead. They all stood together and emphasised they wanted no cuts at all.
There are far better ways to resolve the Government spending deficit, caused by bailing out the banks two years ago, for example making large corporations and the very rich pay fair taxes, quitting the war and occupation against Afghanistan and scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system.
The event was organised jointly by Lambeth Trades Council and Lambeth Save our Services and combined protests against impending cuts that threaten up to 1,000 jobs, the forced merger of Lewisham and Lambeth colleges, Tube station staff cuts, the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance, reduced fire service cover at night and serious cuts to benefits and pensions.
Speakers included Anita Wright from Lambeth Trades Council and Women’s Charter, Sean McGovern of Lambeth Save our Services and Councillor Kingsley Abrams, the only Lambeth Councillor to take a principled stand and vote against the cuts at a council meeting on 17th January.
Around 1,000 people also demonstrated against the cuts in Islington last Saturday. Ken Muller, speaking for the march organisers, Islington Hands Off Our Public Services (IHOOPS), said; “The march was a great success.
“It was at least as big as we hoped and included a cross section of the Islington community who are being hit by the cuts: young families, pensioners, students, public service workers and other trades unionists.
“Now the Con-Dem Government knows we mean business when we say we will resist its cuts.”

Free Shaker Aamer!!

By a New Worker correspondent

Human rights activists gathered outside Downing Street last Saturday to demand the release of Shaker Aamer, who has spent nine years in the US concentration camp in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial for any offence. Aamer, a Saudi Arabian married to a British Muslim and living in Battersea, was working for an Islamic charity in Afghanistan when the Americans invaded in 2001. He was picked up as an alleged supporter of Al Qaida and eventually taken to the notorious US detention camp where he has spent the past nine years and where, his supporters say, he has suffered torture and solitary confinement at the hands of his captors.
The previous Labour government and the current Con-Dem coalition have stated that they have pressed for his release, but although they have done so in public, in private they are both alleged to have encouraged the US government to keep him in captivity. And although President Obama promised to shut down Guantánamo, he has failed to do so and173 prisoners, including Aamer remain incarcerated.
The vigil outside Downing Street was called by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign which marked last week's anniversary of his illegal imprisonment by writing to Prime Minister David Cameron, Barack Obama in the White House and religious leaders calling for them to exert their influence to secure his release. Kate Hudson of CND and London Green MEP Jean Lambert joined the protest before delivering a letter calling on the government to take urgent action to return Aamer to his family.

Solidarity with the Egyptian people!

By a New Worker correspondent



Some 2,000 people marched through London last Saturday in solidarity with the Egyptian revolution in a Stop the War campaign protest that was part of a day of international solidarity actions in support of the Egyptian masses. Londoners, including members of the capital’s Arab community, assembled at the US embassy in Grosvenor Square and then marched for about an hour to the Egyptian embassy where crowds had already gathered shouting for Mubarak to go.

We must bring down this government -- as soon as possible!

by Daphne Liddle

“OUR AIM, in all the anti-cuts activity that is happening all around the country now, must be to bring down this government as fast as possible. We are all under attack and we will all suffer the longer it stays in place,” John McDonnell MP and leader of the Labour Representation Committee made this powerful call to action at a public meeting organised by Lambeth Trades Council on Friday 3rd February.
“They are cutting legal aid from welfare and benefit cases, from education cases (affecting children with special needs), from-deaths-in-custody cases, from immigration cases. They are taking legal rights away from the poor.
“They are cutting 14 coastguard stations – the ones that send out lifeboats to save the lives of sailors in danger, cutting 230 coastguard jobs to be replaced by a new technology system that has yet to be invented.
“They are selling the forestry commission – our natural heritage – to the highest bidders. They say wildlife protection laws will stay but there will be no one to monitor or enforce them.
“Even some of the Tories are fighting to save ‘their woods’. They’ll fight for trees but not to protect the disabled, the vulnerable and the poor.
“The Health Bill has been described as the end of the NHS. They are handing over control of the £80 billion funding – though this includes a cut of £20 billion – to family doctors to commission healthcare for their patients from whatever source.
“The GPs don’t want to take on this admin work but Bupa is offering to take the role off their hands and they are offering to take over NHS hospitals that are forced to close. This is the final privatisation of the NHS.
“The Education Bill: traditionally education is a gift from one generation to the next; the Tories have turned it into a commodity only available to the rich.
“Charges will creep into education and hospital services; the academies will ask parents to pay for certain services; there’ll be better faster health treatments for patients who can afford to pay a top-up charge in these new privately run hospitals.
“This is the demolition of the welfare state!”
“The Localisation Bill has ended council housing as we know it. They’re going to raise rents to ‘market levels’ at the same time as cutting housing benefits. Hey will tell the poor they cannot expect to live in a well-off area. It is social cleansing.
“Is this class war? Yes it bloody well is!”
“I sit in Parliament everyday looking at the Tory front benches and they are all millionaires.
“I was really pleased last year when the students did kick the shit out of their headquarters. For too long the Labour and trade union leaderships have been stuck in a cosy rut; too fond of tea and cakes and civilised negotiations. It needed shaking up.
“There is no negotiating with this government. It must come down!
“We must recognise our own strength. Our power is in our numbers and our power to withdraw our labour and the role of the trade unions is going to be critical to us.
“Workers are waking up all around the country. Forestry Commission workers are calling for a strike. Three hundred Remploy workers in this borough, threatened with the closure of their factory, are call for a strike.
“Also here in Lambeth park rangers and lollipop school crossing attendants are organising campaigns to save their jobs and succeeding; in neighbouring Southwark school speech therapists are doing the same.”
John McDonnell went on to outline the recent meeting of the TUC co-ordinating group and the decision to make the defence of pensions – especially public sector pensions – the first industrial action battleground.
He praised the student activists for taking the fight to the streets and for using direct action to draw attention to the huge corporations that pay little or no tax.
And he spoke of the number of anti-cuts groups springing up – including at least three umbrella groups that are coming together without sectarianism and build for the 26th March mass protest in London.
“But we need to consider what is going to come after 26th March. We have no choice; we must fight back with industrial action, direct action, lobbying, petitioning and whatever we can do.
“What is the alternative? This is the basis of how we must transform society. We must put public ownership back on the agenda. We must stop our councils collaborating with the cuts.”
McDonnell also spoke of the fight that must take place inside the Labour Party. “Another New Labour government like the last is no answer.”
The meeting, chaired by Anton Johnson, fielded three panels of speakers in succession, including Tom Taylor from PCS who spoke of “this demolition government” and student leader Callum Williamson who spoke about police trying to demonise students, the effects of scrapping Education Maintenance Allowance – and “all out class war”.
Sean McGovern spoke on how disabled people are being affected. He said that after years of being demonised in the press as scroungers and cheats they have become an easy target for cuts that will have a devastating effect on their lives.
Lawyer Lee Jasper spoke of the disproportionate effects on Black and Asian communities, who already suffer serious deprivation and the threat to civil liberties in the removal of legal aid.
Vernon McKern of Queer Resistance spoke about mobilising the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.
Ellen Lebethe of Lambeth Pensioners’ Action Group spoke on the effects of cuts on pensioners.
Councillor Kingsley Abrams was the only local councillor present and the only one who had voted against the cuts. “I represent a very deprived part of Brixton; we can’t afford to lose anything. I could not face the people who votes for me if I had voted to cut the little they have,” he said.
A member of the union Unite, he pledged his union would be at the centre of the fight-back.
Veteran campaigner Ted Knight made a rousing speech calling on the councillors to refuse to implement the cuts – pointing out that nowadays they have nothing to lose personally. They can no longer be surcharged and made bankrupt as he was when he made a stand against Thatcher’s cuts in the 1980s.
All agreed that the whole working class was under attack and must come together without sectarianism; that the first attack was targeted on the most poor and vulnerable; that the government must be brought down and must be replaced by something a lot better than “New Labour” and that there must be absolute opposition to all cuts.

Holocaust Day in London

Red Army remembered in solemn ceremony

by New Worker correspondent


SEVERAL hundred people gathered last Thursday 27th January at the Imperial War Museum to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
The event began inside the museum’s cinema with a presentation called “Untold Stories”. This included a short film of the history of the Holocaust during which the Nazi regime turned cold-blooded murder of millions into and industrial process.
It mentioned that as well as Jews, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and the disabled were also targeted victims of Nazi mass murder. The film also mentioned the later mass killings in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.
Children from two local Southwark schools attended. They had been studying the life of Holocaust victim Anne Frank and spoke about the impact these studies had made upon them.
Two young students sang to the audience and music was also provided by professional violinist Roland Roberts, who played a Caddish. This was followed by a prayer lead by local Rabbi Alan Greenbat.
Everyone then moved out of the cinema and walked to the Soviet War Memorial and the tree planted ten years ago in the grounds of the War Museum to mark the Holocaust.
They were led by a party of 13 standard bearers from the British Legion and other veterans’ organisations.
There were speeches from Philip Matthews, chair of the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund, the local Mayor Tayo Situ and local Liberal-Democracy MP Simon Hughes.
Alexander Sternik, Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, also spoke. He said: “Today there is an overwhelming feeling in our hearts – anything like this must not ever happen again!
“No doubt can be cast on the facts telling that during the World War II the Nazi leadership conducted a carefully thought-through, monstrous policy of genocide against the Jewish people. This has been confirmed by innumerable eyewitness survivors, thoroughly documented by war crime investigators and historians.
“As you all know, the 27th of January has been officially recognised by the UN as the Holocaust Memorial Day.
“On this very day – the 27th of January 1945, the Soviet Army liberated prisoners of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp – the largest “death machine” of the World War II.
“Those who tend to forget this historic fact or liken the Soviet Army to the Nazi criminals should ask the survivors of this camp whether the advancement of the Russian soldiers was not a matter of life and death for them and in fact for the enslaved nations of Europe.
“Between 1941 and 1945, six millions Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Among them: three million Jews in Poland, more than half a million in Hungary, hundreds of thousands in Russia, Slovakia, France, Belgium, Holland, and so on.”
Many were pleased to hear these words after the film on the Holocaust had failed to mention that communists, socialists and trade unionists had also been victims of the Holocaust – and had played a leading role in the underground resistance to Nazism throughout occupied Europe.
Furthermore the film had given the date of the liberation of Auschwitz but failed to mention the Red Army’s role in this – or in defeating Nazism.
Indeed the worrying impression given is that today’s schoolchildren are being taught a history of the Second World War from which all mention of communism or the Soviet Union have been completely removed.
Then followed the wreath-laying ceremony, led by Mayor Tayo Situ, Simon Hughes MP and representatives of the embassies of the former Soviet republics.
The veterans’ organisations came next, with the Arctic Convoy Club well represented as usual and other progressive organisations laid wreaths, including the New Communist Party and the Communist Party of Britain.
The came the Last Post, the Exhortation, the two-minute silence, reveille and closing remarks.

Queers Against the Cuts launched

By Anton Johnson

LEFT FRONT ART convened a meeting of Queers Against the Cuts on 27th January at the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies Library in London bringing together a diverse group of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) groups and individuals to look at how to get the LGBTQ communities involved in the anti-cuts campaign and see that they are not marginalised within the anti-cuts campaigns.
Representatives from Unison LGBT, CWU, Labour Representation Committee, Socialist Workers’ Party/Right to Work, Socialist Party LGBT Group, Queer Resistance, TUC LGBT Committee, Sertuc LGBT Network and Left Front Art came.
The meeting was positive in that it was recognised that there is activity going on either in the union LGBT groups – such as Unison or self-organised Queer groups in Manchester and London.
The meeting agreed to support the Pink/Black bloc that had been organised for the anti-cuts demonstration in London on 29th January, along with a range of future activity.
And it agreed to act as a co-ordinating hub, noting the work being done by Queer Resistance and Queer Riot.
Future proposed activity includes: leafleting for the TUC demonstration on 26th March with some street theatre in Old Compton St and a public meeting in March.
The meeting agreed that the idea of a LGBTQ block on the TUC march would be taken back to the TUC LGBT Committee so that they could look at facilitating that.
The meeting noted the invisibility of LGBTQ in the anti-cuts campaigns and events. It was agreed to approach these campaigns to make sure the LGBTQ voice and issues are heard.
Two coming anti-cuts conferences were announced: the Right to Work People's Convention on 12th February and the Progressive London conference on 19th February.
There is to be another planning meeting of Queers Against the Cuts on 8th February in central London, where co-ordinators will be agreed to take the work forward.
If anyone is interested in being involved with Queers Against the Cuts please email mabuse@mabuse.plus.com
The next meeting of the Sertuc LGBT Network is on 9th February at 6 pm in TUC Congress House, Great Russell St WC1. Any Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Trans trade union member in London, South East or East of England is welcome to attend.
At the meeting there will be a report back on anti-cuts work in the region. For more information about the network you can contact its secretary: Thierry Schaffauser (GMB) on email zezetta.star@gmx.com

Blair sneaks into Chilcot before dawn

by Caroline Colebrook

FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived for his second session with the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War at around 7.30am in the dark to avoid being confronted by demonstrators who want to see him tried as a war criminal for his role in launching the illegal invasion of Iraq.
Nevertheless some protesters were there to see him and scores more soon joined them, holding banners calling the ex-premier a liar and chanting “Tony Blair – to The Hague”, where war crimes tribunals are held.
One man wore a Tony Blair mask and handcuffed himself to a mock prison cell door to loud cheers from his colleagues.
Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop The War Coalition, said: "Yet again he has sneaked in under cover of darkness, mirroring the way in which he launched his illegal war in 2003.
"Hopefully later today he will be asked to tell the truth about the legal advice he was given by Lord Goldsmith and also be challenged publicly about the contents of his letters to George Bush which he is still keeping secret."
Peter Brierley, whose son, Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, died soon after being deployed to Iraq, said he was not surprised that Blair arrived early and avoided being confronted by the protest, as he did last time he was questioned by the inquiry.
"He cannot be questioned properly here because he can just walk out any time he chooses. He should face a proper court and be questioned by barristers and lawyers. He should face a criminal investigation because he is a war criminal.
“He killed my son and I will continue campaigning until he is brought to justice."
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) said it was a “disgrace” that letters exchanged between Blair and former US president George Bush were not being made public.
"If this inquiry means anything then all the relevant papers must be released."
Bruce Kent of CND told the protesters: “Tony Blair must know that the game is up because fellow members of the establishment are now beginning to turn against him.
“What he did was a disaster and he effectively put two fingers up to the very fragile structure put in place to try to save generations from the scourge of war. How many other thugs and bandits around the world are now saying, well if he can get away with it, so will we?"
John Rees, one of the founders of the Stop The War Coalition, said the inquiry was a waste of money which would not get to the truth of the Iraq war.
The coalition said there were growing calls for Blair to face a war crimes tribunal, where all the correspondence between Blair and Bush could be revealed.
Meanwhile a Tory MP has admitted that Britain and the United States have lost the legitimacy and trust necessary to find a resolution to the war in Afghanistan
Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Border, said we're making up reasons for being in Afghanistan: “After nine years, the international community needs to recognise it lacks knowledge, it lacks power, it lacks legitimacy."


Students protest in London


Students and trade unionists took to the streets of central London and Manchester last Saturday in a continuation of the protests at rising tuition fees, the abolition of Education Maintenance Allowance and cuts in general that hit the headlines in the last weeks of 2010.
These were the first major demonstrations since late last year, when students occupied Parliament Square in London and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall.
The coalition government plans to cut £2.9 billion of state support a year for universities in order to tackle a budget deficit now at about 11 per cent of national output following the global financial crisis.
In London students gathered in Malet Street in the heart of London University and set a cracking pace – to avoid being “kettled” – to the designated end of the march outside Milbank.
This building, which houses the headquarters of the Tory party, had been ransacked in a previous demonstration. But this time the students swept straight past it and headed on to the Egyptian Embassy, where they joined Egyptian ex-patriates in a solidarity protest with the anti-government demonstrations in Cairo.

Palestinian solidarity

Second anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza

By Karen Dabrowska

Two years after the war on Gaza, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is trying to build the biggest, broadest coalition of support for the Palestinians.
A major rally in central London last week began with a minute's silence for the 1,400 Palestinians who were killed between 27th December 2008 and 18th January 2009 when Israel attacked the Gaza strip and destroyed the infrastructure which cannot be repaired due to the blockade.
The rally on 18th January, which was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition, the British Muslim Initiative, Friends of Al Aqsa, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and Viva Palestina, attracted 400 supporters.
Hugh Lanning, the Chairman of the PSC, began his opening address with the quote he read out two years ago during a huge demonstration against the invasion in Hyde Park: “They stole my land, burned my olive trees, destroyed my house, took my water, bombed my country, imprisoned my father, killed my mother, took my job, starved us all, humiliated us all and I am to blame. I shot a rocket back.”
Lanning said that Israeli settlers may have been withdrawn from Gaza but in reality there was no change. Israel has tightened its grip on the population, exercising absolute control of who and what goes in and out of the Strip by land, sea and air. The siege continues despite efforts by flotillas to break it and the so-called peace process has been a total failure. London has been described by the Israelis as the hotbed of the resistance and solidarity in support of the Palestinian people.
“We are trying to build the biggest, broadest, coalition in support of the Palestinians and promote solidarity with our movement globally.”
Lindsay German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition, said that the way in which the Palestinians are being treated has everything to do with the war on terror, Britain's foreign, policy and the oppression of not just the Palestinians but of the Iraqis as well. January 18th marked the anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991 when retreating Iraqi troops were massacred and the Iraqis suffered under sanctions and eventually from another war and invasion in 2003. The war in Afghanistan is continuing and more and more people are suffering.
“We are not just talking about the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, we are also talking about wars in Somalia and Yemen. We saw the war in Lebanon in 2006 and we see the threat of war in Lebanon today. We also see the role that Israel plays in trying to escalate the threat of war against Iran”.
German called for Blair to resign from his position as envoy for peace in the Middle East and said that it was not the job of the British or the Americans or any of the Western powers to tell anybody in the Middle East how they should run their affairs.
She concluded that the corrupt, unelected, undemocratic regimes in the Arab world back the USA and Britain. “ I am very glad the Tunisians managed to see off their corrupt, unelected president. The Tunisian people are doing what every people in the Arab world should be doing. There have been demonstrations in Cairo and in Jordan. The future for equality and liberation for the Palestinians lies in what happens not just in Palestine itself but across the Arab world.. Our role here is to provide solidarity with all of these people and to say we have had enough of the West's interference in this region, we have had enough of the imperialism. We need to stand united and maybe even we can stand up to our government which is spending money on wars which should be spent on schools, hospitals and all the other things we need. We should link up all these struggles, we should connect all the different anti-war and solidarity movements and we should remember that our fight is their fight and their fight is our fight”.
Veteran Labour politician Tony Benn (85) said that in Palestine we now have an Israeli state which is an American colony armed with nuclear weapons that has made war on the Lebanon and Gaza and is imposing a blockade on Gaza which is an act of war. It is calling on the British government to bomb Iran because Iran is a developing nuclear power.
Benn emphasised that the situation in Palestine cannot be helped by holding so-called peace talks because the peace talks that are going on barely conceal the fact that the main supporters of the Israelis are the American government. The Americans give more money to Israel than to all the sub-Saharan countries in Africa whose need is far greater.
Benn said that one of the proposals most commonly put forward was a two-state solution with Israel next to Palestine. “Israel is recognised, it is a member of the United Nations, it has all these weapons. The Palestinians have no state. Palestine is not recognised by the United Nations. It has no legal status in the world. It is just pleading for justice against a colonial regime. The answer is a single state where Jews and Palestinians can live together. That is the best hope but to do that you have to dissolve Zionism”.
Rev Garth Hewitt, founder of the Amos Trust, which promotes justice and hope for forgotten communities, referred to a cable released by WikiLeaks from the US embassy in Tel Aviv which confirmed Israel's attitude to Gaza. It said that Israeli officials wanted the Gaza economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis. It said it would keep Gaza's economy on the brink of collapse.
“This is morally unacceptable. We are living in the 21st century and we see a style of siege that we hoped had gone centuries ago and yet it is a siege imposed by 21st century weapons.”
Britain is buying hundreds of drones from the Israeli company Alpit which is making money from occupation. Our troops are being trained to use drones by the Israeli army in Israel. These weapons have a kill ratio of ten to one i.e. For every person targeted to be assassinated in an extra judicial killing ten others die. We must challenge the Ministry of Defence to stop spending money in this way and say 'not in our name'.
The Amos Trust is working with faith communities and urging them to make the campaign for Palestine an integral part of what they are doing. The trust has a campaign called 'A just peace for Palestine', with the added slogan 'this means peace and security for Israelis too'. It encourages the sale of Palestinian products, the boycott of Israeli goods, lobbying of MP's and visits to Palestine. Barry Morgan, the Archbishop of Wales, has just signed up to the campaign. The Christian community in Palestine has produced a document which reminds the world that the Israeli occupation is a sin against God and humanity and talks of the cruel war against Gaza.
Dr Tariq Tahboob of the Palestinian Forum in Britain told the meeting that Gaza is not a nation of beggars. It has the highest literacy rate in the Arab world and probably in the world – 93 per cent. “They don't want food and medicine and charity – what they want is freedom.
Dr Tahboob told the meeting that the Zionists brought five 'd's' to Gaza: death, destruction, debilitation, disease and degradation . But they met their match with the capital 'D' which shapes the future of human beings. That is defiance. To make this defiance work we have to donate, demonstrate, (through a one million march for Palestine) and display (through the use of face book, u-tube and the media).
The rally was also addressed by Farid Bakht of the national executive of the Green Party, Sarah Colborne campaigns director of the PSC and the poet, playwright, musician and hip hop artist Lockie.