Socialist Worker 2287, 28 January 2012

starts Highlights

Ahdaf Soueif interview: ‘Bread, freedom and dignity’ - in Features

Pensions dispute - deadlock broken as more action called - in News

Union heads slam Miliband and Balls - in News

Unions join forces for Unilever strike - in News

Remaking history - understanding the revolutionary wave of 2011 - in Features

ends highlights

starts section News 

Dale Farm faces further threats

Tory-run Basildon council has stepped up its campaign against Travellers at the Dale Farm site in Essex.

It now wants to evict families from a legal site on grounds of “overcrowding”. Yet the families have only moved there because they were forcibly evicted from other areas of the Traveller site.

Separately it has been revealed that the policing operation to clear 80 families out of Dale Farm in November cost almost £2.4 million.

Go to dalefarm.wordpress.com

ends Dale Farm faces further threats

Refugees’ last minute reprieve

Campaigners won a last minute stay of deportation for two Cameroonian asylum seekers last week.

Lydia Besong and her husband Bernard Batey were due to be deported on an Air France flight at 8.20am last Saturday morning.

Their supporters didn’t lose hope and kept bombarding the authorities and the airline with letters and emails. A judge granted a judicial review at 5pm on Friday evening.

The couple had been issued with a removal order by the UK Border Agency on 10 January, despite still awaiting a decision on an earlier claim.

Lydia and Bernard’s solicitor Gary McIndoe said, “It’s an excellent result. It’s a battle won but we have a war to fight.”

ends Refugees’ last minute reprieve

Opposition grows to NHS privatisation plans

Dave Sewell

Government plans to outsource NHS commissioning hit obstacles on Tuesday of this week.

Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley claims his Health and Social Care bill will “empower” medical professionals.

But all the unions and professional organisations representing NHS staff oppose the bill.

Now a report by parliament’s health select committee warns that Lansley’s privatisation plans will interfere with other government plans for NHS cuts.

The committee report is the latest blow to Lansley’s bill. A survey of the Royal College of GPs this month found that 98 percent of its members want the bill withdrawn. And the British Medical Association came out against the bill in November.

This followed revelations that the government expects most health commissioning to be in private hands by 2016.

The Unite union has policy to organise a national demonstration against the bill. 

Other opponents include the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwifery and the Unison union.

ends Opposition grows to NHS privatisation plans

NHS workers ordered to leave their homes

Patrick Ward

Hundreds of low paid NHS workers at Guy’s and St Thomas’s trust in London have been told to leave their subsidised accommodation with just three months’ notice.

The trust accommodation office sent a letter to residents earlier this month informing them of its plans to sell off the housing.

The accommodation currently has 800 places for NHS workers, but this number is expected to be cut by around half.

The trust is also imposing a two-year limit on how long people can live in the accommodation. Those remaining will be charged rent at market rates.

This spells disaster for many of the low paid residents living in the homes. Some have been there for up to 20 years.

Sally, an NHS admin worker, is one resident who has received the notice to move out. She doesn’t know what she’ll do next.

“There’s not much out there I can afford,” she told Socialist Worker. “And three months’ notice is nothing.”

Sally works on a six-month rolling contract, with the rent taken directly from her salary. 

She has been on the council house waiting list for over a year, but was told it was unlikely she would be allocated anywhere.

“I’ve lived in Lambeth and Southwark for 20 years and I’ve never wanted anything back,” she said. “I’ve never been able to afford getting onto the property ladder. I just want some kind of security.”

The average monthly rent for a one bedroom property in the area is £1,556. Market rents will force many NHS workers to move far from their workplace, increasing their travel costs.

Sally’s name has been changed

ends NHS workers ordered to leave their homes

Tory hard right hatchet men target trade union reps

A cabal of hard right Tories is at the centre of attempts to witch‑hunt trade union reps for doing their job.

The London Evening Standard ran a prominent article this week laying into Julie Davies, a teacher in Haringey, north London. 

She has been campaigning against government plans to force local schools to become academies.

Julie is a full time rep for the NUT teachers’ union, representing other teachers and campaigning for their rights.

The Tories want to ban “facility time” arrangements that allow teachers like Julie to represent their fellow workers.

The campaign against facility time is being led by the “Trade Union Reform Campaign” (Turc). This is a group of Tories with links to the Young Britons’ Foundation—whose chief executive Donal Blaney wants to scrap the NHS.

Turc’s patrons include two disgraced Tory MPs. Liam Fox was forced to resign as defence secretary last October over his links to Adam Werritty, a shadowy figure involved in the security industry.

The campaign is led by Aidan Burley MP. He was sacked in December for attending a stag party where his friends dressed up in an SS uniform and drank toasts to Hitler’s Nazis.

Fox had to pay back £22,476 in parliamentary expenses in 2010. In 2009 it was revealed he’d claimed £18,572 for his mobile phone bill. Yet he accuses hard working union reps of wasting public funds.

Workers should give short shrift to Fox, Burley and their pathetic attempts to undermine trade union rights.

ends Tory hard right hatchet men target trade union reps

Higher education attacks in doubt

The government is planning a major climb down in its assault on higher education, according to reports circulating as Socialist Worker went to press.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Tuesday that David Cameron had withdrawn elements of the attacks, which were part of the higher education white paper.

But it is not yet clear which parts of the hated proposals will be scrapped.

The government has faced a barrage of opposition from students and lecturers over their plans for higher education. 

Mass opposition can kill off all their plans to wreck education.

ends Higher education attacks in doubt

Blow dealt to internet censorship plan

Attempts by US lawmakers to restrict internet freedom have been postponed after high profile opposition.

The threat of the Stop Online Privacy Act (Sopa) saw websites such as Wikipedia and Google “black out” in protest on Wednesday of last week.

The music and entertainment industries lobbied hard for the bill. It would have allowed the US government to shut down any website suspected of copyright infringement. 

Search engines would be banned from listing the sites. Anyone who broke the law could have been jailed for five years. 

Laws like this would give unprecedented power to corporations and the government over online activities.

A section of US business also opposes the bill, fearing it will limit ability to profit from online content.

ends Blow dealt to internet censorship plan

Cops knew Milly’s phone was hacked

Surrey Police knew for nine years that the News of the World hacked the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler. 

The newspaper played a recording of one message to the cops. But the police did nothing about it and didn’t tell her parents. 

Jerry Kirkby is Surrey’s deputy chief constable. He says his report, released by parliament this week, is not “an entire account of Surrey Police’s actions”.

A formal meeting between representatives of the tabloid and Surrey Police took place in July 2002. No notes have emerged of what was discussed.

Two other police forces also knew about hacking.

It isn’t known who deleted the voicemails on Milly’s phone.

ends Cops knew Milly’s phone was hacked

Tories to plunge thousands of children into poverty...

Dave Sewell

The Tories suffered another setback to their brutal Welfare Reform Bill this Monday.

The House of Lords voted to exclude child benefits from the cap, following fears that over 100,000 children would be plunged into poverty.

The bill would impose a cap on benefits of £500 a week for a household. 

It is one of a number of attacks on welfare that it hopes would save between £6 billion and £7 billion pounds a year.

But work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith pledges to overturn the Lords’ amendment when the bill returns to the House of Commons.

He says the bill would be “pointless” without the cap on child benefit.

Large sections of the media are cheering him on.

Since the new cap would apply to the whole household rather than individual children, it amounts to a harsh tax on large families.

Economist Tim Leunig calculates that “after rent, council tax and utilities, a family with four children would have 62p per person per day to live on. That is physically impossible.”

This is the fifth time the House of Lords have voted against measures in the bill.

But even if their amendments are not later overturned, the bill still contains plenty of toxic attacks.

When even sections of the ruling class are this nervous about the Tories going too far, it shows that there is the potential to stop them.

…and attack Disability Living Allowance

The government hopes to cut disability benefit spending by 20 percent—pushing over 500,000 people off it altogether.

It wants to replace the Disability Living Allowance, which helps people pay for care and mobility support, with a Personal Independence Payment. Many people will see their payments drastically cut.

And the Tories also want to make people submit to constant, humiliating tests to prove their disabilities are real. 

Iain Duncan Smith talks as if he is doing disabled people a favour by giving them new impetus to get a job.

“But the real barrier to employment for disabled people isn’t unwillingness to work,” said Andy Greene from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC).

“The real barriers include attitudes, discrimination, the built environment and getting the right support.

“Forty percent of families with one disabled child live in abject poverty. This figure rises to 50 percent where there are two disabled children.”

DPAC and other campaign groups have held regular lobbies of the Lords against the Welfare Reform Bill. This Saturday they will be joined by UK Uncut for a civil disobedience protest.

Protest against the Welfare Reform Bill. Called by DPAC and UK Uncut. 

Meet 11.30am at Holborn underground station with a charged Oyster card. www.dpac.uk.net

ends Tories to plunge thousands of children into poverty...

Union heads slam Miliband and Balls

Judith Orr

The leaders of Britain’s three largest unions last week denounced Labour’s Ed Miliband and Ed Balls for supporting the Tory austerity agenda. 

Unison’s Dave Prentis joined Len McCluskey of Unite and Paul Kenny of the GMB in attacking them for backing the public sector pay freeze. 

This came only days after Miliband and Balls said they could not commit to reversing Tory cuts if they won the next election. 

McCluskey asked, “Where does this leave the half a million people who joined the TUC’s March for an Alternative last year, and the half of the country at least who are against the cuts? Disenfranchised.”

Prentis said, “Our members needed hope and a reason to vote Labour. They have been snatched away.” 

Kenny talked of the “long-term implications this new stance by the party has on GMB affiliation”.

This is a very serious breach in relations between the party and its traditional supporters in the trade union movement. 

Yet Balls’s response showed how much Labour simply takes workers’ votes for granted. 

He said, “I don’t think any trade unions are going to disaffiliate. I don’t think they should, but that’s their decision.”

Trails

Labour should be riding high in the polls, but instead it is slipping further behind. The Tories are on 41 percent while Labour trails at 36 percent—the Tories’ biggest lead since late 2010. 

Union leaders are right to attack Labour for supporting Tory cuts. But they don’t mention the pensions battle in these exchanges. This is a classic separation of politics and economics.

But there is a direct connection between what happens in parliament and the attacks that people face. Prentis, McCluskey and Kenny should blast Labour—but they also need to show some resistance themselves.

As the Tories mount new attacks bitterness is growing. Millions of trade union members have shown their willingness to take on the Tories. 

No wonder many are asking why they should pay subs to a party that is failing them.

Miliband was seen as the trade union candidate for Labour leadership, and was supported by McCluskey. The union vote and support was critical to his victory. 

What did the unions get in return? Nothing but insults. 

Trade unions should not automatically hand over members’ subs to support Labour. That’s why the fight to democratise union political funds is so important.

Unions should be able to give financial and political support to candidates who genuinely represents the interests of workers. 

Sometimes this may be a Labour Party candidate. 

But workers need an alternative and they need to be able to back other parties and organisations who will stand up for them.

A key test for Labour will be the contest for London mayor and the May elections. 

If Ken Livingstone loses and Labour does badly, Miliband’s days as leader may be numbered. But it is the Blairites who are circling to replace him, not the left. 

What can change the situation is the deepening of class struggle.

ends Union heads slam Miliband and Balls

UCU names next strike day

Laura Miles, UCU executive committee

The UCU union’s national executive committee (NEC) met last Friday. We faced a problem.

After the magnificent coordinated strike on 30 November, action has stalled. Major unions have signed up to the government’s “heads of agreement” (HoA). 

And the unions that rejected it have not called further action.

General secretary Sally Hunt wanted to put the HoA out to ballot. But the vast majority on the NEC disagreed.

We rejected that this “offer” was significantly different to what was on the table before.If we didn’t ballot then, why would we ballot now?

We had also previously voted to coordinate any ballot with our sister unions. They are not balloting on the deal.

We proposed to approach other unions that have rejected the HoA, to organise coordinated rolling, selective or regional action in February, followed by a national strike on 1 March.

But we also argued that the UCU should state clearly that it is prepared to strike on 1 March—and call on other unions to join us.

Hunt was asked to report back to the UCU’s Strategy and Finance Committee on Friday of this week and an NEC on 10 February.

The plan should be debated across UCU branches and regions ahead of the next NEC.

UCU isn’t precious about dates. If others want to strike on another day that’s OK. But we cannot allow the government to impose changes on 1 April without a response.

30 November showed we have the power to win. The UCU NEC has outlined a programme of action. If implemented across the public sector, it can shift the government.

ends UCU names next strike day

Bristol activists call meetings to build the fight

Union activists in Bristol are busy building a public meeting on the pensions dispute. Mark Serwotka and other speakers will address the event on Monday 6 February.

It is jointly organised by Unite the Resistance and the Bristol And District Anti-Cuts Alliance (Badaca).

Huw Williams is a Bristol trade unionist who is helping organise the meeting. 

“We’ve covered the £1,000 costs of the meeting with sponsorship from local trade union branches,” he told Socialist Worker.

These include a PCS branch, two NUT branches and four Unite branches, including workers at Bristol’s Rolls-Royce plant.

Unions have also been closely involved with promoting the event, says Huw. 

Activists are promoting the meeting by leafleting outside key workplaces. 

South Gloucestershire NUT has sent letters to each of its members.

The activists have also leafleted private sector workplaces such as CWU members at TV Licensing.

Huw notes that a younger generation of activists have got involved in trade unions in the run-up to and wake of the 30 November strike.

“It’s clear that a new layer has come through,” he says, citing young stewards in his own union, Unison, that have become involved in the past six months.

Bristol is just one of several Unite the Resistance meetings taking place around Britain. 

Others include Glasgow on 9 February, London on 18 February and Manchester on 29 February.

ends Bristol activists call meetings to build the fight

Pensions dispute - deadlock broken as more action called

Sadie Robinson

Important shifts in the battle against Tory attacks on public sector pensions took place last week.

The UCU union named the day for a further coordinated strike on 1 March. This broke the deadlock in the unions that had seen many call for more action but back off from saying when it should happen.

UCU is now calling for other unions to come in behind it (see right).

This week, several unions that have rejected the government’s offer are set to meet. They must back another day of coordinated strikes.

The government’s latest offer from the end of last year contains no new money—and is committed to making savage cuts to public sector pensions.

Some union leaders believe this is all they can achieve and have been hesitant to call more action. But it’s clear that the mood is still there to fight the Tories’ assault on pensions. 

Last week the British Medical Association (BMA) voted overwhelmingly to reject the government’s offer.

The BMA represents around 130,000 doctors and medical students. Some 80 percent voted to reject the pensions offer in a survey and two thirds backed industrial action.

An emergency meeting of the BMA set for Wednesday of this week will consider calling a ballot for industrial action.

Position

And other public sector workers continue to demand more strikes.

Unison members in local government are organising to call a special conference to discuss the union’s position. 

The union’s leadership is currently backing the government’s latest offer.

Several branches, including Coventry, Salford, Lambeth, Camden, Brighton, Dundee and Islington have already passed a motion calling for a special conference.

The text to pass is, “This Branch requisitions a Special Conference of the Local Government Service Group to consider the policy of the Service Group in relation to the Local Government Pension Scheme.”

NUT branches including in Islington, Wakefield and Sheffield have also passed motions calling on the union’s executive to name a strike day.

The enthusiasm for the action among the millions who struck on 30 November showed workers want to take on the government.

If the Tories win, it will lay the basis for even harsher attacks in the years to come. 

That’s why everyone must pile the pressure on their union leaders to call more united action.

ends Pensions dispute - deadlock broken as more action called

Unilever - a turn to targeted tactics

Union tactics at Unilever have changed since the December national strike.

They are using what they describe as targeted strikes. Unions argue this extends the action without making workers lose too much pay.

“I think it’s fairer this way, because we all lose the same amount of hours,” said Graham, a factory operative in Purfleet. “Whether it’ll have a greater impact I don’t know.”

Much has been made of Unilever management’s break with the tradition set by Lord Leverhulme, the company’s paternalistic and supposedly benevolent founder.

But what new bosses and old have in common is a concern for the bottom line. The only way to beat them is to hit their profits.

Sustained and coordinated strikes can force them to back down. Escalation is the way to win.

Where workers have struck – and where they plan to strike next
 
Workers have struck at Unilever sites in Port Sunlight, Warrington, Leeds, Trafford, Deesside, Colworth, Norwich and Purfleet. 
 
Strikes were set to take place this Wednesday at Burton-on-Trent and Gloucester.
 
Pot Noodle workers are set to strike from 6am on Thursday of this week until midnight on Saturday at Croespenmaen Industrial Estate, Crumlin, Gwent NP11 3AG

ends Unilever - a turn to targeted tactics

Public sector solidarity for Unilever strikers

There was a warm reception for the public sector workers who visited the Colman’s mustard picket lines in Norwich on Tuesday.

Workers at the council office opposite brought out equipment to make hot drinks, previously used at their own strike on 30 November.

The NUT union’s general secretary and deputy general secretary sent a message of support to the Unilever workers and their fight to defend their pension rights.

The Tories have tried to pit private sector workers against those fighting to defend pensions in the public sector.

They say public sector pensions should be driven down to the levels now common in the private sector.

But Unilever workers recognise that they are part of a common fight. “If the government wasn’t doing this in the public sector then Unilever wouldn’t be doing it to us now,” said Ian Barnard, a line operator at Purfleet.

Ivan Mercer, GMB organiser in Norwich, said he hoped any further strikes at Unilever could be coordinated with the public sector pensions fight.

ends Public sector solidarity for Unilever strikers

'Equitable' Unilever boss rakes it in

Unilever’s chief executive Paul Polman likes to present himself as a champion of “equitable capitalism”.

He lectures other bosses on the need to engage with the Occupy movement—or risk losing customers. “Some people sometimes accuse me of being a socialist,” he said, “but I am a capitalist at heart.”

And why wouldn’t he be? In 2010 he received over £2.4 million in salary, bonus and share options. His total remuneration is 285 times that of the average Unilever worker.

ends 'Equitable' Unilever boss rakes it in

Unions join forces for Unilever strike

Dave Sewell

Workers at factories and offices across England and Wales have been walking out this week against attacks on their pensions from consumer goods giant Unilever.

The strikes, which began on Tuesday of last week, are part of a 12-day programme of action involving workers at 12 sites in the Unite, Usdaw and GMB unions.

They previously struck on 9 December—the first ever national strike in Unilever’s hundred year history.

Unilever wants to scrap its final salary pension scheme. This will cut thousands of pounds from workers’ retirement income.

But Unilever has no shortage of cash. It is one of Britain’s most profitable multinationals.

One striker at the PG Tips factory in Trafford, Manchester, told Socialist Worker, “One in every three cups of tea drunk in Britain is made from the teabags we make in this factory—and Unilever say they can’t afford to keep our pension.”

Workers struck for 48 hours in Warrington, where Persil and other household cleaning products are manufactured.

“Throughout the consultations they’ve not been able to put a single argument based on cost,” said GMB rep Mark Armitage.

“Their words are that final salary schemes are a ‘broken model’. But I don’t understand how it’s broken. It’s affordable, it’s sustainable and they owe us a decent retirement.”

Reneged

James Webb, senior steward for the GMB, said, “Forty years of service agreements have been reneged upon from a company that made four billion euro profits.”

Many workers believe the firm is following the example set by the government in its attack on public sector pensions.

Unilever has rejected invitations to talks from the Acas conciliation service. It says it will only negotiate with unions if they sign up to its preconditions—including dropping the demand for final salary pensions.

Phil Calladine is the shop steward for Hellman’s mayonnaise manufacture at Unilever’s spreads factory in Purfleet, Essex.

“You can see by the support we’ve had on the picket lines that people are very determined to get Unilever back around the table—without preconditions this time,” he said. “What they’ve done is not consultation. It’s bullying.”

Senior steward Mike Rooke agreed. “Three years ago we agreed close the scheme to new starters and increase our contributions in order to keep final salary.

“That was a mistake because they saw a chink in our armour and they went for it. 

“They expect people to plan their lives on shifting sands. Even if they get what they want this time, they could come back and change it again in three years.”

The bosses, so far, are intransigent. But workers are determined too. “I think we will be out again, in all the Unilever sites,” said Ian Barnard, a line operator in Purfleet.

“I think people are prepared to go out again and again.”

Send messages of support to william.hodgson@unilever.com

ends Unions join forces for Unilever strike

What's wrong with academies?

Academies transfer huge amounts of wealth from the public to private sector
They allow school buildings and land to be handed to private businesses—while the state continues to fund the schools
Schools that become academies can keep any surplus school funds
The Department for Education says academies aren’t allowed to operate with a deficit. In 2010 it spent nearly £7 billion bailing them out
The government can transfer any land that has been used for a school within the previous eight years to an academy or free school
The government’s own figures show that academies get more cash than state-run schools. It estimates the difference to be up to £500 more per pupil
Academies expel and exclude more students than state-run schools—filtering out those who might pull the results down
Ofsted has rated a number of academies as failing. Just last week it found the Sir Robert Woodward Academy to be “weak” and “inadequate”

ends What's wrong with academies?

Setback for Gove over forced academy plans

Sadie Robinson

Schools minister Michael Gove has retreated on plans to force a north London primary school to become a privatised academy.

The climbdown followed a mass campaign led by parents and teachers.

Gove wanted to force academy status on Downhills primary school in Haringey, north London. 

The Department for Education had instructed the school’s governors to agree to become an academy this month—or face being removed.

But Gove last week withdrew the timetable for the forced academy.

Ofsted will now inspect Downhills. Governors had demanded that Gove allow a planned Ofsted inspection to go ahead, rather than imposing academy status.

This is an embarrassing climbdown for the government and it shows what grassroots campaigning can achieve. But it is not the end of the battle.

Gove is still intent on imposing forced academies on three other schools in the borough. And he will still attempt to privatise Downhills in the future—and try and use Ofsted’s verdict to do it.

Privatised

Phil Brett is an NUT union rep at Downhills.

He told Socialist Worker, “Despite the insults that Gove has hurled at parents and teaching staff, the impressive campaign has shown that people do not want a privatised education system.”

Cem Emin, a Unison union rep at the school, said the campaign had shown “the real partnership we have with parents, carers and the local community”.

The retreat at Downhills has boosted campaigners. Dave Gilchrist is a teacher at Noel Park primary school, one of the three others also threatened with forced academy status.

He told Socialist Worker, “This is a move in the right direction and it shows our ability to fight. 

“It has encouraged other governors and shown that academy status isn’t inevitable.”

Parents, teachers and other activists are determined to keep fighting the academy threat. The stakes are high.

Andrew Paton also teaches at Noel Park. 

He told Socialist Worker, “This campaign isn’t just about our four schools.

“If the forced academies go through it will impact on all schools in Haringey.

“We are worried about whether a sponsor would want to make profit. How would they make that profit? What would they cut?”

Sharks

Lots of people are worried that the schools could be turned into profit-making enterprises.

Clive Boutle is chair of Haringey Campaign Against Academies. 

He told Socialist Worker, “The government is intent on privatising education. They’re encouraging sharks to circle schools looking for ways to make profit.”

Parents and teachers in Haringey haven’t fallen for Gove’s claims that academies will give students a better education.

As Andrew said, “More qualified staff are more expensive. “If an academy wanted to make money, would it take on unqualified staff?”

Others fear that an academy could lead to cuts in specialist support services and that the curriculum could become narrower.

The Tories’ friends in the media launched a vicious attack on Downhills NUT rep Julie Davies (see page 2) after Gove backed down.

But campaigners in Haringey remain determined to resist academies.

Activists plan to march in the borough on Saturday 

28 January—and have appealed for people to join them.

As Phil said, “We have Gove rattled.We have to make the march as big as we can.”

Demonstrate against academies in Haringey—Saturday 28 January, 12 noon. Assemble at Keston Road, N17, next to Downhills school. For more information go to www.hcaa.org.uk

ends Setback for Gove over forced academy plans

ends News section

starts section Editorial 

Racist myths are attempt to shift blame from real con artists

Usually we hear that immigrants are taking all our jobs. Now we are told they’re taking all our benefits too.

“370,000 migrants on the dole” declared the Daily Telegraph. “Stop this abuse of British hospitality” demanded the Daily Mail.

Behind all this was scaremongering spin from Tory ministers Chris Grayling and Damian Green.

They claim Britain’s welfare state is “a magnet for other parts of the world” that encourages “benefit tourism”.

But the figures reveal a different picture. 

There are 5.8 million people of working age claiming benefits in Britain.

Of these just 6.4 percent were non-British when they first applied for a national insurance number. 

And many of those have been living in Britain for decades.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) examined a sample of 9,000 “non-British” claimants. 

It found 54 percent of them had become British citizens since arriving here.

The DWP then tracked down three quarters of the sample. 

They found some 98 percent of these had the correct immigration status and were claiming benefits legitimately.

In total some 16.6 percent of working age British nationals claim benefits of some form.

The corresponding figure for non-British workers is just 6.6 percent.

Channel 4 News examined the DWP figures and concluded there was “nothing to back” insinuations that migrants are coming to Britain to claim benefits.

In other words, Grayling and Green are fiddling the figures to take potshots at immigrants. 

It’s just another example of cheap racism and scapegoating from the Tories.

ends Racist myths are attempt to shift blame from real con artists

Tories relish the attacks on the poor

Bankers are the real scroungers

When David Cameron came to office, he tried to dress up his vicious programme of cuts with the rhetoric of a “Big Society”. 

He pretended we were “all in it together” in attempting to “fix” Britain’s finances.

But the Tories have dreamed of this onslaught against the welfare state for years.

So now they are trying to steal hundreds of millions of pounds from some of the poorest in society. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

But while Cameron is clamping down on benefits, he doesn’t mind giving handouts to his banker pals.

Bankers at bailed-out, state-owned bank RBS will pocket £500 million of our cash in bonuses. The worst hit third of benefit claimants will lose £5,000 a year. RBS boss Stephen Hester gets £5,000 an hour.

Cameron has told families that risk losing their benefits to “go out and find work”—despite unemployment levels of over two million.

And he had nothing to say to parents who can’t find work compatible with looking after children.

Without publicly funded childcare this becomes even more difficult.

And losing mobility payments will make it harder for many disabled people to find work.

It is a repulsive Tory myth that there is an underclass of lazy people who live the high life on benefits and therefore don’t deserve support.

Low wages and increasing costs of living mean that many people are reliant on benefits even if they do work. 

Some 90 percent of housing benefit claimants are employed.

The Labour Party has shamefully joined in the clamour for a clampdown. 

While it has voted against some of the most high profile attacks, it supports the idea that people need to be forced off benefits.

The only response of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls to the planned cuts is to agree with them. It’s no wonder Labour is trailing in the polls.

They have given a kick in the teeth to every working class Labour voter—and a confidence boost to every Tory reactionary.

There is no effective opposition in parliament. But even if there was, it’s what happens outside the corridors of Westminster that will be decisive in this battle.

The strike on 30 November shook the government. Now we must unite to build another round of strikes to wipe the smirks off their smug Tory faces.

ends Bankers are the real scroungers

ends Editorial section

starts section Who says? 

Who says?

our round-up of the week's quotes

‘They did not treat us well at all. I still feel ill about it. It was disgraceful. It should have been handled better. They should apologise publicly’
 
Pamela Duggan speaking out against the Metropolitan Police, who shot dead her son Mark in Tottenham last August, sparking days of rioting

‘The money spent on this school could be used to expand primary schools in Wandsworth or carry out vital repairs. We don’t need this school’
 
Retired teacher Janet Eades criticising plans for a free school in Tooting, south London. Tory journalist Toby Young responded by ranting in the Telegraph about “Trotskyist smears”

‘Marine Le Pen’s role in French public life is not merely legitimate but increasingly necessary’
 
Daily Mail columnist Richard Waghorne sings the praises of France’s leading fascist politician

‘It would depend entirely on whether they would commit in public to give up Sharia law’
 
Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich on whether he could ever endorse a Muslim as US president

‘Len McCluskey is entitled to his views but he’s wrong. I’m changing Labour so we can deliver fairness with less money’
 
Labour leader Ed Miliband on Twitter clearing up any residual questions about why he’s backing Tory cuts

‘I am delighted to be advising IBH, a company that is investing in Pakistan’s future’
 
Ed’s brother David Miliband on his new post as a senior advisor to private equity firm IBH. He will get paid £50,000 a year for a couple of days’ work each month. Nice work if you can get it

ends Who says?

ends Who says? section

starts section International 

US marine pleads guilty over Haditha killings - faces three months imprisonment

A US marine has pled guilty to a charge of “dereliction of duty” in relation to the massacre in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005. He was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault.

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich is the last marine to be charged with the unprovoked attack, when US troops murdered 24 Iraqis. He faces a maximum three months in prison. 

He told his troops to “shoot first and ask questions later”. Seven other marines have escaped prosecution.

ends US marine pleads guilty over Haditha killings - faces three months imprisonment

Arab League's Syria mission crisis

A deadlock is developing in Syria as the Gulf Cooperation Council and Saudi Arabia withdrew their observers from the Arab League mission to the country. 

Other countries plan to stay for another month.

The UN security council has discussed Syria at length, with the US and Israel lobbying for intervention.

Meanwhile protests against the regime are spreading. Strikes have shut down many universities, shops and markets.

ends Arab League's Syria mission crisis

No to West’s threats to Iran

The European Union (EU) implemented a ban on all new oil contacts with Iran this week, and ruled that any existing ones will be terminated in July. 

In response, Iran has once again threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. Over a fifth of the world’s oil supplies pass through the strait.

US officials have said they will keep it open by force. And Britain now has two huge warships on Iran’s coast, along with French and US vessels. 

Some EU officials are warning against sanctions on Iran. Greece, Spain and other troubled EU countries buy Iranian oil at very favourable prices.

Protest and rally: Hands Off Iran and Syria: No Western intervention Saturday 28 January, 2pm-4pm, US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London W1

ends No to West’s threats to Iran

Civil servants strike in Zimbabwe

Civil service workers across Zimbabwe began a five-day strike on Monday, demanding a doubling of wages.

The strike includes workers in government and education from unions with 235,000 members. This could increase if the Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association decides to join it.

ends Civil servants strike in Zimbabwe

Ethnic division in Nigeria can be overcome by spirit of solidarity shown during strikes

Ken Olende

The West African state of Nigeria was shaken by a series of bomb explosions on Friday of last week. 

More than 200 people were killed in the northern city of Kano as the armed Islamic group Boko Haram carried out a series of coordinated attacks. 

This has brought Nigeria’s ethnic conflicts back to the fore rather than the solidarity that bloomed during the recent general strike.

Nigerian authorities say that the rise of terrorist attacks threatens the country with civil war and that more military repression is needed.

The north of the country is mostly Muslim, while the south is largely Christian. 

Boko Haram recruit among the masses of desperately poor young unemployed. Its propaganda attacks the corrupt government for stealing the country’s oil wealth. 

But the strike threatened Boko Haram as much as the government. It showed the best way to resist corruption is to unite with other poor people whatever their religion.

It is convenient for the government to blame social divisions on Islamic extremism. But the root cause is the system that drives the majority of Nigerians to live on less than $2 (£1.28) a day. 

Masses of people took over the centre of Kano during the fuel protests and renamed it “Liberation Square”, inspired by the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt.

Baba Aye of the Socialist Workers League, Socialist Worker’s sister organisation, said, “Nigeria could be at the edge of a civil war. Different sections of our degenerate ruling class stoke the embers of divide and rule. But during the strike barely a fortnight ago Christians and Muslims stood as one in Liberation Square.”

When Boko Haram threatened Christians in Kano during the stoppage, Muslims came out to show solidarity.

Boko Haram’s latest attacks were focused on police stations and immigration centres.

Baba added, “The situation now is not simply a religious conflict—most of those killed are Muslims.

“We have a failed system and its failed state. It is time for the people across neighbourhoods and cities to organise our self defence and organs of people’s power.”

ends Ethnic division in Nigeria can be overcome by spirit of solidarity shown during strikes

Brutal slum eviction in Brazil

More than 2,000 police forcibly evicted residents of the Pinheirinho slum district of Sao Jose dos Campos near Sao Paulo, Brazil, early last Sunday morning.

Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to prevent anyone returning to their homes.

In the days before the eviction residents organised protests to defend their homes. Pinheirinho was home to more than 6,000 people.

ends Brutal slum eviction in Brazil

Greece: a new wave of fightback

Panos Garganas in Athens

Workers in Greece’s Attica region, which includes Athens, are fighting austerity. Their strike last week was in solidarity with people losing their jobs and facing unpaid and cut wages.

Rank and file workers addressed strike rallies. Their speeches were broadcast by workers occupying the Alter TV station.

Workers at Intracom, a large telecommunications and defence company, also began a rolling strike last Tuesday which is continuing.

And steel workers continue to strike.

There are increasing numbers of workers with confidence to take action.

It is politically significant. 

The Greek government is in negotiations with banks over organising a “haircut” (partial write-off) on its bonds.

They say this will cut Greek debt. But it’s designed to save the banks, again.

There is now a push from below for a general strike in the first week of February. 

The trade union leaders are holding back because they are negotiating with bosses over collective bargaining rights. 

But the way it is developing we’ll have more strikes and a united response to the attacks.

Panos Garganas is editor of Workers Solidarity, Socilaist Worker’s sister paper in Greece

ends Greece: a new wave of fightback

Workers protests rattle European leaders

Sadie Robinson

Governments across Europe are set on imposing cuts that will wreck lives, slash jobs and destroy services. But resistance is spreading.

Protesters repeatedly took to the streets of Romania over the past week calling on the government to resign. It’s the latest European Union (EU) country to erupt in rage against austerity.

EU leaders claim austerity will end the crisis. Yet wherever austerity measures have been rammed through, the crisis has grown deeper.

Europe’s stock markets fell on Tuesday of this week after eurozone ministers refused to accept a proposal to restructure Greece’s debt (see A new wave of fightback).

Recession

Spain is on the verge of another recession. Portugal may need a new bailout—since the last one coupled with austerity failed to stem the crisis. 

Meanwhile in Britain, figures due out this week are expected to show that there is negative economic growth. If this happens for two quarters in a row, Britain will officially be back in recession.

But for all their attacks on the working class, EU leaders are in a panic. They fear that the entire eurozone could be heading for recession—and that resistance to their cuts could get out of control.

In Italy, workers are fighting privatisation and cuts imposed by the technocratic government of prime minister Mario Monti. 

One truck driver was run over and killed this week while protesting against government plans to privatise transport.

Taxi drivers have also struck against the plans—and have thrown union officials who negotiated cuts with the government out of their meetings. 

Rail workers were set to strike on Friday. Pharmacists, lawyers and others are also preparing to strike.

In Romania, protests sparked by government plans to privatise the health service quickly spiralled into demos against the government.

Romania took an IMF loan in 2009—with cuts attached.

The government has slashed public sector workers’ wages by 25 percent. It has cut benefits and services, and raised taxes on sales.

Hundreds of thousands of civil servants have been sacked. And pensions were frozen last year—even though the IMF said Romania could actually afford to raise them.

The official opposition parties have called several protests and attracted thousands to them.

But many have also held independent protests—and denounced both the government and the opposition as corrupt.

At a protest in the capital Bucharest last Thursday, protesters faced down riot police and tear gas. They lit fires, built barricades in the streets and threw bottles and bins.

As protester Maria Alexandru put it, “We are here because we are fed up with the political class as a whole, be it the opposition or the ruling parties.”

Trade unions plan to hold a rally this week.

World rulers and bosses were set to meet for a World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday of this week. They will agree to force ordinary people to pay for the crisis.

But the scale of the crisis and resistance has got them worried.

ends Workers protests rattle European leaders

ends International section

starts section Comment 

Preparing for the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt

Socialist Worker editor Judith Orr returned to Cairo for the anniversary celebrations

Egypt is gearing up for the big day tomorrow (Wednesday 25 January), the anniversary of the start of the revolution.

The Egyptian Parliament opened in Cairo yesterday for the first time—with protests and workers’ marches in the surrounding streets. Many of these are still blocked by barricades put up by the army at the end of last year when it tried to smash mass protests and block routes from Tahrir square.

A year ago elections and such a parliament, with a two thirds majority for the Muslim Brotherhood, would have been unthinkable. But now people know that they are not enough to secure the freedom they have fought so hard for. An estimated 12,000 civilians are held in military prisons, the army still holds ultimate power.

The demands on walls, banners and everyone's lips are that Scaf (the Supreme Council Armed Forces) has to go. So people are ready to celebrate bringing down the dictator Hosni Mubarak, but they want you to know that the revolution is far from over.

"We can make a better revolution now after a year," Ahmed who is selling mini Egyptian flags in the centre of Tahrir said. "We have learned so much that we did not know last January. We know who our friends are. We know our enemies. Now it can start for real."

All around giant banners depict moments in the revolution, from the first days through to the most recent battles with the security forces. One includes an image of the attack on a young woman, which led to a wave of solidarity when thousands of women marched to show they would not be intimidated off the streets.

Already the numbers in the square make it hard to drive as people spill into the road. Volunteers direct the traffic and others hold up placards and tape them to railings.

A man is hanging a large saddle on a lamppost (see pic). This is what’s left of one of the camels used by Mubarak’s thugs to try and smash the Tahrir revolt on 2 February last year, its now owner proudly tells me.

Many died that day and many more have died since, their faces look down on you in posters and banners in Tahrir and around the city. Some protesters wear facemasks of their pictures.

Their memory is a powerful force in people’s determination to fight on. Last Friday’s demonstrations were called in the name of “Friday of the martyrs’ dreams”.

So this anniversary has its flags and souvenir T-shirts but it is more than a mere celebration. The dreams that inspired the revolution have yet to be realised and so the struggle will continue.

ends Preparing for the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt

Labour’s betrayal is nothing new

Ian Birchall

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have said that Labour must prove itself as a “responsible opposition” by accepting wage freezes and pay cuts. 

Millions who see Labour as the only alternative to the gang of rich bullies in the Tory cabinet will have been deeply disappointed.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey pointed out that those who have campaigned and struck against Tory cuts are now “disenfranchised”. 

The Guardian—which has a quite undeserved reputation for being on the left—responded with a sneer about the unions wanting “a Labour leader who would jump when they whistled”. 

The idea that Miliband—or any Labour leader—is a tool of the trade unions is a fantasy. It is dreamt up by journalists whose knowledge of the real world does not extend beyond talking to other journalists in the pub.

Sadly, there is absolutely nothing new about the line being pushed by Miliband and Balls. 

The Labour Party was created by the trade unions. But when it comes to making a choice between trade unionism and the interests of the bosses, Labour leaders have never been in any doubt.

In 1945 Clement Attlee headed what is generally seen as the most radical Labour government ever. 

But just five days after coming to power he sent troops into the Surrey Docks in London to break a strike. Troops were used against strikers another 17 times before 1951.

In 1964 prime minister Harold Wilson carried the hopes of many socialists for a fairer society. 

But in 1966, faced with a financial crisis—a very minor one by present-day standards—he introduced a six month pay freeze. 

Wilson and Barbara Castle, a well known left winger, planned “In Place of Strife”, a plan for laws to limit trade union rights. 

Though this was defeated, it paved the way for the anti-union laws that later Tory governments would introduce.

Strike

In 1974 Labour came to power as a result of a miners’ strike which forced Tory leader Edward Heath into a premature general election. 

But Wilson and his successor, James Callaghan, showed no gratitude to the trade union activists and voters who had put them into office. 

Labour introduced the Social Contract—often known as the “Social Con Trick”. In 1975 this became a legal limitation on wage increases—accompanied by massive cuts in public spending.

The introduction of the pay controls brought jubilation on the stock exchange. Shares rose by £2 billion on the Tuesday afternoon that Labour chancellor Denis Healey announced the new limit on wage rises. 

Between 1948 and 1973 real wages (measured against prices) had risen by an average of 2 percent per year. During Labour’s five years they fell by an average of 1.6 percent. 

But left wingers Michael Foot and Tony Benn sat in the cabinet and did not resign. Foot, once a fiery leftist, told Labour Party conference that they should show “the red flame of socialist courage” in accepting wage controls. 

So there is nothing new in the abject mumbling of Balls and Miliband. Yet there has been a change. 

The old Labour right wing, men like Hugh Gaitskell and Anthony Crosland, hated left wingers and trade union militants. But they were in favour of redistributing wealth. 

Labour’s 1973 election programme promised a “fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families”. The present bunch do not even promise a redistribution of wealth.

Until a real alternative emerges, socialists will go on voting Labour. 

But if we want an alternative it will come from below—from those who built last March’s massive demonstration and the 30 November strike.

Labour promises to act on behalf of working people. But when it comes to the crunch, it will always opt in favour of the existing order. 

In the words of the great socialist William Morris, we need a movement that is built “by us, and not for us”.

ends Labour’s betrayal is nothing new

Don't leave Unison: stay and fight to get the action put back on

Michael Bradley, SWP industrial organiser

The fallout from the unions’ response to the government’s “heads of agreement” on pensions is still being felt.

For many the decision by the leaders of Unison and the GMB to sign up to the deal was the last straw.

Why pay your subs to a union that won’t fight?

Even before the events of recent weeks, some Unison activists had “gone over” to other unions.

Now the pensions deal has sparked a new round of Unison members quitting to join Unite. 

Although understandable, there are real problems with this approach.

They are writing off Unison as “unreformable”. But despite its pro-Labour leadership, Unison was pushed by members to fight on 30 November.

Many Unison activists are campaigning to get the action back on. Those who jump ship are leaving in the middle of a fight—and weakening those activists they leave behind.

And it’s not true that “the grass is greener” on the other side.

Unite’s general secretary, Len McCluskey, has made militant speeches about mass strikes and has denounced the Labour leadership’s refusal to oppose the cuts. 

But he has been reluctant to call more action.

Similar arguments have taken place in the private sector. In recent years some London bus activists joined the RMT from Unite. 

Sadly this left these activists marginal in the big bus strikes that hit the capital in 2008.

All of us would rather have left wing leaders than right. But every union, no matter how progressive its leadership, still has a fundamental division—that between the bureaucracy and the rank and file.

Wages

Even the most left wing officials earn higher wages and work in different conditions to the workers they represent.

The most militant union officer still exists in a world of negotiation and compromise. So even they can find themselves selling deals and pulling back from struggles. That means members who bail out of one union may find they face similar problems in another.

It’s not true that there are simply “left” and “right” unions. 

The ATL, a union that boasted it had never struck before, led the strikes on 

30 June last year—while Unite didn’t strike. The left‑led FBU has still not taken action on pensions.

Of course there can be circumstances when it is necessary to choose between unions. But in most cases breaking away merely weakens our side.

There is a long tradition, going back to the early 20th century and beyond, of workers impatient with right wing leaders creating militant “red unions”.

But there is a big problem in a union movement being divided in this way. It can isolate the most militant workers, helping the bosses.

One union “poaching” members from another can lead to battles between unions rather than concentrating on building the unions through struggle.

At the moment our advice would be to “stay in and fight”. But this is a genuine debate that will only get sharper as Tory attacks intensify and the unions are truly put to the test.

What do you think? Email reports@socialistworker.co.uk

ends Don't leave Unison: stay and fight to get the action put back on

Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: Was 2011 the year of Revolution 2.0?

Paul Mason’s new book misreads the impact of technology on political struggle, writes Simon Basketter

There isn’t enough positive writing about revolt in the modern world. So it’s good that Paul Mason’s new book, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere, is so enthusiastic about revolution.

“The events of 2011 showed that ordinary people—the 99 percent—have the ability to reshape their circumstances to achieve in a day what normal progress achieves in years,” he writes.

“An economic crisis is making the powerful look powerless, while the powerless are forced to adopt tactics that were once the preserve of niche protest groups.”

Mason is the economics editor for the BBC’s Newsnight programme and the bulk of his book draws together his reporting of 2011’s momentous events.

In between Mason sets out his political pitch, which lays a heavy emphasis on the impact of new technologies such as mobile phones and the internet.

“We’re in the middle of a revolution caused by the near collapse of free market capitalism combined with an upswing in technical innovation,” he writes.

So there is much in the book about young women going to Starbucks and using social media to plan revolts. Yet the irony is that this praise for the new itself has a long history.

Mason at one point cites André Gorz’s 1980 book, Farewell To The Working Class. Gorz thought that the decline of the traditional working class had made revolution impossible.

He argued instead for “an alternative network of relations” that could “bypass” the machinery of power rather than taking it on and destroying it. 

Mason buys into this. But he thinks three forces have combined to make revolution possible—young tech-savvy graduates, slum dwellers and organised workers.

There are problems here, however. Too often Mason’s categorisation relies upon a superficial sociological view.

For instance, striking tax collectors in Greece become part of Mason’s new graduate class rather than being treated as part of the labour movement.

Globetrotting

This is because they are smartly dressed. Meanwhle a BNP voting ex-miner is Mason’s example of the working class.

Mason likes all the clever and angry young people he meets on his globetrotting tour of protests. But he likes their iPhones even more.

At times this tips over into an autonomism-lite that thinks new technology can brush aside the difficulties of organisation and building movements.

He writes, “Leninism is looking shrunken and disorientated, horizontalism can stage a great demo, but does not know what it wants... Labourism appears politically confused.”

His argument instead is that “the network beats the hierarchy”. But at this point evidence gets dropped for assertion. And some distinctly old fashioned class biases start to creep in.

So while Mason celebrates the August riots as a “youth revolt”, ultimately they merely serve to prove that Britain has slum dwellers too.

He offers far less analysis of the riots compared to his painstaking account of university occupations using social media.

Mason takes a selective approach to technology. Much is made of Twitter. Little is made of the deeply unhorizontal satellite TV.

Mason tends to ignore how methods of revolt are shaped by wider political factors. 

Using the internet as an organiser was often forced on people in dictatorial regimes. But as soon as that repression was seriously challenged, people rushed into the streets. There was a flowering of apparently old fashioned phenomena—speeches, leaflets, papers, demos and strikes.

Mason argues there are two potential mistakes. One is “to imagine the material antagonism between the democratic business class and workers can remain suppressed forever”.

The second “is to think there is nothing new”.

But there is a third mistake, which is to get the relationship between the old and new wrong. For all his enthusiasm, Mason is too often blinded by the shock of the new.

The paradox here is that the “newness” of these movements is the aspect of them that least troubles the existing order.

The nightmare for the ruling class is an older one—that the working class could bring down the system. And it is that deeper threat that Mason, unfortunately, fails to properly analyse.

Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions by Paul Mason is published by Verso, £12.99. You can buy it from Bookmarks—phone 020 7637 1848 or go to www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

ends Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: Was 2011 the year of Revolution 2.0?

ends Comment section

starts section Features 

Timeline of the Egyptian Recolution

The Egyptian Revolution did not come out of thin air. Despite arrests, disappearances and torture, brave activists were a frequent thorn in the side of dictator Hosni Mubarak in the decade before his overthrow.

March—September 2001 
 
Hunger strikes and occupations in support of Palestinians spread across Egypt. 
 
Protesters take to Tahrir Square to condemn Israel.
 
April 2002
 
Student demonstrations sweep Egypt after Israel invades the West Bank. Police kill a 20 year old at Alexandria University.
 
20 March 2003
 
Tens of thousands occupy Tahrir Square against the invasion of Iraq.
 
March 2005
 
Anti-government protests take place at universities across Egypt for two weeks.
 
May 2005
 
State forces attack a peaceful protest against a corrupt referendum on constitutional changes.
 
May 2006
 
Pro-reform judges protest in Cairo as part of the Kefaya democracy movement.
 
June 2007
 
The Rafah crossing to Gaza is closed by the regime. 
 
This places Palestinians under siege, provoking widespread protests in Egypt.
 
March – April 2008
 
Mass strikes break out among textile workers in Mahalla. 
 
A month later an illegal general strike rocks Egypt. 
 
Police kill two demonstrators—one is a 15 year old boy.
 
22 January 2008 
 
The Rafah crossing is breached by Egyptians and Palestinians. 
 
Hundreds of thousands cross the border.
 
27 December 2008 
 
Israel invades Gaza. Massive protests take place across Egypt.
 
17 December 2010—14 January 2011
 
The Tunisian revolution ousts the dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
 
In Egypt in just 18 days, a mass protest turns into a revolution. 
 
Police vanish from the streets as 28 Cairo police stations are burnt out. 
 
Around 1,000 people are killed by state forces.
 
25 January 2011
 
Tens of thousands protest around the country. The government shuts down internet access.
 
1 February 2011
 
Mubarak offers concessions but refuses to go. 
 
Protests escalate into a strike wave in Alexandria and Suez. 
 
Ten million people across Egypt demonstrate, and thousands set up permanent camp in Tahrir Square.
 
2 February 2011
 
The “Battle of the Camel” in Tahrir Square sees Mubarak’s thugs attack protesters.
 
11 February 2011
 
Mubarak is finally forced out. Huge celebrations break out across Egypt.
 
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) seizes control. Popular committees grow up in neighbourhoods to defend the revolution.
 
13 February 2011
 
Scaf dissolves parliament and suspends the constitution.
 
21 February 2011 
 
David Cameron visits Tahrir Square with British arms dealers. He is accused of selling weapons to repressive regimes as he claims to support the revolution against his old ally Mubarak.
 
5 March 2011
 
State Security Intelligence buildings are raided by protesters. Files are “liberated” in an echo of Berlin in 1989.
 
19 March 2011
 
Referendum passes a new constitution by 77 percent.
 
1 April 2011
 
A second wave of resistance begins with a mass protest in Tahrir Square demanding faster change and a trial for Mubarak.
 
27 May 2011
 
Huge demonstrations take place across the country against the slow pace of reform. 
 
These continue into July.
 
The revolutionary forces continue to scare the elite, who unleash a wave of repression. 
 
No longer do they believe “The army and the people are one hand”—Scaf is shown to be just as repressive as the ousted regime and resistance to it grows.
 
23 July 2011
 
Counter-revolutionary thugs attack protesters with sticks and stones as they try to march on the defence ministry.
 
29 July 2011
 
Clashes occur in Tahrir Square as Salafi Islamists hold a mass rally denouncing the left.
 
1 August 2011
 
Soldiers tear down protesters’ tents in the square. The state launches an offensive against revolutionaries.
 
3 August 2011
 
The trial of Mubarak begins.
 
9 September 2011
 
Protesters attack the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
 
1 October 2011 
 
Bus drivers in Cairo join the strike wave raging across the country.
 
9 October 2011 
 
Military police attack Coptic Christians as they protest against Scaf and for the resignation of its leader, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. More than 20 are killed.
 
A united mass protest in solidarity with Copts occurs in response.
 
31 October 2011
 
Blogger and political activist Alaa abd el-Fatah, nephew of Ahdaf Soueif, is arrested, sparking mass protests.
 
19 November 2011
 
Tahrir Square is reoccupied amid violent clashes with security forces.
 
28 November 2011
 
Elections begin amid deepening mass protests against Scaf and violent reprisals by the military.
 
16 December 2011
 
The military attack a peaceful sit-in outside the Cabinet Offices. 
 
In a crackdown on activists police and the military raid the offices of 17 NGOs across Cairo.
 
They also begin a witch-hunt against the Revolutionary Socialists.
 
18 December 2011
 
Footage emerges of soldiers beating a woman protester, tearing off her clothes. She becomes known as the “Blue Bra Girl”. 
 
Some 3,000 women march in protest against this and forced “virginity tests” by Scaf.
 
January 2012
 
The Muslim Brotherhood backed Freedom and Justice Party is the biggest winner in the first post-Mubarak elections.

ends Timeline of the Egyptian Recolution

Ahdaf Soueif interview: ‘Bread, freedom and dignity’

Writer and activist Ahdaf Soueif has reported from the front line of the Egyptian Revolution from the 18 days that brought down dictator Hosni Mubarak to today. Ahdaf talked to Judith Orr about the struggles in Egypt, the subject of her new book, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution. In this she weaves personal memories of growing up in Cairo with a powerful account of the extraordinary events of the past year.

Your writing about the Egyptian Revolution celebrates the courage, imagination and resilience of ordinary people. Why are they your focus?
 
The revolution is about people bursting through the lid that has been placed on them. 
 
It has confirmed everything I already believed. I never lost faith in the idea that the people were waiting, that under the surface their anger was simmering away.
 
For that I was often told that I was a romantic, that I was looking at the world through rose-tinted spectacles. 
 
Maybe that’s true. But I always thought the strategies people used to survive—the way they made a living, the jokes that they told—showed their resilience.
 
You have simultaneously been part of making a revolution and writing about it. Was it difficult to extract yourself from the moment in order to record it and assess its significance?
 
The articles, spoken pieces and short things weren’t difficult because I wrote them from within the revolution. 
 
But writing the book was a much more sustained effort.
 
I wrote through August, September and October last year.
 
I wanted to both recreate the feeling of the 18 days [the period leading up the fall of Mubarak] and also to put them in context.
 
Writing the book meant staying home for days, and not being on the ground. That was very hard.
 
Someone said to me, what about objectivity? 
 
I replied, I never set out to be objective—I am partisan and my writing is a form of activism.
 
You write that in the early days of the struggle people often described themselves as merely protesting. At what point did it feel like something bigger—that you were making a revolution?
 
It was on 29 January, the day the police and security forces withdrew from Cairo, the lights were cut off, and the army was on the streets.
 
That was when the regime finally understood that this was more than a protest. Then after the “Battle of the Camel” on 2 February, everything shifted gear once again.
 
How do you react to Western governments that now rush to embrace the revolution?
 
Governments are hypocritical. People are what matters to me.
 
I got such a sense of just how intensely people all over the world are watching us when in March I travelled abroad to give talks. The amount of goodwill was incredible and hugely encouraging.
 
Already Western commentators are arguing that the revolution has been hijacked by Islamists. How do you respond to their claims?
 
In what sense has it been hijacked?
 
We had elections. Despite those elections not producing the parliament that I personally am looking for, that is the parliament that was elected. That is the one we have to work with.
 
We have to work out how to stop Western governments intervening in our affairs. 
 
Perhaps it is too idealistic to imagine a situation where they don’t interfere at all but we need to work out how to lessen their leverage over us.
 
One solution is deepening democracy. And that fact we now have a representative government helps. 
 
The other is developing the economy. This is so we do not need finance from any other states.
 
But these things take time.
 
On several occasions, solidarity action has pushed back the threat of religious division. How important has this been?
 
It’s very important because division was the strategy of Mubarak and is the strategy of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [Scaf, the military regime that replaced Mubarak].
 
They have always sought to divide us—not just Muslim from Copt, but rich from poor, urban from rural, Islamist from non-Islamists. 
 
They even try to stir divisions among Muslims. 
 
One of the brilliant things about the 18 days in Tahrir Square was the way people understood that Egypt is defined by its diversity. You got the sense that the people actually gave voice to that ideal, and were determined to hold on it.
 
The Scaf has also tried to break women away from the movement. Are they succeeding?
 
No. And that itself is some kind of justice.
 
The worse the regime behaves towards us, the harder we push back. 
 
So, for example, they subjected women protesters to what they called virginity tests. But Samira Ibrahim, who is from a conservative background, took them to court with the full backing of her family and won.
 
She did a tremendous service to women’s ability to participate in the revolution.
 
After the attack on the “Blue Bra Girl” [see timeline, below], women made it very clear that they would stand up for themselves. Some 3,000 marched in response. 
 
The regime wanted to make women hesitate before taking part in political actions. Yet they have had the opposite effect.
 
Doctors, professors and scientists united with workers, street kids and the poor during the 18 days in Tahrir Square. How do the more middle class elements feel about the revolution now?
 
I haven’t seen any research on what proportion of the middle classes want to back off a bit and I don’t want to speculate.
 
But I do know about the demography of Tahrir Square. If you list the people that were killed there in December you see that everybody is still represented.
 
A significant feature of the revolution has been the involvement of organised workers. How important are the strikes and the formation of new unions?
 
I think that they are the heart of the revolution. 
 
The spectacle was Tahrir Square, but without the strikes, without the labour force walking out, it wouldn’t have happened.
 
Workers are still striking today, but they are also taking to court the bosses of companies that were fraudulently sold off.
 
Their action is creating awareness of just how corrupt the regime was, and how much it was running down the economy.
 
That kind of information is keeping the middle classes on board.
 
At the start of the revolution the popular slogan was, “The army and the people are one hand.” Now the demands are for the Scaf to go. How much of a shift is this?
 
It’s very important. If the Scaf had taken a different approach then the armed forces would have remained a popular institution.
 
Now the criticism is not just about the Scaf. People are looking at the way the army is run, in particular the way that conscripts are treated. The generals use them as a form of indentured labour.
 
The high number of conscripts that are killed during training is also something that was not known before the revolution.
 
How cohesive is the army, is there potential for splits?
 
It’s hard to speculate, but there are rumours of aborted uprisings within the army. The Scaf and the army leadership in general are very worried about fault lines within the military.
 
You write that because the revolution is a process, not an event, that you are writing about something that is still unfolding. What are your hopes for the future? 
 
The revolution has very specific goals. They are very big, but they are specific—bread, freedom and human dignity.
 
They require a complete restructuring of the state, redistribution of power, 
 
re-establishing education, health and the rights of the citizen, and the creation of mass employment and social justice.
 
My hope is that we maintain a sense of revolution on the streets.
 
We can pressure parliament, take public action, and through the struggle of workers we can start working towards those aims.
 
We are only starting out on this road but already the people have discovered a sense of their agency.

Cairo: My City, Our Revolution is published by Bloomsbury, £14.99, and is available from Bookmarks bookshop www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

ends Ahdaf Soueif interview: ‘Bread, freedom and dignity’

Remaking history - understanding the revolutionary wave of 2011

On the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution, Alex Callinicos looks at how to understand the revolutionary wave—and the potential for it to go much further

The Arab revolutions have shown an astonishing tenacity. They have overthrown some dictators and shaken others. Above all, they continue. 

The struggle to democratise Egyptian society goes on. And revolutionaries in Syria have shown astonishing courage and determination despite more than 5,000 deaths at the hand of the state.

But how do we get a measure of the revolutions’ significance? It’s tempting to draw historical comparisons. 

One most frequently made is with the revolutions of 1848, which started with the overthrow of the French monarchy and went on to shake the old regime throughout Europe.

This isn’t necessarily the most comforting comparison, because the old regime managed to hang on and crush the revolutions. 

Some 20 years later, one leader of the extreme left in the 1848 German Revolution, Frederick Engels, reflected from his Manchester exile. 

He wrote to another exiled revolutionary leader, his friend and comrade Karl Marx, “The complete oblivion of revolutionary-counter revolutionary causality is a necessary result of every victorious reaction. In Germany the younger generation knows absolutely nothing about ’48 … ; history comes to an abrupt stop there at the end of ’47.”

Engels was describing how the memory of the dynamic of revolution and counter revolution gets lost in a period of reaction. 

One effect of this is that when revolutions return, they are viewed through a distorting lens created during the years when the counter revolution was victorious.

Global

This is very true today, when the Arab revolutions—and the global economic crisis—have punctured the neoliberal era when unrestrained capitalism ran rampant and revolutions were consigned to the past. 

And so attempts to read the revolutions are shaped by the myths of this period of free market reaction.

One of these myths is comparatively easy to demolish. This is the idea that the overthrow of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt are the latest in a succession of “colour revolutions” that are spreading Western-style liberal capitalism throughout the world.

The obvious difficulty with this view is that the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt took out rulers very closely aligned with Western imperialism. 

Moreover their governments were praised to the sky by the World Bank for the determination and success with which they were implementing neoliberal economic policies.

Indeed, it was precisely the effect of neoliberalism in polarising and impoverishing Egyptian and Tunisian society and enriching a tiny elite closely interwoven with the regimes that drove the uprisings. 

We can see this same dynamic at work in Syria. Even though he is at odds with Israel and the West, Bashar al-Assad has implemented economic “reforms” that have benefited a handful of business cronies.

But there are other myths that developed under the reign of neoliberalism, some among its critics. One of the most influential was developed by Michael Hardt and Toni Negri in their book Empire—that opposition to capitalism today is driven by an amorphous “multitude” that seeks to outflank rather than confront the citadels of economic and political power.

This myth is popularised in Paul Mason’s new book, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere. Mason makes lots of good points. For example, he highlights the role played—not just in the Arab revolutions but also in the southern European movements against austerity and in Occupy—by a generation of unemployed graduates denied a future by the economic crisis.

But what is valid in Mason’s analysis is undermined by a rather naive enthusiasm for communication technologies and social media. 

So he writes, “Once information networks become social, the implications are massive: truth can now travel faster than lies, and all propaganda becomes instantly flammable.”

Social media

Mason should take a look across the pond at how social media have been used to build up the presidential campaign of the free market crackpot and defender of states’ rights, Ron Paul. More generally, the Republican right has been highly successful in using information technologies to weaken Barack Obama’s presidency—and now to rubbish each other in the primaries.

Facebook, Twitter and the like have undoubtedly played an important role in allowing activists to communicate and organise. But, after Mubarak shut down the internet and the mobile networks, much older technologies—landline phones and TV (above all Al Jazeera)—stepped in during the decisive struggles that brought him down.

Now the Egyptian Revolution has developed into a fight against the regime over which Mubarak presided and that survived his fall in the shape of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf). 

This has been driven by the confrontation between young working class revolutionaries and the forces of state power—the army and the riot police.

The revolutionary shabab (youth) may communicate by Twitter, but—unlike Mason or Negri—they understand that state power has to be overthrown, not by passed.

In plotting the future course of the revolutions, however, we have to confront one of the most strongly entrenched myths to emerge in the neoliberal era—Islamophobia. 

So many people, even on the radical and revolutionary left, believe that the main beneficiaries of the overthrow of Ben Ali and Mubarak have been the Islamists.

After all they—in the shape of Nahda in Tunisia and the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Egypt—have been the main victors in recent parliamentary elections.

Underlying this kind of pessimistic assessment are two errors. The first is treating the Islamists as a reactionary monolith. In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood is a complex political formation with a long and convoluted history. It benefited from being the most consistent opposition to Mubarak during decades when secular forces—nationalists and Communists—were weak and discredited.

As a result of its success, and efforts like developing welfare programmes for the poor, the Brotherhood encompasses within its ranks very diverse and contradictory forces—from respectable and socially conservative businessmen to youth activists who have been stalwarts of the struggle on the streets.

This means, as the FJP enters into formal partnership with the Scaf, it will come under enormous pressure that will pull it in different directions. One of the most important will come from the economic crisis. 

As the Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists point out in a recent statement, “Foreign exchange reserves are fast draining away (down from $36 billion to $15 billion during the first year of the revolution). Inflation is rising in the absence of any mechanism to control rising prices. Unemployment is continually rising.

“And all this is happening in the context of a severe crisis of global capitalism which in turn reduces income for Egyptian capitalism from sources such as tourism, the Suez Canal and foreign investment.”

The second mistake is to take a snapshot of the revolutionary process at a given moment and present it as the finish point. In Egypt, as in earlier revolutions, consciousness changes according to varying rhythms.

Enemy

A large minority of revolutionary youth now see the Scaf as the main enemy that must be smashed. But much wider layers of workers, peasants and urban poor are willing to give the junta and the Brotherhood a chance to reform Egyptian society, but are also sympathetic to the revolutionaries.

In which direction these layers move will determine the outcome of the Egyptian Revolution. Will they join the revolutionary minority in the struggle against Scaf? Or will they move rightwards—perhaps towards the Salafi ultra-Islamist puritans, who also did well in the elections?

The answer to this question will depend above all on whether the Egyptian workers’ movement can offer a way forward based on collective struggle against both the generals and the bosses. 

So far we have seen new unions and very militant strikes. But it is essential that workers find their own organised political voice.

Despite the myths projected on the Arab revolutions, their future remains open. In the maelstrom of these struggles, all our history can be remade.

Further reading: 

The Egyptian Revolution by Sameh Naguib, £3 
State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin, £8.95

Available at Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop. Phone 020 7637 1848 or go to www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

ends Remaking history - understanding the revolutionary wave of 2011

ends Features section

starts section Letters 

Letters

Benefit process makes disabled people sick

Your front page on disability benefit claimants (Socialist Worker, 21 January) gave an accurate picture of the disgraceful treatment disabled people face.

The Tories act like they are giving benefits out like sweets. But disabled people already have to prove—through a very arduous and humiliating process—that they need their benefits.

The whole process is off-putting and traumatising. It is designed to trick you and trip you up. We are being put into a process that makes us more ill.

And the benefits available don’t match people’s needs. I have chronic fatigue syndrome (ME). This means that my ability to be mobile is extremely unpredictable. 

Around £40 of my weekly benefit is for care. What’s that going to buy?

I have a home help who comes once a month. I have to pay for that out of my benefits. I can’t bear to think about what it would mean if I lost my disability living allowance. 

The government gives the impression that we are lying about our illnesses. But the value of the benefits is low. Why would anyone go through this process for such a tiny amount of money?

I want to appeal to the PCS union to include calls for dignity for disability benefit claimants in its strike demands. Workers who administer the benefits should unite with us against the government.

Disability charities need to stop colluding with the government. They have met ministers to discuss “reforming” benefits—and that has had an impact on resistance.

Some disability charities are too quick to believe the government’s lies. I’ve had people from some charities saying that the reforms could help disabled people get back to work.

But it’s sickening that David Cameron is saying the reforms are about helping disabled people.

The reforms are geared towards getting people off benefits and into tin-pot employment schemes. They are about making us pay ideologically as well as financially.

The government wants to blame disabled people—along with public sector workers, unemployed people and others—for the deficit.

But disabled people didn’t cause the deficit. And we will not pay for it.

Nicola Field, South London

Why the US did not win in Iraq

The letter arguing that the invasion of Iraq resulted in a US victory (Socialist Worker, 14 January) reflects a pessimism in sections of the left. It seriously misunderstands the nature of global imperialism.

After 1945 the US’s economic predominance allowed it to manage the Middle East through relationships with local dictators.

Where these failed, Israel could be relied upon to humiliate challengers by military means.

This strategy began to unravel during the Iranian revolution in 1979. The overthrow of the Shah of Iran showed that even the most powerful local ruler could be ousted. The US switched to an increasingly hawkish strategy.

The US backed Iraq in a war against Iran in the 1980s. The Iraqi regime believed it had a green light to do as it pleased and invaded the US ally Kuwait. 

The US responded by invading Iraq—in a messy compromise between hawkish posturing and returning to an older system of reliance on compliant local powers.

The second US invasion in 2003 was supposed to resolve this and set out a new framework for ensuring US predominance.

Instead the Middle East has gone into meltdown. 

Iran has emerged as a key power, creating panic among Arab ruling classes, and the US is seen as weak.

The US is locked into a pattern of calling for calm and then trying to make friends with whoever looks likely to be in power.

Occasionally it has successes, as in Libya. 

But it can’t be sure what pattern of relationships will exist in the future. 

US allies have begun to ask whether they should take more independent action to secure their interests in the region.

We need analyses that tie together an understanding of the crisis of the capitalist system with the crisis of geopolitics—a Marxist theory of imperialism.

Otherwise we run the risk of regurgitating the paranoid fantasies and nightmares of our rulers.

John Game, Central London

The rich are waging war with US piracy act 

According to Frederick Engels, Karl Marx became a passionate communist and moved to active politics partly because of the law on the woods. 

Some 97 percent of court cases around Marx’s hometown of Trier, Germany, in the 1830s were prosecutions of people who had gathered fallen wood from local forests.

Their traditional right to treat the forest as commons had been made illegal.

In the 18th century landowners in Britain also stole common land. Those who resisted were often transported to Australia.

In 2009 Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win a Nobel prize for economics. 

She showed that commons are a democratic, ecological and efficient alternative to private ownership.

The US’s Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) threatens to closed down entire websites internationally if they are accused of carrying material that US corporations don’t like.

The enclosure of the world wide web is part of a war of the rich and powerful against the rest of humanity. We must fight it.

Democratic ownership of the means of production is the communism that Marx advocated. A society owned by humanity is possible if we fight for it.

Derek Wall, Berkshire

Socialists unite for independence

I would like to see the formation of an organisation called Socialists for Self-Determination. 

I am sick of the debate on Scottish self-determination being dominated by nationalists and unionists. 

I believe people who live in Scotland should determine how they should be governed.

This is not because I believe in some abstract nationalist notion of Scotland. It’s because as a socialist I believe in power to the people. 

I want socialists living in Scotland to put aside all party bickering, personality clashes and grudges.

I want them to put a case for independence that is based on people’s right to determine their lives. 

The biggest plea of all goes to people like me. I have long been disillusioned with all party politics. But I’ve never lost hope that one day we might live in a land that is based on love, liberty and equality. 

Let’s stop settling for second best. At worst, we will go down fighting with our heads held high and at best we just might change the whole world. 

Now that is something worth fighting for!

Stuart Pryde, Kirkcaldy

Press ignored Nigeria strike

Thanks for Baba Aye’s brilliant reports on the general strike in Nigeria (Socialist Worker, 21 January).

The mainstream press talked about the price of oil going up because the Nigerian government had abolished fuel subsidies. 

But there was not a word about the strike!

Mike Beaken, Sheffield

United battle was inspiring

Your article on the Bread and Roses strike (Socialist Worker, 7 January) definitely shed more light on the event. 

The strike was fabulously well organised. 

It brought tears to my eyes to see how workers from so many different nationalities could get united at the beginning of the 20th century.

This sometimes seems impossible to achieve nowadays in Portugal in the 21st century!

Claudia Martins, Braganca, Portugal

Killing royals is not a joke

Socialist Worker is right in its consistent, unequivocal criticism of the monarchy. 

But jokes about killing the royal family (Socialist Worker, 21 January) do not serve a political purpose.

Support for the monarchy is high among all social classes. It would be a shame if this joke put off a first time reader.

I don’t think Socialist Worker would have made a similar joke about the Pope due to the deep attachment of sections of workers to the Catholic church.

Hanif Leylabi, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Capitalism can’t be moral

David Cameron argued for so-called “moral capitalism” last week.

It’s clear he’s unfamiliar with the old folk saying which insists, “You can’t polish a turd.”

Sasha Simic, Hackney

Labour won’t get my money

I have written to my union and asked for a form to cancel the political levy I pay. 

I think all trade unionists should do likewise. 

Our party has been stolen by right wing career politicians who care nothing for socialism and do nothing to promote a fairer, more equal society.

Roy Henderson, Hampshire

We can make a revolution

The Twenty fifth of January will be the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Egyptian Revolution.

Last January was only act one of the revolution. It has now turned to workplaces and taken on a more social character.

The end result is uncertain. But no more can we be told revolution is not possible.

Matt Hale, Manchester

Our tradition of anti-racism

Your article on anti-racist campaigning in south east London (Socialist Worker, 14 January) is welcome.

However I do not feel it represents the extent to which Gacara (Greenwich Action Committee Against Racist Attacks) were at the centre of the campaigns.

Gacara was the central coordinator of campaigns for justice following the racist murders of Rolan Adams and Rohit Duggal.

We mobilised one of the biggest marches in Britain to speak out against the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and worked jointly with the Anti Nazi League to agree the route.

These actions would not have happened without the work done by Gacara, who provided the platform for local and national organisations and groups.

Today Equa-Ed, the Equality and Education Project, works to support victims of racist abuse in the borough.

Dev Barrah, Equa-Ed

ends Letters

ends Letters section

starts section Reviews 

Massobs—Project One

This website provides “mass observations” of everyday life filmed by groups of postgraduate students from Coventry University. 

Its first project is an account of the United Familes and Friends Campaign demonstration last October against deaths in custody.

The easy to use website allows visitors to click on the names of some of those who were on the march to hear their stories. 

Here you can watch some of the families of custody death victims, as well as supporters. 

A great grassroots campaigning tool.

Massobs—Project Onemassobs.co.uk

ends Massobs—Project One

Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero

Why does a mythical hero from 14th century England still inspire Hollywood movies, BBC dramas and even financial transaction taxes?

Paul Buhle’s new book gives an illustrated history of the tale of Robin Hood. This is a legend that has been shaped by the times—from peasant rebellion to McCarthyite witch-hunt. 

This is an entertaining mix of cultural and political history.

Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Heroby Paul BuhlePM Press, £10.99out now

ends Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero

Big Society!

Comedian Phill Jupitus has joined left wing theatre company Red Ladder for a timely attack on David Cameron’s “big society”.

The play is set a century ago at the City Varieties theatre, where this performance takes place.

The country is run by arrogant public school boys with contempt for the poor. 

And the corrupt government of millionaires is backed up by a crooked press, in this case the “Double Standards” newspaper. 

Expect a few bolshy songs too—Leeds anarchist band Chumbawamba provides the music.

Big Society! City Varieties, Swan Street, Leedsuntil 4 Februarywww.cityvarieties.co.uk

ends Big Society!

Alienation: A small book that makes a big idea simple to grasp

Adzowa Kwabla

This short book is a welcome addition to the reading list for those, like me, who are relatively new to the socialist tradition. 

The idea of being alienated from one’s own labour was summarised by Karl Marx when he wrote, “The activity of the worker is not his spontaneous activity. It belongs to another, it is a loss of self.” 

And alienation is felt in a variety of ways. It affects not only our feelings about work and self, but also our relationships with others and with nature.

Dan Swain shows that it has its roots firmly in the capitalist system. 

He uses the example of last year’s riots to demonstrate that its effects are seen in every human exchange. 

The pamphlet starts with the historical transition from feudalism to capitalism.Here great swathes of the population were dispossessed of their land and tools, leaving them with nothing to sell but their labour. 

Swain explains the concepts of alienation from the labour process, from product, from others, from self and from nature. 

He also draws on empirical evidence to show the terrible impact on mental and physical health that results from losing control over various aspects of our lives.

Using the example of modern day call centres, Swain shows that alienated work practices as Marx understood them still very much exist.

It is not the type of work done that is relevant, but the relationships of command that it involves. 

And all this is explained without the pitfall of being too academic in this enjoyable short book.

Alienation by Dan Swainout now (£5)Published by Bookmarkswww.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk or phone 020 7637 1848

ends Alienation: A small book that makes a big idea simple to grasp

Coriolanus: Shakespeare tragedy puts masses on stage

War, class arrogance and popular discontent are at the core of Coriolanus, writes Gareth Jenkins

Director Ralph Fiennes’s new film of William Shakespeare’s tragedy about ancient Rome is excellent. 

Military commander Caius Martius secures a stunning victory over Rome’s enemies, the Volscians, and is rewarded with the title Coriolanus for conquering their capital, Corioli.

His fellow senators, aware of social discontent, promote him to consul to strengthen their position. 

Only very reluctantly is Coriolanus prepared to go through the motions of seeking approval from the common people, whom he despises.

He initially wins the citizens’ support. But their representatives persuade them to withdraw it. He explodes with anger, and the people banish him. 

His patriotism collapses in the face of this outrage to his ego. He goes over to the enemy and leads a triumphant assault on his native city. 

At the last moment, he yields to his mother’s pleading and withdraws the troops—with fatal consequences. 

The film skilfully updates the conflict to the present. The military violence we see is reminiscent of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. 

The citizens are hungry and rebellious. They debate, march and act in ways that recall recent popular revolts.

Shakespeare didn’t often put common people on the stage—his was mostly a world of court intrigue. 

But in this play they dominate the action. At every point, those in authority are nervously aware of the masses. 

Dogs

Coriolanus, true to his patrician training, insults them at every opportunity. 

That works on the battlefield, where military discipline and his own foolhardy courage lead to victory.

But in the everyday world, such arrogance threatens to provoke the very thing his class fears—rebellion. 

His senator friend, Menenius, is much more cunning. 

He uses the common touch to bamboozle the citizens.

The citizens themselves vacillate between being taken in by their rulers and opposing them. 

And it’s not always clear whether the tribunes manipulate or represent the people’s needs.

But in the confrontation between the people and Coriolanus that leads to his exile, there is one marvellous insight.

A tribune urges the people on, saying that all their liberties will be lost if they confirm Coriolanus as consul. 

A senator argues that that is the way to “unbuild the city and lay all flat”. 

The tribune counters with a still relevant question—“What is the city but the people?” The entire citizenry repeat, “The people are the city.”

Shakespeare was writing in a period when the working class barely existed. For him, the masses may have forced themselves onto the scene of history—but it is beyond their capacities to determine the outcome. 

When it comes to the drama of whether Coriolanus can be stopped, the masses drop out of view. 

It is his mother, Volumnia, who wins where Menenius, in his appeal to patriotism, fails. 

She understands his weakness. His sense of being true to himself led him to desert his country. By playing on this she gets him to abandon the enemies of Rome.

Portrait

Shakespeare’s portrait of the masses may not have been too flattering. But that is no reason to think he held up Coriolanus as some kind of model (as fascists in the 1930s tended to). 

There are suggestions of his growing dehumanisation. 

He is described as a lonely dragon, and lacking mercy as a male tiger lacks milk.

Coriolanus’s tragedy is that he may appear admirably uncompromising when set against the unprincipled behaviour of his own class—but that strength is simultaneously his flaw. 

Being “true to himself” is to be isolated and self-destructive.

Coriolanus is in cinemas now

ends Coriolanus: Shakespeare tragedy puts masses on stage

ends Reviews section

starts section News & Reports 

PCS executive meets to discuss strikes

Andy Reid, PCS NEC (pc)

The PCS executive met last Thursday and reiterated the need for more coordinated national strikes before the end of March. But no further decisions were made as to likely or preferred dates to take to other unions.

An isolated attempt to call a ballot on accepting the “heads of agreement” was rebuffed on the grounds that there were no substantial improvements to the government’s position. 

It was also argued that PCS needed to be free to join in action over the coming months and not be obstructed by any unnecessary delays.

ends PCS executive meets to discuss strikes

Strike ballot on Heathrow Express over victimisation

The RMT is balloting for strikes on the Heathrow Express train service over the unfair dismissal of driver Zahid Majid and the victimisation of RMT rep Liaqat Ali.

The RMT has also rejected a “derisory” offer from London Underground over Olympics pay. The union is fighting for a flat rate Olympics payment to all staff across all grades.

ends Strike ballot on Heathrow Express over victimisation

Occupy London and the courts

Occupy London supporter

Occupy London activists are currently involved in two ongoing legal processes.

One is focussed on the main St Paul’s occupation and a second concerns the Bank of Ideas—a disused UBS bank behind Liverpool Street station.

The Bank of Ideas protesters went into occupation on the morning of 18 November. That evening, the owners of the building (Sun Street, a subsidiary of UBS) obtained a possession order requiring the occupiers to leave. 

The following day, the demonstrators went back to court, seeking to have the possession order set aside.

Over the next two months this legal battle has made its way relatively slowly through the courts. 

The central difficulty faced by UBS was that they obtained the possession order without a proper trial. 

The Bank of Ideas protesters were told about the hearing at which possession was granted with just 45 minutes’ notice. They were not told where to go or how to take part in the hearing.

The High Court eventually upheld the possession order, and made a series of criticisms of the way in which it had been obtained. 

The judge gave the demonstrators time to appeal. This inconvenienced UBS, who (their lawyers told the court) had booked a “slot” with the police to carry out the eviction.

Permission

The Court of Appeal two weeks later granted permission to appeal. The basis on which permission was granted is that for centuries it has been law that a property owner should not be dispossessed without even a minimal hearing. 

While trespassers fit awkwardly into this picture, justice itself requires that important decisions are taken only at a fair hearing. 

So it is important for capitalism to have a legal system that looks fair. This is of greater importance than upholding the property rights even of a prominent business such as UBS.

Permission having been granted, the Bank of Ideas occupiers decided to end their protest at the end of January. The appeal has been vacated and they will leave the UBS building at a time of their own choice.

The situation at St Paul’s is different. Because of the tensions within the Church of England, no application was made for a possession order until the occupiers had been there for several weeks. 

The City of London Corporation (and the court) accepted in principle that the St Paul’s protesters were bona fide demonstrators. They also accepted that they had a right (protected in article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights) to free expression. This gave them the right to protest outside St Paul’s for a limited time.

Hearing

The St Paul’s case was only determined after a five-day hearing. The judge then took several weeks to write up his decision. 

The judge held that the demonstrators obstructed the highway, disturbed Christians worshiping at the cathedral, congested the highway, caused crime in the area, obstructed access to fire services, and needed (but did not have) planning permission.

The judge accepted that demonstrators had a right to gather on the highway. But he added that this right only extended so far as to protect limited demonstrations—not occupations taking the form of protest camps. 

Occupy London has until 27 January to seek an appeal. The most likely outcome—unfortunately—is that permission will be refused.

As so often happens in the legal system, the appearance of a lengthy and fair trial is just a prelude to a final decision firmly in capital’s favour.

The demonstrators’ legal teams have won certain battles along the way—but the end result will be that the courts supervise both occupiers’ ultimate eviction. 

We do not know yet the extent to which the police or bailiffs will be involved. But, as happened last year at Dale Farm, the end game may yet be a thoroughly nasty procedure.

ends Occupy London and the courts

Week of strikes by oil tanker drivers

Around 70 oil tanker drivers and their supporters rallied outside the Immingham oil terminal on Tuesday morning.

They were starting a seven-day strike involving more than 120 workers at three major oil terminals.

Workers are fighting attacks on their terms and conditions.

The drivers are members of the Unite union. They are employed by distribution and logistics firm Wincanton on a contract for oil giant ConocoPhillips.

Unite says that drivers are reporting increasingly stressful working conditions as companies try to cut costs and boost profits.

One worker said, “Big multinationals are using the crisis as an excuse to drive back terms and conditions.”

Their strike can hit fuel supplies to Jet forecourts across Britain, especially in Scotland, the Midlands and the north of England. 

The Wincanton drivers work out of oil terminals at Kingsbury in Warwickshire, Immingham in Lincolnshire and Stockton-on-Tees.

ends Week of strikes by oil tanker drivers

Jailed student James Heslip wins reinstatement

Siân Ruddick

A student who was jailed for taking part in the anti-tuition fees protests last year was reinstated into his university last week.

Kingston university had expelled James Heslip after he was absent from his course for more than 21 days.

But a campaign by his lecturers, friends, family and campaigners succeeded in reversing the decision.

James was convicted of violent disorder and sentenced to 12 months in Wandsworth prison in October last year.

Protest at Wandsworth prison

The Defend the Right to Protest campaign has called a demonstration outside Wandsworth prison in solidarity with those inside.

Many student protesters and rioters have been sent to the prison. 

The protest is from 4pm on Saturday 4 February. Bring banners, friends, and things to make noise.

Go to defendtherighttoprotest.org

ends Jailed student James Heslip wins reinstatement

Leicester unites against racist EDL

Simon Assaf

People from across Leicester joined a public meeting to organise opposition to the English Defence League (EDL) last Saturday.

The racist organisation plans to come to the city on 4 February. But anti-fascists plan to protest against them.

Around 170 people came to the meeting. 

Sital Singh Gill, general secretary of the Indian Workers Association, addressed the meeting along with councillors and activists.

The anti-fascist protest is supported by CWU Leicestershire branch, PCS Leicester and Leicestershire branch, Stoneygate Labour Party, Unite 0168M branch, Leicester District Trades Council and a host of union and community organisations.

Labour councillor Patrick Kitterick said, “This is my city, these are my streets. We need to draw a line and say no further to the EDL.”

ends Leicester unites against racist EDL

RMT suspends Glasgow action

Anindya Bhattacharyya

The RMT union has suspended strikes by rail signalling workers in Glasgow in advance of talks with the Acas conciliation service.

Some 30 workers at the West of Scotland signalling centre had been due to strike on 23 January and 27 January. 

The dispute is over Network Rail ripping up longstanding promotion practices at the centre.

ends RMT suspends Glasgow action

Unanimous vote to end dispute at Fujitsu

Unite union members at the Manchester site of IT giant Fujitsu have unanimously voted to accept an offer to settle their long-running dispute.

The dispute was over a breakdown in industrial relations, breaches of agreements and victimisation of reps.

The dispute began in Crewe over the dismissal of union rep Alan Jenney in what Unite called an unfair and unnecessary redundancy. 

Fujitsu Crewe struck on 30 June last year alongside public sector workers. Fujitsu Manchester later balloted and struck on 19 September.

The turning point came in October, when Fujitsu offered enough for Unite to suspend a planned strike.

In November a statement was issued saying, “The parties have successfully resolved the position of Mr Jenney through the services of Acas to both parties’ satisfaction.”

Kevin O’Gallagher, Unite national officer for IT and communications, said the latest deal “reflects a significant improvement in relationships with the company since last year”. 

He added, “It means better protection for pensions for Fujitsu employees across the UK and pay rises for most Manchester staff.”

The agreement also includes new facility time arrangements. 

Ian Allinson, Unite senior rep, explained, “The agreement means a phased reduction in facility time for three reps in Manchester who have been spending more than 60 percent of their time on representative duties. 

“This is offset by a removal of the limit on the number of Unite reps. 

“More importantly, reps outside Manchester, who don’t have union recognition yet, will for the first time be allowed to deal with some issues in work time. 

“We hope this will allow us to strengthen union organisation across the UK.”

If the statement about Alan Jenney means that there was a financial settlement rather than reinstatement, it would be wrong to call this a victory. 

However, Unite says seven new reps have been elected so it is clear that the robust response from members has prevented his dismissal inflicting serious damage on union organisation. 

It also enforced agreements Fujitsu was previously breaking and won some new gains.

For more information, see www.ourunion.org.uk/news

ends Unanimous vote to end dispute at Fujitsu

Barnsley drivers’ mass meeting calls more strikes

George Arthur

Bus drivers in South Yorkshire held a mass meeting last Sunday to discuss the next steps in their pay dispute with their employer Stagecoach.

The drivers, members of the Unite union, voted overwhelmingly to continue their strikes.

They will walk out on 4, 6, 8 and 10 February, and plan similar strikes each month thereafter. 

Barnsley trades council is due to meet on Wednesday of this week. It will discuss holding a march and rally in support of the bus workers on Saturday 4 February, the day of the first strike.

Bus drivers have been lifted by the messages of support and donations that have been sent in. 

Stagecoach is refusing to budge on paying back pay owed from beginning of June.

Send messages of support to Barnsley Unite branch secretary Tony Rushforth at a-rushforth@sky.com. Make cheques payable to TGWU 9/9 Barnsley and send to A Rushforth, 45 Tune Street, Barnsley, S73 8PX

ends Barnsley drivers’ mass meeting calls more strikes

Build for a national electricians’ walkout

Simon Basketter

Electricians protested in Glasgow, Manchester and London last week. 

And workers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Lincolnshire walked off their site for the second week in a row—and plan to do the same every week.

Bosses at seven firms want to scrap workers’ existing JIB national agreement and impose a new, worse one—Besna.

This would slash pay by 35 percent and bring in a new grade of semi-skilled worker.

Workers in five of the seven companies have been told to sign new contracts on much inferior pay or face the sack. 

The companies are Balfour Beatty, Crown House Technologies, Spie Matthew Hall, Shepherd Engineering Services and NG Bailey.

Contracts

They have issued the Unite union with legal notice of their intention to dismiss, with notice, thousands of workers before re-engaging them on new contracts.

Unfortunately, Unite’s latest legal advice is to sign the contracts and include a protest letter when returning them.

Bosses had threatened to sack people if they didn’t return their contracts signed by 9 January. They backed off after hundreds of workers returned them unsigned.

As one electrician told Socialist Worker, “We had a week of confusion. Instead of building up momentum for a strike the union has now told people to sign the contracts.”

Unite is reballoting members working at Balfour Beatty for a second time.

Some 81 percent voted for strikes last November—but Unite called off the strike after bosses threatened legal action. 

The ballot closes on Wednesday 1 February.

There is disquiet from electricians that promises from Unite’s leadership have so far still not translated into facts on the ground.

The new terms are set to be introduced in eight weeks. 

Whenever the rank and file are in the lead, the dispute moves forward.

The momentum needs to be built for another national walkout on 9 February.

ends Build for a national electricians’ walkout

A new trades council launched for Fenlands

Andrew Osborne

Over 70 people attended a public meeting to relaunch Fenlands trades council in Cambridgeshire last Saturday.

Trade union barrister John Hendy QC spoke and RMT general secretary Bob Crow chaired the meeting.

Local union reps attended from a number of public and private sector workplaces.

There was a mood for a continued fight over pensions and a resolve to tackle racism against eastern European migrant workers. Reps also plan to oppose the racist British Freedom Party which is trying to organise in the area.

ends A new trades council launched for Fenlands

On strike against forced academies

Three unions were set to strike together on Wednesday of this week at Birmingham’s Montgomery primary school.

Workers in the NUT, NASUWT and GMB unions are resisting plans to force the school to become an academy. They struck last December against the plans (pictured).

Parents are also opposing the academy and have handed in a 700-strong petition demanding a proper consultation.

Rush messages of support to banut@btclick.com, banasuwt@mail.nasuwt.org.uk and christine.cartwright@birmingham.gov.uk

ends On strike against forced academies

Lobby against cuts to adult social care in Norfolk

The Unison union lobbied Norfolk council together with anti-cuts campaigners on Monday against plans to slash adult social care services.

Richard Edwards, chair of Norfolk Coalition Against the Cuts, said, “Conservative council leaders plan to cut support for the elderly, and people with learning disabilities and mental health problems.”

ends Lobby against cuts to adult social care in Norfolk

Privatisation plan beaten in Edinburgh

Duncan Smith, branch chair Edinburgh Unison (pc)

A special meeting of councillors in Edinburgh last Thursday voted by 31 to 23 to end plans to privatise a swathe of council services. 

The council wanted to make cuts of £90 million, transferring three major groups of services and up to 4,000 staff to private companies.

In response trade unionists and anti-cuts groups launched the Our City’s Not For Sale campaign.

This campaign included big public meetings, petitions, street stalls, and lobbying of councillors, MPs, and MSPs.

Our first success was in November when the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) split with their Lib Dem coalition partners and voted to keep environmental services in-house.

This was repeated last week when the SNP voted against their partners again to keep facilities management in-house. 

The third contract was withdrawn.

None of this would have happened without relentless pressure from our campaign.

ends Privatisation plan beaten in Edinburgh

Pay and conditions under attack at Stoke council

Unison union members in Stoke-on-Trent held two mass meetings last week over the council’s plans to cut their weekend pay and mileage allowances.

Refuse workers also face threats to their shifts, as the Labour-run council wants them to switch from Monday to Friday working to three 12-hour shifts a week.

Members of the Unite and GMB unions at the council were set to meet this week.

ends Pay and conditions under attack at Stoke council

Still striking over pay in Southampton

Southampton council workers are planning to strike again—more than a year after the start of their battle over imposed pay cuts.

Workers in Southampton took 12 weeks of rolling, section-by-section action last summer against the pay cuts and have taken more days of action since.

This time more than 2,000 union members are to be consulted on whether they want to strike for a full day or half a day. It comes after reps met and agreed unanimously that there is no option but to continue the action.

Unite regional officer Ian Woodland said, “Our members are united, angry and determined and have vowed to keep on fighting until the council sees sense.”

Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker added, “Unison members will continue to take action until nationally agreed pay levels are restored.”

Action short of a strike also continues. But there has been a long gap in the strikes. Only escalation can win this battle.

ends Still striking over pay in Southampton

Special conference to discuss USS pensions

Malcolm Povey, UCU NEC (pc)

Lecturers in the UCU union were set to gather in London for a special delegate conference this coming Tuesday to discuss their pensions dispute.

Delegates are from older, pre-92 universities, and are in the USS pension scheme.

The meeting takes place against the background of the government’s “heads of agreement” offer to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS).

University employers have imposed a rotten deal that means USS members will pay more and work longer to receive less.

UCU activists played an important role in delivering strikes on 22 and 24 March, 30 June and 30 November last year. This, together with the current work to contract, has pushed employers to offer talks.

However, UCU negotiators have recommended that industrial action is suspended in return. They claim a temporary concession made by the employers over redundancy justifies this. 

But it is the union’s job to fight compulsory redundancy, not to negotiate better redundancy deals that sell jobs.

The employers are only negotiating because lecturers took action. We need to threaten escalation. Nor must we undermine other unions that have refused to sign the “heads of agreement” or are consulting with their members.

Negotiators have also agreed to switch to a career average scheme instead of a final salary one. This makes it easier to undermine pension schemes through erosion of accrual rates.

Delegates should support motions calling for escalation of action and for cooperation with the TPS unions. They should also support the amendment to the negotiators’ report calling for a continuation of work to contract and escalation of action.

ends Special conference to discuss USS pensions

BBC Birmingham workers strike against job cuts

Jen Austin

Around 100 angry BBC workers at Mailbox Birmingham began a 24-hour strike on Wednesday of last week.

The strikers, in the Bectu union, are fighting a planned move to Bristol which would cut jobs.

They held signs naming the programmes they represented—Hairy Bikers, Countryfile and See Hear. Even an “Archer” was present!

One striker said, “The proposed move to Bristol will mean the Midlands is totally unrepresented. It’s the closure of the network.”

A Bectu rep added, “They are outsourcing everything. Soon there’ll be nothing left.”

The strike was rounded off by a noisy protest outside the council followed by a rally addressed by other media unions, Midlands TUC and local councillors.

Other workers sent messages of solidarity and PCS union members joined the protest.

ends BBC Birmingham workers strike against job cuts

Mark Campbell: My vision for a fighting UCU union

Mark Campbell is a lecturer at London Metropolitan University and a member of the UCU union’s national executive committee.

He is also a member of the UCU Left and the Socialist Workers Party. Mark is standing for general secretary of the union. Voting begins on Monday 6 February. He tells Socialist Worker about why he is standing—and his vision for a fighting union

Why are you standing for the position of general secretary? 

I want the union to mobilise its strength and influence to defend public post-school education. 

That means using our industrial strength to resist privatisation and to defend pensions, pay and conditions. 

We can do this most effectively when our resistance is underpinned by political campaigning with students and others who want to fight. 

It’s wrong to imagine there’s a gulf between politics and trade unionism.

The government’s explicitly political agenda for post-16 education is politicising trade unionism. 

This includes funding cuts, £9,000 fees, deregulation enabling private providers to profit from education, threats to the equality agenda, and attacks on pensions and pay. 

Industrial and political resistance in defence of education must be our response.
 
What would your priorities be if elected?

There are five central issues. First is the Higher Education White Paper’s proposals to dismantle the university system, which is already leading to redundancies and cuts in course provision.

Second is the privatisation of post-16 education. Third is the serious erosion of pay in further and higher education. 

Fourth are the hugely increased workloads accompanied by managerial bullying that stifles innovation in teaching and research, and undermines our profession. 

Finally there is the determined assault on the USS and TPS pension schemes.

Our capacity to defend further, higher and adult education against all this will determine the shape of post-16 education for years to come. 
 
What difference can left union leaders make?

Both general secretary candidates, and, I hope, all who are standing for election to the excutive, want to defend jobs, pensions, pay and conditions.

All want to resist government privatisation of education. The difference lies in how we do that. Do we simply voice our opposition and demonstrate our disapproval?

Or do we seek a strategy that can block the neoliberal project and its devastating longer-term effects? 

Local and national battles over jobs or workloads will be more effectively fought with that political context in mind. I will promote strong, active branches and rank and file organisation.

We need to seek allies everywhere and see ourselves as part of a wider collective fight for justice and equality. 
 
How important is it to you to build unity among left union leaders and among unions in general?

Unity is crucial in the face of attacks. But you can have passive unity or unity in action. 

I stand for the greatest possible unity of trade unionists in resisting the onslaught that post-16 education and our public services face. 

It is in our direct interests to seek unity with other trade unions and those struggling for justice. 

We need a union that stands on its principles and is really willing to fight hard to defend its members. 

30 November showed what is possible with unity. Hundreds of thousands struck for the first time, countless union branches are being regenerated, and we saw the biggest strike ever in Britain by women workers.

None of that could have been achieved without some unions, particularly the UCU but others as well, taking the risk of leading from the front. 

Their capacity to see the government assault in wider terms made it possible for millions to express their opposition and disgust.

To get involved with Mark’s campaign go to markcampbell4gs.wordpress.com

UCU Left is supporting several candidates for election to the union’s national executive. For details go to uculeft.org

ends Mark Campbell: My vision for a fighting UCU union

ends News & Reports section

ends Socialist Worker 2287