The
judicial House of Lords has recently ruled that pleural plaque (scarring of the
lung – a condition caused by breathing in asbestos) is not an industrial
illness for which compensation can be claimed. This reverses twenty years of
common law practice. What do the Law Lords know about it? Asbestosis related
conditions are not exactly an occupational hazard for judicial bigwigs.
Over 70,000 people gathered to
march, or to enthusiastically cheer, as 160 trades union and socialist banners
were paraded through Durham at the 124th Durham
Miners’ Gala. Known throughout Durham as “The Big Meeting”, this wonderful
event was threatened with disappearance when the Tories destroyed the Durham
mining industry. But the working class is tenacious and has turned the annual
Miners Gala into an international trades union festival, with banners even
coming from Australia!
Even the bourgeois press has admitted that
the sudden shift in world economic fortunes has brought Marxism ‘back from the
dead’ – the Sunday Times ran an article last week under the title ‘The credit
crunch is bringing Marxism back into fashion’. From our perspective, Marxism is
not a fashion or a strange breed of animal, as the bourgeoisie like to kid
themselves, but the only answer to today’s problems. And as the deep crisis of
world capitalism comes more and more to the surface, more and more people will
seek our ideas. This was shown by the turnout of more than 30 at ULU Marxist
Society and Socialist Appeal’s Marxist
Day School on Saturday 12th
July.
The unexpected by-election in the Glasgow East constituency
has focussed the attention of the political parties and the media on a part of
Clydeside which it has long been fashionable to ignore. At the
general election Labour obtained a majority of 13,500 over the SNP candidate,
gaining 60.7% of the vote. If ever Labour had a safe seat it was Glasgow East.
This has led to the constituency being taken for granted and systematically neglected.
In Greater Glasgow, life expectancy is below the national average at 70.7
years. In the Calton ward of Glasgow East it is just 53.9 years, a figure
comparable with many ‘third world’ countries.
This new website is now operational. Set up by
supporters of the International Marxist Tendency, it is intended as a service
and an educational tool for the entire labour movement. The website sets out Courses, Information and Resources. You work through the Courses, which are really at the
heart of the educational project. At present there are two Courses – ‘Basic
Concepts and Ideas’ and ‘Looking at Value.’ More are promised. There are
hotlinks to definitions within the Courses. There are already signs of interaction and questioning
among the first users. There is a section. ‘Latest posts.’ Feedback is
welcomed.
A government Report has confirmed what everybody already knew. The
‘liberalisation’ of the postal service has benefited big business, but
not ordinary people. This is no surprise. The Post Office works on a ‘one price goes
everywhere’ principle. The monopoly on letters enables the huge volume
of business to business mail from and to central London head offices to
in effect subsidise highland crofters and little old ladies who live on
remote Scottish islands keeping in touch with their loved ones. Does
anyone have a problem with that?
Hundreds of thousands of local authority workers will
be on strike on Wed 16th and Thurs 17th July. We believe
the UNISON action this week will be an important new phase in the class
struggle. This is a downloadable pdf leaflet for Socialist
Appeal supporters, around which to plan our intervention. We would like
supporters in every area to start planning now what you will be doing on those
two days.
Fannie and Freddie Mac sound like two characters
out of the old West – with her in a gingham dress and him in a check shirt. But
Fannie Mae is the Federal National Mortgage Association and Freddie Mac is the
Federal Home Mortgage Corporation. They’re both in big trouble and, if they’re
in trouble, so are we.
Before the
establishment of the NHS in 1948, the provision of health care was inextricably
bound up with religion and controlling the poor. What is clear is that
capitalism has never been able to provide health care for working people and
they have been forced to rely on charity and philanthropy.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the
National Health Service, once described by Tony Benn as the “the most socialist
and most popular” of all institutions in the UK. Supported even by a majority
of Tory voters over the years, ardent supporters of privatisation such as
Margaret Thatcher, was obliged to assure voters that “The NHS is safe in our
hands!”
In 1976 the Lucas Aerospace Company was faced with the
prospect of making up to 20% of its 18,000 workers redundant. Lucas was a big
conglomerate that had just come into existence, partly with the support of the
1974-79 Labour government’s industrial policy. They wanted to create ‘national
champions’ and thought ‘big is beautiful.’ Not if you’re going to lose your job
as a result, it isn’t!
This
new book by Alan Woods is a polemic against a well-known (in Latin American
terms) intellectual Heinz Dieterich. Dieterich claims to have invented a new
"Socialism of the 21st Century" and much else into the bargain. He offers a
great deal of advice to those involved in the Venezuelan Revolution dressed up
in all manner of revolutionary rhetoric. However, when you clear away all the
verbiage that surrounds his "new" socialist philosophy, there remains
nothing new at all, simply a rehash of stale petty-bourgeois ideas of the past.