The UVF
attacks on the Short Strand area of Belfast over the last days and the
clashes between Catholic and Protestant youth demonstrate that despite
the claims of the various ministers at Stormont, the underlying tensions
and conflicts in the North have neither been resolved nor overcom
"I
must say I was really impressed, first of all with the presence of so
many young people, and the high political level of all those who spoke",
commented Mark from North London. This summed up the general feeling of
all those who participated.The Marxist Summer School, which was the
first of its kind organised by Socialist Appeal, was far more of a
success than the organisers had anticipated with over 100 attending over
the course of the weekend. Those who attended ranged from experienced
trade unionists to young people, including many school students.
Socialist Appeal notes with sadness the untimely deaths of Andy Viner and Brian Haw at the weekend and sends condolences to their families and friends and the many people who knew them. Here we pay tribute to them and the role they played.
June 30th is building up to be one massive day of action by public sector workers and others. UCU, PCS, NUT and ATL members have already voted to take strike action on the day. Many other workers and students will be joining them in participating in protests, marches and rallies up and down the country. Here are some details, compiled by PCS on their website, of events taking place on the day:
GREECE: Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of workers and youth participated in a
24-hour general strike called by the GSEE and ADEDY (private and public
sector trade union confederations), marching in demonstrations to the
main squares in seventy cities and towns across Greece. From early
morning the participation in a mass gathering to encircle the Houses
of Parliament was enormous.
IRELAND: The scenes broadcast from
Athens will have sent a shiver down the spine of An Taoiseach, An
Tánaiste and their counterparts throughout Europe. The reaction of the
Greek workers to the meltdown in the Greek economy will be of particular
concern in Leinster House. Ireland is not so far behind Greece and
sooner or later Ireland will become the tail ender in the bond markets
again, that is unless the Greek Government defaults and then all bets
are off.
Greece: From early
this morning (Wednesday), hundreds of thousands of workers and youth participated in
the mass rallies during today’s 24-hour general strike, encircling the
Houses of Parliament. There is no doubt that had it not been for the
outbreak of rioting, with such a huge level of participation the numbers
concentrating on Syntagma Square would have exceeded one million.
Recent opinion polls show that a majority of Hungarians find life so
miserable that they would like to live somewhere else. Many consider
that life was much better before 1989 when people enjoyed full
employment and an advanced welfare system. Capitalism has destroyed all
that. However, as our correspondent points outs, what existed before was
not genuine socialism, but a Stalinist regime that people rose up
against. What is required is state ownership and planning, but under the
democratic control of the workers themselves.
The coalition argued that higher tuition fees for university would allow
for less government funding of education without a loss in the quality
of Britain’s ancient institutions. The increased fees were supposed to
end state funding of universities but instead a massive shortfall in
investment has been created due to the levels of unpaid debt that will
be created. From the capitalists’ point of view the only way that this
can be dealt with is through further cuts to higher education.
Announcing… Young artists from the
University of the Arts, Slade School of Art and Edinburgh University
will be holding an exhibition, starting next week in Saint George’s town hall in Shadwell,
East London. The artists in the exhibition at Cable
Street are not only coneying the current political climate but also
connecting it with the long tradition and history of the movement.
Further to the earlier appeal for
solidarity, we are publishing an account of the anti-union activities
at Dangote Pasta which led to the victimisation of the union organisers
at the plant, including the firing of 200 workers who refused to leave
the union.
We call on all our readers to support
the Public Campaign in defence of over 200 workers of Dangote Pasta at
Ikorodu, Lagos (Nigeria) sacked for refusing to resign their membership
of the in-house workers’ union since August 2010. We underline the fact
that the main trade union organisers were severely beaten in the process
and the families of these workers are suffering terribly as a
consequence of these actions on the part of management.