The second edition of the Marxist International Review is now available. The
present issue deals exclusively with the issue of the Black struggle in
the United States and the question of Self-determination. This issue
came to the fore during the 1960s with the Civil Rights movement and
the emergence of radical Black nationalism.
THURSDAY, MARCH 5TH, 1PM
51 Lime St., London, EC3M 7DQ
In front of Willis Insurance Brokers building
Liverpool St.Tube
As the marvellous but short-lived campaign Justice for Cleaners has ended, it is
now Cleaners for Justice! Cleaners from all over London are beginning to come together again to continue the fight for their rights.
Following on from the Hooper Report, the
government is proposing to part-privatise Royal Mail, the letter delivery arm
of the Post Office. There’s no silly nonsense about putting the arrangement out
to tender so we the taxpayers get the best deal either. They’ve already lined
up TNT to take 30% of Royal Mail. The announcement has roused fury among
millions of people – trade unionists and just ordinary people who use Royal
Mail, which is pretty well everyone. Why mess about with something that works
well? We have the cheapest postal service in Western Europe. We are the only
country in the European Union that still has a Saturday delivery.
As the
capitalist crisis deepens, more and more workers are coming under attack.
Vodafone has just announced huge lay-offs. There are plans to axe 1,000 jobs on
the railways. The sacking of 850 agency workers at the Cowley car plant in
Oxford is the latest in a string of redundancies. They received no redundancy
pay, no holiday pay and no sickness pay. All they were offered was their P45s
and a week’s wages. Wage freezes have also become common in the last period. Short-time
working has spread with Toyota closing its factory for four weeks.
See this fascinating video of hundreds of
Oxford BMW Mini plant workers getting the sack with just one hour’s notice and how they clash with union officials.
In this article from 1984, John Pickard discusses the brilliant insights provided by Engels on the question of human evolutionary development, contained in his pamphlet ‘The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man’.
Student protest in London
– what next?
At midday on Wednesday 25th February over 1,000 students from over 20
universities, schools, and colleges, along with recent graduates and young
workers, gathered outside the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) to
protest (nominally at least) over the issue of top-up fees for university
tuition.
Yesterday, over twenty protesters made a
lot of noise in front of Willis Insurance Brokers, demonstrating for the
re-instatement of cleaners who had been sacked by sub-contractor Mitie.
The second ‘unofficial’ demonstration
seemed to be the charm and news is that the cleaners have been called in to
negotiate.
This first step toward victory has been
achieved with the dedicated, hard work of the cleaners concerned and their
supporters despite the absence of official support from the union Unite.
See the video for more…
No
doubt Brian Cowen was fairly pleased this morning when he woke up after seeing
the pension levy go through in the Dáil. But a rock solid strike of 13,000 civil
servants will have soon brought him back to reality. This was the first
national civil servants’ strike in twenty years.
High-ranking British police officers
have expressed concern that the country may be facing an outburst of street
protests. Superintendent David Hartshorn, head of the Metropolitan police’s
public order branch, and one of the highest ranking police officers in the
country, in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, spoke of the
possibility of riots like those that rocked the country in the 1980s, erupting
later this year as people who lose their jobs, homes or savings become
"footsoldiers" in a wave of violent mass protests.
Written
by a close friend and collaborator this biography is a vivid account of an
indefatigable trade union activist in the US oil, chemical and nuclear industry.
It is extremely important in keeping alive Tony Mazzochi’s legacy and adding to
labour movement history from which thinking workers, students and youth can
draw rich lessons.
Quite
apart from this it has all the ingredients for an intriguing read, from the
battles with the corporations on one hand, to the pernicious role of the mob in
the trade union movement, the intriguing of the union careerists and the
campaign to build a fighting union from the bottom up.