Nominations have closed for the
Unite-Amicus General Secretary election and the four candidates are Derek
Simpson, Jerry Hicks, Kevin Coyne and Paul Reuter. The fifth candidate who was
nominated, Laurence Faircloth, has withdrawn from the contest and is now
recommending support for Derek Simpson! Faircloth was selected last November at
a meeting of the Amicus Unity Gazette to be the official Broad Left candidate.
Campaigners to keep Tyne and Wear
Metro, Britain’s best-performing railway, in the public sector, have condemned
the publication of a list of ‘approved bidders’ that brings the network’s
operations a step closer to privatisation. Around 250 RMT members employed by the
Tyne and Wear passenger transport executive Nexus are to be balloted for strike action over the threat
to jobs and conditions posed by moves to privatise the network’s operations.
Socialist Appeal has produced a leaflet for today’s lobby of
construction workers outside the T&G (Unite) HQ in London. The
leaflet calls for Unite to call for an immediate national strike in
construction, to protect jobs, to extend and improve the NAECI
agreement to all construction projects. This leaflet should be downloaded and used at all construction protests.
The begining of this year marks the anniversaries of the Cuban and Iranian revolution, as well as the founding of the Communist International. The Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union, and subsequently the Communist International, undoubtedly had far-reaching effects on the outcome of revolutionary movements throughout the 20th century. Come to the Socialist Appeal Marxism Day School in central London on Saturday 14th February, where we will discuss the lessons of the past so as to better prepare for the battles of the future. Download the leaflet and help advertise the meeting.
Last November we
reported how Binyam Mohamed had been tortured with the enthusiastic participation
of the British security services.
Miliband has
slapped a gagging order on the High Court to hush up the incident on the ground
that it endangers national security. It is quite clear is all that is really endangered
is the Miliband’s reputation How can the man possibly posture before the world as
a democratic and defender of civil liberties if this shameful secret comes out?
It’s
only a week or two ago since we predicted that the current crisis in Ireland would
unleash a whole series of defensive struggles as the bosses attempt to make us
pay for their crisis. The fact is that, although the Irish economy is rapidly
heading towards the rocks and Brian Cowen and the bosses are sharpening their
knives for cuts in wages and redundancies, the Irish working class was
immeasurably strengthened during the years of the so called Celtic Tiger. As
the saying goes you can peel an onion skin by skin, but you can’t skin a tiger
claw by claw.
Strathclyde University has been occupied, following a
demonstration of about eighty students. The demonstration went around campus
before taking the decision to occupy the finance office in one of the main
parts of the University. Security was initially very heavy handed and there
were a few scuffles as this proceeded but things have now calmed down. The
students and security have come to an amicable arrangement, whilst negotiations
have begun with the Principal.
Israel has recently declared a unilateral ceasefire, bringing to an end
one of its bloodiest military incursions into the Gaza strip. As the
dust settles, the scale of the devastation becomes clear: over 1,300
Palestinians lie dead, with estimates of the number wounded topping
5000. Much of Gaza’s infrastructure lies in ruins, with power stations,
water networks and sewage systems destroyed; homes, mosques and even
schools have been reduced to rubble. According to the UN, the cost of
rebuilding Gaza could run into billions of dollars.
Over the weekend, from the 9th to the 11th of January, the
International Marxist Tendency organised the 5th Northern European
Winter School in Berlin. The number of comrades and IMT sections
participating was much greater in comparison to previous years. Around
20 to 40 comrades attended the Winter Schools in past years. That was
already a success, but this year we had 150 comrades and sympathisers
from Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Switzerland,
Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy and Austria coming to
a city with a great revolutionary history and tradition. We also had
guests and speakers from Pakistan, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada and the
United States. The attendance clearly exceeded our expectations and put
a big question mark over the name "Northern European Winter School".
Public transport in London, that kept going throughout the blitz, pathetically
came to a halt on Monday February 2nd because of a few inches of
snow – or rather because of cost-cutting by private firms keener to make a fast
buck than to provide a decent service to Londoners. The whole public transport
system, rail and buses alike, is privately owned and run for profit. Staff did
their best to keep the service going, but they weren’t helped by management
cheese-paring. As far as they are concerned, workers are just a cost that needs
cutting back.
In the last week of January 2009,
industrial action began at the Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire. Swiftly the
strikes spread to Grangemouth in Scotland, Wilton in Cleveland and all over the
country. By Friday January 30th 3,000 skilled workers were out from
11 plants. On Monday February 2nd thousands more joined the action. Sellafield
workers at the nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria, Didcot power station,
Longannet, Staythorpe, Milford Haven, Selby, Warrington and Aberthaw have all
walked out. The Times headlined it as the “Dawn of new age of industrial
unrest.” This is a well-organised, co-ordinated movement, which is unofficial
and completely illegal under UK anti trade union laws.