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Although it may not seem like it from the constant rain and snow
hitting the UK at present, Spring is almost with us – and with that
comes the new Fighting Fund drive.

This Wednesday, four Unison members are submitting their appeals against being suspensed from office for distributing a leaflet at Unison conference.

The American Revolution shook up the
entire world. The thirteen British colonies that would become the
United States of America, fought and won against the most powerful
imperial power on the planet. In the years following the American
victory over the British, the hopes of the masses were betrayed. As a
result, there were many popular movements and uprisings. But none had
as big an impact on the psychology of the ruling class and the future
structure of the U.S. government as Shays’ Rebellion of 1786-87, which
some have called “The American Revolution’s Final Battle.”

When the economy was booming the euro was seen as a source of strength
for those countries that had adopted the new currency. Now it is
transforming into its opposite, as the crisis in Greece demonstrates.
The Marxists warned about this long ago.

Unison has continued its witch hunt by banning Alan Docherty,
Darlington LG’ s Branch Secretary, for 3 years from office. His crime
was defending himself from attack from Unison Northern Region’s
leadership for his involvement in the National Shop Stewards Network
(NSSN) as the Tees Valley Secretary of the NESSN (North East Shop
Stewards Network).

The
discipline that is imposed on the worker through the capitalist system
— through wage labour, through the division of labour and the
development of manufacturing — is the very same discipline that the
workers turn against the bosses through organisation into trade unions
and political parties of labour.  Therefore what effect does the theory
and practice of Anarchism have in the attempts by the workers to forge
fighting organisations?

Ireland faces the biggest crisis in
world capitalism since the 1930’s and for that reason there’s never been more
need for a socialist response to solve the problems workers face. With that in
mind, how do the Labour leadership stand up to scrutiny?

Paul Holmes is standing for election as General Secretary of UNISON.
Paul has been active in the union for 36 years, he’s branch secretary
of Kirklees Branch in Yorkshire. The branch has over 10,000 members and
an 80% membership density. Paul agreed to be interviewed for Fightback
which is the Journal of the International Marxist Tendency in Ireland and we are pleased to reproduce that interview here.

Steve Acheson, blacklisted electrician from Manchester, was nearly arrested recently on his picket at Fiddler’s Ferry power station. Steve was dismissed in December 2009 and has held a peaceful picket outside the site ever since. His tribunal for unfair dismissal will not be heard until October this year.

From the 4th-9th of February, Cambridge University students voted in a
referendum on whether to remain affiliated to the National Union of
Students (NUS). The referendum was held due to a motion, passed earlier in the
term, in which a small group of students proposed that the Cambridge
University Students Union (CUSU) disaffiliate, claiming the the NUS had
irreversibly degenerated into a bureaucratic travesty and that we were
wasting our time (and money) by remaining affiliated to such an
organisation.

Labour MP John McDonnell today welcomed the candidacy of leading
Yorkshire trade unionist, Paul Holmes, to replace Dave Prentis as
General Secretary of UNISON, the largest public sector trade union.

Last Friday February 5th members of the CYWU Unite trade union in
Coventry staged another one-day strike to defend jobs and conditions
and to try and stop the savage cuts being imposed on the Children and
Youth Services budget.

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