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The
Tories on the Council of the London Borough of Barnet intend to set up a “joint
venture company” with the private sector, transfer 4,000 workers out of local
authority employment and leave a skeleton staff of commissioners and auditors.
They are proposing to privatise the Council!

In Ireland unemployment is rising at the fastest rate
since the records began in 1967.  It’s
now standing at 295,000, having grown by120,987 in the last year. The only
thing growing faster than that is opposition to the Israeli onslaught against Gaza. The dole figure now
stands at 8.3%. Since December 2007 male unemployment has gone up by 83% and
female by 50% (although this is likely to be a big underestimate). Among young
people under 25 it’s gone up 24%. Estimates from the state training agency FÁS
indicate that unemployment will reach 12% this year.

A
statement of the Iranian Marxists on the recent Israeli attack on Gaza, that
explains the need to build a genuine Marxist leadership throughout the Middle
East in opposition to the Zionist regime in Israel, the reactionary Arab
regimes, and also Islamic fundamentalist movements that offer no real way out
to the masses.

 
Jerry
Hicks is standing for general secretary of the Amicus section of Unite. Jerry speaks to ‘Socialist Appeal: "Workers rights, trade union freedoms, decent state pensions, pay and
conditions, public ownership of utilities is the way forward especially now
during the chaos that the free market has created. Our arguments have never
made more sense. The last thing I’d like to say on this is I’m not afraid of
the ‘S’ word – socialism."

The government has announced that it hopes
to introduce 7,000 apprenticeships for the construction industry. That sounds
great, but there could be many pitfalls, such as school leavers being used as
cheap labour by unscrupulous employers. I was an apprentice electrician myself,
having left school at 16 in 1983.

Only the united struggle of the workers of Israel, Palestine, Egypt and elsewhere can offer a way forward. The only solution to the problems of the masses within the Middle East is through the establishment of a Socialist Federation. Only such a federation could solve the national question once and for all. Only a fundamental change in the class relations in the region – leading to the abolition of landlordism and capitalism – can offer a way out. Download this Socialist Appeal leaflet on the war in Gaza.

We have received this interesting comment from a Marxist in Israel, who
looks at the logic behind the Israeli attack on Gaza, how it is being used for
domestic political interests in Israel, the chauvinism whipped up by the
mainstream media, but also the voices of protest from within Israel, which
although relatively small at this stage can grow later. He also looks at the
role of Hamas and its inability to solve any of the problems facing the Palestinian
masses.

Clara Osagiede, the secretary of the cleaners’ grade of the RMT,
and Mary, another union rep, have been called in for disciplinaries this
Thursday January 8th. Both face immediate sacking. This is an open attack on
all the cleaners on the underground. Clara was one of those who led a strike against
cleaning firm ISS that won cleaners the London living wage last summer. Clearly
the cleaning companies want vengeance.

Socialist Appeal 168 is out now!

As we go into 2009, world capitalism is experiencing its
worst economic crisis since the 1930s. 
In some ways it may even be worse than that because, this time, every
country in the world is affected.  In the
1930s, many very poor countries not closely integrated into world markets did
not feel the sharp collapse of the capitalist system that was dominant in
Europe, North America and Japan.  But
since the Second World War, and particularly in the last 25 years,
‘globalisation’ has brought India, China, Latin America, nearly all Asia and
much of Africa fully into the capitalist nexus. 
So no country can escape the terrible slump that world capitalism
entered in the latter part of 2008 and will continue to grind down through this
year.

Reports that Waterford Crystal and the Wedgwood China Company were to go into
administration will add yet more gloom to the outlook for the Irish economy.
Waterford Crystal is an internationally known company and helps bring some
300,000 visitors to the town each year. In the current climate people won’t be
racing out to the shops to buy smart glass or china, but it’s going to have a
big effect on the economy and it shows the depth of the mess that we are in.

We learned recently that
Corus (ex-British Steel) and other “free market, risk-taking” manufacturers have
begged Brown for taxpayers’ money to bail these profiteers out.  As the “Scunthorpe Telegraph” reported, Corus`
conglomerate Tata announced profits of £2.47bn in 6 months to September – up
144%. Meanwhile steel production cuts of 20% were increased to 30% in November.
Corus-Tata`s hypocrisy might be thought insufferable.