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Once again the Tory faithful assembled in Birmingham for
this year’s Tory Party conference to drink, eat and complain about the working
class. As usual they reserved their strongest hatred for the class enemy –
those Tory leaders who were not up for a good bout of shouting “hang ‘em!, flog ‘em!”
As the party conference season comes to an end, we look back at what went on in Manchester and Birmingham. Here, Alun Morgan looks at the events surrounding Labour’s conference.
The Cambridge Marxist Society, founded shortly after the
crisis began in 2008, is now in its fourth year of existence. Over these years,
the society has grown to become the largest political society in Cambridge
University, with 350 people signing up at this year’s freshers’ fair. This was
followed up by an excellent first meeting of the new academic year, with over
90 people attending to hear Alan Woods, editor of www.marxist.com, speak on “Why Marx was
right”.
UCLU Marxists are hosting a film
screening of ‘1926: General Strike’, from the Days of Hope series by Ken
Loach made for the BBC in 1975. Ken will be in attendance to answer questions after the screening.
A crisp and sunny autumn day
greeted around 2,500 trade unionists as they marched around the back streets
leading onto Broad Street where the Tory Party were at their annual shindig at
the ICC announcing yet more cuts to hit the poor and vulnerable in society.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has
won, yet again, the presidential elections on Sunday October 7, with a
comfortable margin of 54.84% against the 44.55% of his opponent Henrique
Capriles. This is another victory for the Bolivarian revolution which
should be used in order to carry out the revolution to the end.
The national conference in Newcastle of the National Union
of Journalists (NUJ) has passed without opposition a resolution supporting the
Blacklist Support Campaign in their fight to expose the anti-union scandal of
the blacklist being operated in the construction industry.
Across Europe it is the sick the old and especially the young that
are being forced to pay for the economic crisis. In Spain and Greece
youth unemployment stands at over 50%. In Ireland although that figure
is somewhat lower at 17.9% but this still means nearly 1 in 5 youth are
workless.
USA: One year ago, Occupy Wall Street burst
into the public consciousness. Similar actions had been tried just
months earlier, but failed to take root. Up until its second week, OWS
itself seemed to be yet another localized action that would fail to make
a real splash.
On October 20th we will witness another massive display of
opposition to the Coalition government. Hundreds of thousands of angry
workers will take to the streets in an attempt to push back the Tory
austerity programme. This is part of a European-wide movement of opposition to austerity
measures, with the latest mass demonstrations being held in Spain and
Portugal. New protests have also erupted in Greece.
The presidential election due on
October 7 represents a decisive moment in the history of Venezuela. The
outcome of this election will have a major impact throughout the
continent and internationally. It goes without saying that the Hands Off
Venezuela campaign is actively supporting the Bolivarian candidate Hugo
Chavez and fighting against any attempt of the oligarchy and
imperialism to sabotage the elections. The IMT stands firmly for the
re-election of Hugo Chávez. Why have we taken this position?
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workers including a UNITE steward and safety rep have been dismissed
from the Crossrail project because of they are members of a trade union.
The unionised workers employed by E.I.S. Electrical were searched and removed from site last Friday at the instruction of Bam Ferrovial Kier (BFK), the consortium of contractors building Crossrail.