HOV Conference 2010: Photo Spread
Last Saturday’s HOV conference, held in London, was a great event. Here are some photo’s by HOV’s resident snapper, Will.
News and analysis
The latest news and analysis from The Communist, alongside reports of our activity. For Marxist theory and history, click here.
A Modern Fairy Tale
At this year’s Trades Council conference, the West Mids delegate was
asked to do the traditional vote of thanks speech – so he decided to
tell the delegates a little fairy story. Here it is. Please note that
any connextion between this and the current UK situation is purely
intentional!
Imperialism and Africa
When watching
Comic Relief or any other sort of international aid fundraiser, viewers
are
often startled with images of starving children, and an attempt is made
to
portray the African continent as a complete humanitarian disaster,
composed of
destitute countries that are plagued by famine, drought, disease,
corruption,
and civil war. Whilst it is true that natural disasters and adverse
conditions have
hindered the development of many African countries, these media sources
do not
attempt to address why the continent is prone to civil war and
corruption and
no effort is made to explain the root cause of the problem: imperialism.(Photo: Paul Shaffner)
Deepwater Horizon Disaster: Everything’s well out of hand
It’s been close to a month since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig
exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico, just 45 miles south of the
already beleaguered gulf coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The
ensuing oil spill may well surpass that which followed the wreck of the
Exxon Valdez, which poured over 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s
Prince William Sound in the spring of 1989.
Cameron given the run-around!
After spending most of the week following the general election wheeling
and dealing his way to power, David Cameron expected his first prime
ministerial visit to Scotland to be somewhat more dignified. However
this was not to be as the Tory leader was once again forced in and out
of the back doors. This time it wasn’t to woo the Liberals but to flee
from protestors!
Scotland: Don’t blame us, we voted Labour
It was one of the surest things in British politics: when an election
comes around, no matter the national trend, Scotland will always vote
Labour. But with the SNP managing to form a minority government,
winning one more seat than Labour in the 2007 Scottish Parliament
election, and then their shock by-election victory in Glasgow east in
2008 it seemed, to some, that the Scottish working class was switching
their allegiances.
The Cleggameron Coalition comes to power. The New Labour era ends.
David Cameron has been crowned. After days of torturous
negotiations, the Tories have finally cobbled together a “principled” deal with
the Liberal Democrats “in the national interest”. Cameron is now Prime
Minister, with Nick Clegg his ever-so-thankful Deputy PM. Five cabinet posts
are to be given to the Liberal Democrats to cement together this unholy
coalition, the first coalition in 70 years, since Churchill formed the war-time
government. Gleggameron is upon us!
Venezuela: Sharpening contradictions between left and right of the PSUV
A decisive battle has been going on within the PSUV in Venezuela, a
battle over who are to be the parliamentary candidates for the party in
the elections later this year. The left have been fighting an unequal
battle, where more right-wing candidates have had much more resources
and official backing locally than candidates who genuinely represent
the workers and poor. It is a key battle in the Venezuelan revolution.
Britain’s contradictory election results – Unstable situation opens up
As a new Tory/Liberal coalition takes office – in reality an accomodation of two capitalist parties – on a programme of austerity and attacks on the public sector, we look back at the lessons of the election and what it means for the Labour and trade union movement. (Photo – Flickr)
Inequality: End Of Term Report
In 1999, the government set a target of eradicating child poverty
within a generation and of halving child poverty by 2010. Progress has
been made and (according to a government report ‘Ending child poverty:
everybody’s business’) 600,000 children have been taken out of relative
poverty, and absolute poverty has fallen by 1.8 million to less than
half the 1998-99 level. But many children still live in poverty and
this is unacceptable. (Photo – flckr)
After the election: the crisis and the tasks of the labour movement
Who has won the election? Everybody has lost. The ruling class was
quite clear what it wanted and needed. There is a crisis. They need to
unload the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the working class.
To achieve that they needed a strong majority Conservative government
ready and willing to put the boot in to jobs and public services. The
election hasn’t delivered it. Here is the editorial from the new issue of Socialist Appeal.
After The election: Government Of Austerity
The 2010 general election has produced the result that the ruling class were dreading: a hung parliament. With one seat to declare, no party has a working majority. So the dirty dealing begins…