The latest news, analysis, and Marxist theory from The Communist, alongside reports of RCP activity.
French students are out of the classroom and back on
the street. On Thursday, 29th January, students and teaching staff
joined in the national strike that had an estimated 2.5 million French workers
marching in the major cities to prove to President Sarkozy that his provocative
remark in the summer of 2007- ‘These days, when there’s a strike in France,
nobody notices,’ was as wrong as it was rash.
In these recessionary times the fear of a
future with no income amongst redundant workers is persuading some to part with
all their cash in return for future wealth and riches – only to find themselves
bankrupt and maybe homeless. This is a legal form of
ripping you off, with the rise of the some of the worst kind of leeches to prey
on the real victims of the economic downturn. This cost me and by wife £50,000, and hundreds
of other hard working people have lost tens of thousands of pounds to this form
of legalised extortion.
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.
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?
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
afternoon of Wednesday, January 29 (Venezuelan time), two workers
were killed by police in the state of Anzoategui, Venezuela. The
workers killed are Pedro Suarez from the Mitsubishi factory and José
Marcano from nearby auto parts factory Macusa. They were killed when
regional police of Anzoategui was attempting evict hundreds of workers
who had been occupying the Mitsubitshi (MMC) factory.
The newest University in London, London Metropolitan, is in trouble. Earlier
this week, a crowd of over 100 disgruntled teachers, students and staff
gathered outside the Holloway campus to protest against cuts of up to 500 jobs.
It seems the cuts are the result of bad book keeping by management that led to
years of over-reporting of student completion rates to the Met’s funding body
HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England). Now HEFCE is demanding a
repayment of £38 billion and, as usual, the tops intend to produce the bulk of
it in the form of staff cuts.
The
European Union set up an Emissions Trading Scheme as a market solution to deal
with pollution. Pollution is of course, overwhelmingly generated by big
business (‘market’) activities. Now the scheme has turned around to bite them.As a result
of the crisis, polluting companies have found themselves strapped for cash. So
they’ve cashed in their carbon credits for short term readies.
‘Shock therapy’, or rapid mass
privatisation, in the former Soviet bloc 1990s was responsible for the early
deaths of 1m people. This is the principal conclusion of a paper published in the
medical journal ‘The Lancet’ (15.01.09). Not
only did privatisation devastate the economy and the means of feeding, clothing
and housing their people; it also shredded the social welfare system and all
the social support mechanisms built up over decades. As a result unemployed, desperate
people with no hope just went to pieces.
UCU (the University and College
Union – the main union for lecturers) and UNISON are battling to save London
Metropolitan University from management plans to cut at least 330 jobs. ‘Times
Higher Education’ puts it higher, estimating it “could mean up to 500
individuals (between one in seven and one in five of the current staff)" losing
their jobs(22.01.09)
On December 5, 2008 over 200
recently-fired workers at the Republic Window and Doors factory in Chicago occupied
their plant, demanding that they be paid their vacation and severance checks.
The occupation ended victoriously six days later when the Bank of America and
other lenders to Republic agreed to pay the workers the approximately $2
million owed to them.But the workers didn’t stop there. They are now
seeking ways to restart the factory and potentially operate it as a worker-run
cooperative.