British Perspectives 2008
This is the final draft of the British Perspectives document worked out and voted on by the comrades of the British section of the International Marxist Tendency at their National Conference in April of this year.
News and analysis
The latest news, analysis, and Marxist theory from The Communist, alongside reports of RCP activity.
Britain hit by biggest wave of strikes in decade
On Thursday April 24th teachers, lecturers and
public sector workers staged a one-day strike. Teachers were out on official strike
for the first time for 21 years. They were joined by Further Education (FE)
lecturers organised in UCU and public sector workers from the PCS union who are
faced with a government imposed 2% pay rise limit. At last workers in the
public sector were taking organised, coordinated and united strike action
against pay offers that represent a cut in their standard of living.
Which way out of the Zimbabwean nightmare?
The present impasse in Zimbabwe is a direct result of the
so-called Structural Adjustment Plans so dear to imperialism, imposed on the
Zimbabwean people in collaboration with Mugabe after he came to power. Now they
have turned against him, but he is a creature of their own making.
1968: Remembering the Spirit of Revolution
"…the French events
suddenly brought home to me the reality of socialist revolution and how we had
entered a new stormy period, which the tendency had predicted. Within a couple
of years, the Labour government had fallen and Britain entered a convulsive
period including a near general strike. The French events of 1968, after a
short delay, had even found an echo in Britain. Those days of 40 years ago will
return again. This time we can be better prepared. Without doubt, 1968 will be
forever remembered as a political turning point by all those who were touched
by those historic events. That was certainly my experience."
Paraguay’s “Red Bishop” takes power
On Monday the 21st of April 2008 a leftist former
Bishop, Fernando Lugo, won the elections to the Paraguayan presidency. Lugo,
dubbed by many as the “Red Bishop” or the “Bishop of the poor” ousted the 61
year ruling party – the Colorado Party. The Colorado Party’s reign in power was
bourgeois democratic in its latter years and took the form of the military
dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner prior to 1989, the year when he was deposed.
Family food bills ‘up £15 a week’ – so what happened to the official 2% inflation?
The Brown government has been ruthless in attempting to keep
workers’ wage rises to 2%, causing real pain amongst Britain’s poorest workers.
Their justification was that inflation was only 2% and the “country” could not
afford inflationary pay deals.
![[Ted Grant Archive Update] – Workers want peace—Bosses prepare for war!](https://communist.red/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/war-prep.jpg "[Ted Grant Archive Update] – Workers want peace—Bosses prepare for war!")
[Ted Grant Archive Update] – Workers want peace—Bosses prepare for war!
With preparations for war in full swing the
small Workers’ International League gathered around Ralph Lee and Ted Grant was
the only voice that stood out defending a real internationalist position. Here
we provide our readers with the lead article of the August 1939 edition of Youth
For Socialism, signed by Ted Grant.
Wolverhampton: Capitalism kills! Looking for an alternative?
On
Wednesday April 16th our second meeting of students trying to set up a
Socialist Society at the University of Wolverhampton took place.
125 years since the death of Marx: ‘We shall not look back upon his like again’
Karl Marx was a man with a family to look after, and a revolutionary
who no country acknowledged as citizen. A giant thinker of the modern
era who transformed our outlook in philosophy, economics and political
thought, Marx’s revolutionary activity was hobbled by poverty. Steve
Higham chronicles his hardships and achievements a century and a
quarter after his death.
Don’t let the Tories back
They’re back from the dead. We thought we’d driven a stake
through their rotten hearts in the Labour landslide of 1997. Now they’re 13
points ahead in the polls. They should be history. So why are they making a
comeback? Because New Labour have been rumbled. They said they were being
prudent with the economy. They talked about, ‘no return to boom and bust.’ Now
we can see that they were just lucky. Don’t
let the failure of New Labour be the opportunity for the Tories. Reclaim the
Labour Party. It was set up as our party, as a party for the working class.
Fight the Tories with socialist policies.
Trotsky’s ‘Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay’
Marxism
is a not a moral code and is more than a set of ideas. It is a method that, if
applied correctly to the concrete situation, acts as a compass for the movement
towards the transformation of society by the working class in the interests of
humanity as a whole. Anyone can use a compass but it is still necessary to
decide whether to continue heading north or to change direction. Trotsky’s
short article, Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay, though unfinished, contains some vital lessons for the class conscious
workers and youth.
Heathrow – it’s terminal
The government is pushing plans for a third runway and a sixth
terminal. The fifth terminal will open soon. The fifth terminal on its
own is the third biggest airport in Europe. When the go-ahead for a
fourth terminal was given in 1979 Glidewell, the Chair of the Inquiry,
stated, "In my view the present levels of noise around Heathrow are
unacceptable in a civilised society." Right first time. The fourth
terminal was given the nod on the grounds that that was it. No fifth
terminal. Ever. It seems all governments, not just the present one, are
terminal liars.