Supporters of the Hands Off Venezuela
Campaign in Edinburgh held a stall at the two day long Societies’ Fair at
Edinburgh University.
The
comrades were hoping to highlight the gains of the Venezuelan revolution and to
draw attention to recent events in Bolivia as well as to restart the lapsed HOV
society at the university.
Last week US Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson unveiled a dramatic plan to arrest the present financial crisis and
prevent future economic catastrophe. It is to cost $700bn.
It sounds like a breathtaking break from
neo-liberal philosophy. It’s not really. Neo-liberalism was always a giant lie.
Homeless people don’t matter. People in danger of losing their jobs in a
recession don’t matter. But, when it comes to banks and billionaires,
self-reliance is for the birds. These people are hapless bums.
Eleanor Marx was the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. But her place in history isn’t because of her name and who she was related to. Her work, commitment to the cause and self sacrifice earned her that place in her own right.
Day by day the capitalist system is showing
itself for what it is. The impact of the credit crunch and the news of the
collapse of major investment banks in the US is radicalising young people. This
was evident to see at Queen Mary’s Freshers Fair last week, where the Marxist
Society intervened, attracting a fresh layer of young people looking for an
alternative.
“I like
thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the
president of the bank over for dinner.” W.C. Fields.
The
capitalist system is in the throes of the worse financial crisis since the
Great Depression. This is the view not only of the billionaire George Soros,
but also of the International Monetary Fund, the custodian of the capitalist
system, and all the serious capitalist commentators.
Union members will be more than a little alarmed at reports
that union officials have been having secret talks with someone called Richard
Balfe, who is Tory Leader Cameron’s ‘special envoy’ to the trade unions. Those
who lived through the last Tory government and remember all too well their
vicious attacks on trade union rights as part of their plan to destroy the
union movement will be amazed, to say the least, at the fact that a) the Tories
have a trade union envoy and b) that some of our leaders are prepared to talk
to him.
On 16th July over 200 Unite activists were at a meeting in Friends’
House in Euston. Derek Simpson was there to speak about the new union.
I don’t think he was expecting such a large turnout and such a vocal
audience. There were Unite members present from various sectors – NHS,
engineering, banking, construction and the public sector (who had been
on strike that day).
For the second year running the Hands Off Venezuela campaign
and Socialist Appeal made an intervention at the University of Glasgow
Fresher’s Fair. Through the course of the three day fair four supporters of HOV
and Socialist Appeal manned a stall selling various pieces of material
including the Hands Off Venezuela magazine and Socialist Appeal journal.
Hundreds of flyers for the Hands Off Venezuela campaign were distributed and
over fifty names were registered as showing interest in setting up a Hands Off
Venezuela society at the university.
After a week of turmoil on financial markets, on Saturday 20
September President Bush said he was proposing to spend $700bn of taxpayers’
money to buy the rotten mortgage assets held by the banks on Wall Street. He said he was doing this to help the
average American family with their homes and jobs.
The first Northern weekend school was held on the 12th-14th September,
organised by Yorkshire supporters of Socialist Appeal. The school took
place in Saddleworth, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The theme of the school was "The Class, the Party and the Leadership". The
weekend proved tremendously successful, both in terms of political
education and bringing together socialists in the movement and young
activists.
In
response to coup plotting in both Bolivia and Venezuela, the Hands Off
Venezuela Campaign, together with several other Latin American
solidarity organisations, organised a picket outside the US Embassy in
London followed by a highly successful public meeting, where all
speakers and participants condemned the manoeuvres of US imperialism
and pledged themselves to keep up the solidarity activity.
PCS members in the RPA have
gained an important success in the dispute with their employer over the
imposition of a flawed and incomplete staff reporting system.