Two giant firms employing two of the most brilliant teams of workers on
the planet could be helping to make the world a better place. Instead
they are producing killing machines. That’s capitalism for you.
Instead of co-operating, they are squabbling over market share. As Karl
Marx said, “It’s one thing to share out profits and quite another to
share out losses.” Could this be the start of a trade war?
This resolution has been passed to go to Amicus UNITE Conference. It’s
an important issue and we hope for the widest sympathy and active
support for its sentiments.
After the cement industry, now Chavez has nationalised SIDOR
with its 15,000 workforce. This has come about thanks to the pressure of the
SIDOR workers who were able to contact Chavez directly. The decision is a
correct one. It must now be followed by a general nationalisation of the
commanding heights of the Venezuelan economy and finally complete the
revolution.
Japan is
the second biggest industrial economy in the world. In the 1980s it experienced
a huge speculative bubble, just like the housing bubble that has burst in the USA and is on the point of bursting in Britain now.
When the bubble burst, the Japanese people, who up till then were regarded as
living in a ‘miracle economy,’ experienced a decade of recession – a ‘lost
decade’.
Today marks 40 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., shot in the face on the 2nd floor balcony of the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was imprisoned for the
assassination, though never granted a trial for his murder. Given the
US government’s targeting of radicalised black leaders at this time,
whoever pulled the trigger did the state’s dirty work for them. The
King family never accepted Ray was responsible.
A
major exhibition of the photographic work of Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) is
currently on at the Hayward Gallery in London. It is sponsored by Roman Abramovich, the
billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club and a supporter of the Moscow House
of Photography Museum whose director, Olga Sviblova, curated the show. This important Russian
artist is
considered one of the most versatile avant-garde artists to have emerged after the Russian
Revolution.
The NUJ’s annual conference meets at a crucial time for the union.
After 7 years of membership growth a wave of redundancies has hit the
union hard – both numerically and financially. The conference will set the scene for the biggest fight the union
faces over the coming 18 months – the future of public service
broadcasting. The BBC has seen thousands of jobs cut, whilst ITV have
axed local and regional services. More cuts are planned. And the
regulator and government are allowing them to happen.
Teachers in the NUT have voted three to one in favour of a
one day strike on 24th April. This is an overwhelming vote to reject
the degrading pay offer of New Labour,
and reflects the deeper disgust of teachers at the education policies of the
government.
Activists from Peterborough Trade Union Council (PTUC), representing
Unite, GMB, PCS, UNISON, CWU and Peterborough Pensioners’ Association,
recently picketed a meeting called by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
The pickets carried placards bearing the PTUC logo and slogans such as
"Health Not Profit" and "Keep the NHS Public". Also present was the
UNISON Health Branch banner that shows the slogan, "The Right to Life
is Higher Than the Rights of Private Property".
This horrific destruction of French civilians compares with the
militarily useless slaughter of the people and cities of Dresden and
Magdeburg in the closing days of the War. Was this a warning to the
French workers like the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was
warning to Stalin: thus far and no farther?
On the 17th and 18th March there was a well supported strike by PCS
members in the Department for Work and Pensions, which was a further
two days of strike in protest at an imposed pay offer. The imposed
offer means 40% of staff receive no rise this year and the lowest paid
staff receive an increase that will only take their wages to 24p above
the National Minimum Wage.
On Saturday the 29th of March the Socialist Youth Network
(SYN) held its 3rd annual conference at the ULU building near
Euston. The Socialist Youth Network is the youth wing of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), the left wing of the Labour Party led by John McDonnell. Youth comrades from Socialist Appeal attended the meeting reported here.