London Riots - Tension boils over

Breaking news today about the events last night in Tottenham, as such please see this post from April 2011 about the thirtieth anniversary of the Brixton riots:


http://bristolsocialism.blogspot.com/2011/04/30-years-after-1981-brixton-riots.html

30 years after the 1981 Brixton riots:

On Friday 10 April 1981 a heavy-handed police incident in Railton Road, Brixton, sparked an explosion of pent-up anger that engulfed the area for days. Psyched-up police in full riot gear, many of them openly racist, went into battle with local residents, mostly black. Pelted with bricks, stones and petrol bombs, the police were forced to retreat, some with their riot shields on fire. An angry crowd surged through the central shopping area. Two pubs were burned out, other buildings wrecked, shops had their windows smashed in and their contents were strewn across the pavements.

World in crisis: US recovery strangled and European debt crisis deepening

As discussed at the CWI Summer School, capitalism is a blind system, tobogganing towards disaster. There has been no more than a weak recovery from the last crisis in most countries and now, as predicted, a new calamity is unfolding. We carry here extracts from an article carried today on the website of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna, CWI Sweden.

Article by Per Olsson (CWI Sweden) 
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5215

Thursday, 4 August was a black day on world stock exchanges. In New York, the Dow Jones index fell by 4.3 per cent and the Nasdaq index closed down 5.3 per cent "and all the gains that have occurred since year end were deleted to zero" (as the financial website E24 said, 5 August). "It was an outright massacre," said John Richard, head of strategy at RBS Global Banking & Markets, to the Wall Street Journal about yesterday’s events.Also, European stock markets fell during Thursday: the main British stock index plummeted by 3.2 per cent while the German Dax index fell by 3.5 per cent. The collapse continued on Friday in Asia. By the time Asian markets closed, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei 225 index had fallen by 3.7 per cent and Hong Kong’s Stock Exchange by 4.6 per cent.
The collapse in stock markets represents clouds piling up in the global economy’s sky. Firstly, the U.S. economy is stagnating and the huge cuts that are following the deal between the Democrats and Republicans in Congress to raise the debt ceiling threaten to strangle an already weak recovery.
"What was unthinkable six months ago, the U.S. running the risk of falling into recession in 2012, is a thought that more and more now consider. It is this insight that makes the entire ground shake," Businessweek wrote on 5 August.
Secondly, the debt crisis is deepening. The EU leaders had hoped that the crisis settlement in July - new loans to Greece, reduced interest rates on emergency loans and longer maturities, and some debt relief for Greece - would give some respite. But these measures have not calmed the financial markets.
On the contrary, the so-called market has become even more convinced that the debtor countries are approaching national bankruptcy and default. Meanwhile, the debt crisis has become more acute in Italy and Spain. In parallel is the Cypriot economy collapsing due to its banking exposure to Greek debts, the demand for cuts from big business and the aftershocks of the devastating explosion (11 July) which destroyed a weapons depot and took out the country’s energy supply. This in turn has led to the country’s government resigning.
The whole euro project is in turmoil. Even Swedish economics professor Lars Calmfors, who as recently as spring 2010 pleaded for Sweden to join the European Monetary Union and switch to the euro, now believes that "the crisis-affected countries need to make large debt reductions or go to national bankruptcy" (Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm 5 August).
"European countries’ recent grand agreement on a ’solution’ to the Greek crisis, which also was supposed to prevent the continued spread [of contagion] within the system, is not two weeks old before the cracks in the building are being felt. And now it’s the supporting structures that have ended up on the slide. It’s all about the monetary union’s third and fourth largest economies, Italy and Spain, whose debt is so large that the decided support funds, the already in place and reinforced temporary EFSF, (European Financial Stability Fund) and the permanent (to be introduced from 2013) ESM (European Stability Mechanism), in total 700 billion euro, can’t handle them," as E24 wrote on 2 August.
Thirdly, a new banking crisis is beginning. Several large European banks have reported losses and banks will not lend to each other. Credit has tightened and the world’s central banks are again forced to pump billions of dollars to sustain its lending activities, reminiscent of the situation in 2008-09.
Fourthly, there is the growing concern that China is about to slow down after an unbridled expansion of credit built up a huge debt mountain, creating unstoppable bubbles and overheating inflation.
Add to that, global industrial production seems to have passed its zenith while the contradictions of the capitalist powers have been strengthened and all are trying to save their own house first, resulting in currency wars and attempts to let competitors pay for problems at home. Most signs point toward a new serious global crisis.
New crisis summits are to be expected this weekend to try to stitch together some kind of package before stock markets open again on Monday. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has interrupted her vacation for a telephone summit today with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Governments and central banks could be forced to implement new incentives and provide new emergency loans. However, all arrangements are temporary and followed by new crises. And, governments have fewer reserves than they did in 2008-2009. Today’s debt crisis follows in spite of measures that governments had to take then to avoid, if possible, total economic collapse and a new depression.
Not even the central banks’ intervention including, for the first time since March, the European Central Bank joining in and buying government securities could halt Thursday’s slide. This in itself reflects the whole week. "The world economy has taken a nasty turn" said the Independent, London, 4 August.
It may well be that the summer of 2011 marks a new serious turning point downward in the global capitalist development curve. How fast and how deep a new downturn cannot be predicted. But it is clear that what has already happened has helped to sharpen the political and social crises and the weakening of the capitalist establishment.
"Confidence in government finance and support packages is crumbling. Then, when the people’s confidence in banks and the financial system is lost, the situation is really, really serious,” warned E24’s Per Lindvall on 5 August. The last few days of stock market unrest and accelerating crisis illustrate capitalism’s chronic instability.

Jarrow March 2011: Letter of Support from PCS DWP Young Members Committee

Below is the letter from the PCS DWP YMC:

The PCS DWP Young Members Committee fully supports the Jarrow to London march, organised by Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ), in October and November 2011. Our committee represents thousands of young workers in DWP and CMEC who deliver vital public welfare services. We welcome the important role that Youth Fight for Jobs has played in organising unemployed youth, young workers and students in fighting for a decent future. Futhermore, we welcome the historic decision taken by YFJ to organise a march from Jarrow to London on the 75th anniversary of the first Jarrow march.

PCS young members in the DWP are very familiar with the effects that unemployment can have on individuals and communities. We deliver a
public welfare service aimed at getting people into work and lifting people out of poverty. Unfortunately, our efforts are hampered by office closures, job cuts, and an under-staffed service. As young trade unionists, we also recognise that unemployment undermines the ability of working people to organise through trade unions to improve our lot in life. Employers are quick to point out that if you’re unhappy, there’s plenty of people worse off out there who would be
willing to replace you. The fight against unemployment and for decent jobs is a key trade union issue.

PCSyoung members in the DWP are grateful for the support of YFJ in our campaigns for decent working conditions in call centres,
fighting cuts in jobs, pay, redundancy protection and pensions, and for mpermanent jobs for staff on fixed-term contracts. We believe that it is a
national scandal that there are nearly 1 million young people out of work at the present time, and commend Youth Fight for Jobs in organising to highlight
this shameful situation. We will do whatever we can to promote, publicise and support the Jarrow to London March for Jobs.

In solidarity,

PCS DWP Young Members Committee

http://jarrowmarch11.com/

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention - Book Review

Taken from: http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article15.php?id=1629
By Eljeer Hawkins, Harlem, New York - Socialist Alternative (CWI USA)


Book Review: Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention By Manning Marable
May 19 marked the 86th birthday of Malcolm X; it has been 46 years since his public assassination. In the hearts and minds of workers particularly black workers, the poor, and youth across the world, Malcolm X remains an icon of revolutionary spirit and commitment to justice, freedom, and liberty for the most oppressed people in the world. Malcolm exposed the racism, white supremacy, and its tragic effects on people of African descent throughout the United States and Diaspora.

On April 1, 2011, three days before the release ofMalcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, its author, Dr. Manning Marable, succumbed to complications of pneumonia. Marable, a noted scholar of the African-American experience in the U.S. was an activist, editor and author of 20 books, which included the 1983 trailblazing polemic How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America.

In writing the biography, Marable intended to highlight the missing three chapters from Alex Haley‘s The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Those chapters are in the hands of Detroit lawyer Gregory Reed, who owns the recently-discovered papers of W.D. Fard, originator of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam. A key task of the new book is to launch a campaign to investigate the wider conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X and bring to justice one of the assailants who fired the “kill shot” ending the life of Malcolm on February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

“Although in 1966 three NOI members were convicted of the murder, extensive evidence suggests that two of these men were completely innocent of the crime, that both the FBI and the NYPD had advance knowledge of it, and that the New York County District Attorney’s office may have cared more about protecting the identities of undercover police officers and informants than arresting the real killers,” (p. 13).

Marable aims to show Malcolm’s struggle to overcome his human flaws and become one of the most important and revered leaders of the black freedom movement in the 20th century. In the build-up to the release of the biography - some 10 years in the making - new detailed information was supposed to be revealed. Marable has been dismissive of works published in the late '80s and '90s on Malcolm X’s life and using the rescued collection of Malcolm X’s diaries, photos, letters, speeches and other material (now archived at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) to “reconstruct the full contours of his remarkable life.”

The Black Experience in the United States
In the early chapters of the book, Marable delves into Malcolm’s early childhood, the conditions African-Americans faced in early 20th century, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the growth of U.S. capitalism and white supremacy. He deals with the rise of Jamaican-born publisher and journalist, Marcus Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) movement (Malcolm’s parents, Earl and Louise Little, were members) and the development of socialist, communist, trade unionism, culture, art and radical politics in the wider society and the black community in urban centers like Harlem, New York. In the Harlem community “Negro and white canvassers sidled up alongside you, talking fast as they tried to get you to buy a copy of the Daily Worker (Communist Party USA newspaper): ‘This paper’s trying to keep your rent controlled…Make that greedy landlord kill them rats in your apartment…Who do you think fought the hardest to help free those Scottsboro boys?” (p. 52).

The development of Islam in the U.S. dates back to the Atlantic slave trade and Marable examines the growth of Islam during slavery, the rise of black nationalism in the mid-1800’s, the teachings of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism, as well as black urban Islamist sects like the Noble Drew Ali’s Moorish Science Temple of America. With the decline of the Garvey movement, which was the largest black led movement in the early 20th century comprised of cultural nationalism and black capitalism, many former Garveyites became attracted to the Lost-Found Nation of Islam (NOI) under the leadership of W.D. Fard and eventually, Elijah Poole, who would later become Elijah Muhammad.

The Nation of Islam spoke out against the hypocrisy of American democracy, capitalism, white supremacy, and the horrid conditions faced by black people since slavery. Drawing their membership from the urban black working class, poor, prison population and the semi-employed, NOI preached and practiced a combination of cultural Black Nationalism and pro-capitalist ideals. NOI was a top-down leadership, including a paramilitary wing. Theologically, NOI preached that black people are the “chosen people” to be delivered from the evil of white-supremacy. It was a distinct form of black American Islam that was not recognized by mainstream Sunni Islam in the Middle East. The NOI would even conduct secret negotiations with George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi party and invite George Lincoln Rockwell to speak from its platform. Marable writes: “both groups, after all, dreamed of a segregated world in which interracial marriages were outlawed and the races dwelled in separate states,” (p. 199).

Marable covers Malcolm’s political association with organizations and activists like the Revolutionary Action Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer, and the Socialist Workers Party before and after his split from the NOI. Also, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention shows Malcolm’s connection to leaders of the anti-colonial movement like Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Nasser of Egypt, his meeting with Fidel Castro in Harlem in 1960 and a possible meeting with Che Guevara in late 1964. All of this expanded his popularity and broadened his international understanding. Malcolm would frequently use in his political speeches to stress the importance of the 1955 Bandung Conference of the non-aligned countries of the former colonial world that were not linked to U.S./Western imperialism or the Stalinist Soviet Union.

New Material
Marable’s new and groundbreaking material is in the chronological details of Malcolm’s 25 weeks away from the United States during his hajj to Mecca. Malcolm’s trips throughout the Middle East and Africa had a huge effect on his thinking on Islam and the colonial revolution as he and the Muslim Mosque, Inc. attempted to gain legitimacy in the mainstream Muslim world. Malcolm believed spirituality Islam could play a role in the liberation struggle against racism and white supremacy. Malcolm states, “Our success in America will involve two circles, black nationalism and Islam…And Islam will link us spiritually to Africa, Arabia and Asia,” (p. 311-312).

Malcolm attempted to forge links with newly-independent African nations like Ghana. Despite the gains from the transfer of power in 1957 from England, by the mid-60’s there were political criticisms against Nkrumah and the ruling Convention People’s Party, for a lack of democracy and the rise of a cult of personality. As Marable points out, Malcolm surely heard the criticisms from the African-American expatriates but might have turned a blind eye to it. Malcolm may have also endorsed the authoritarian measures by the government. Malcolm’s trips to Africa sought to gain support for his repeated calls for the United Nations to condemn U.S. human rights violations,and were important steps to internationalize the black freedom movement in the U.S.

Marable brings out the challenges facing Malcolm, navigating the difficult geo-political dilemmas facing former colonialized countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania in a polarized world dominated by imperialism and Stalinism and experimenting with hybrid “African socialist/capitalist” models. William Sales, author of From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and the Organization of Afro-American Unity states, “The various African socialisms and the systems established on that basis in Africa have been criticized by African Marxists as veiled apologies for the consolidation of various forms of dependency and dependent capitalism. In some of these countries, the Communist Party was either outlawed or its members harassed by the government as was the case in Egypt under Nasser…” (p. 86).

Malcolm’s political and religious relationship with Nasser's Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Saudi royal family and his denunciation of Israeli Zionism would pose serious questions for Malcolm‘s international work. Marable explains, “This calculated view reflected the broader balancing act he (Malcolm X) performed throughout his time in the Middle East. Egypt’s secular government stood forcefully at odds with religious groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been implicated in a 1954 plot to kill Nasser and subsequently banned…Malcolm, indebted to both sides, could not afford to take positions that might offend either. During his stay in Cairo, his Islamic studies were directed by Sheikh Muhammad Surur al-Sabban, the secretary-general of the Muslim World League. This group was financed by the Saudi government and it reflected conservative political views, so Malcolm had to exercise considerable tact and political discretion.” (p. 368)

One of the great questions about Malcolm’s political development has to do with his statements on socialism and capitalism. As Marable and Sales point out, despite Malcolm’s anti-capitalist statements and favorable socialist remarks on the platform of the Socialist Workers Party’s Militant Labor forums and socialism practiced in the so-called third world, Malcolm was not a socialist. At the time of his assassination, Malcolm was clearly moving in a new political direction which could have led him to socialist conclusions or deepening his revolutionary nationalist ideas. Malcolm didn’t have access to genuine Marxism at home or abroad. Professor Sales states, “Those who noted Malcolm’s turn toward socialism, like George Breitman and Michael Williams, consistently failed to make a distinction between the Marxist-Leninist tradition of “scientific” socialism and the socialist thought of Malcolm X. There is no information available that demonstrates that Malcolm X seriously studied Marxism-Leninism,” (p. 86).

Marable documents an interview Malcolm had with NY Times reporter M.S. Handler, exposing Malcolm’s ambiguity to socialist ideas.

“I am not anti-American, un-American, seditious nor subversive. I don’t buy the anti-capitalist propaganda of the communist, nor do I buy the anti-communist propaganda of capitalists…I‘m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity (human beings) as a whole whether they are capitalist, communists or socialist, all have assets as well as liabilities…” (p. 369).

The material dealing with the assassination plot in Marable’s biography have been covered extensively in Karl Evanzz’s book The Judas Factor: the Plot to Kill Malcolm X published in 1992, and Zak Kondo, author of Conspiracy: Unraveling the Assassination of Malcolm X, published in 1993.

From his release from prison in 1952 to his public assassination, Malcolm’s actions were monitored by the state authorities. The plot to kill Malcolm X flowed from the governmental opposition under the auspices of the Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro), which sought to prevent the development of a unified radical movement with leadership. Cointelpro used disruptive methods such as sending falsified letters to organizations and leaders that would lead to bloodshed in the black community. Cointelpro, developed under the leadership of FBI Director, J.Edgar Hoover, was a continuation of the Palmer raids of the early 1900s and the McCarthy witch-hunts of the late 40s and early 50s to neutralize the movements of resistance against U.S. big business at home and abroad.

The NOI and Malcolm’s Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) and Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) was thoroughly infiltrated by the FBI and New York City police department (BOSS unit) respectively. Marable points out, “The NYPD’s narrative about Malcolm’s murder was simple. The slaying was the culmination of an almost yearlong feud between two black hate groups. The NYPD had two priorities in conducting its investigation: first, to protect the identities of its undercover police officers and informants, like Gene Roberts; and second, to make successful cases against NOI members with histories of violence. Its hasty and haphazard treatment of forensic evidence at the crime scene suggested that it had little interest in solving the actual homicide,” (p. 451).

Marable highlights the five assailants are from the NOI Newark, New Jersey mosque. The three men convicted of killing Malcolm; Norman 3X Butler, Thomas 15X Johnson, and Talmadge Hayer convicted of first degree murder in 1966, were sentenced to life. Both Butler and Johnson fought for their innocence in the conspiracy to kill Malcolm. Talmadge Hayer was paroled in April 2010 with great protest from activists. Marable makes the claim, the “killshot” assailant Willie Bradley is still alive, living in New Jersey and was never brought to justice.

Malcolm’s internationalism and revolutionary message was a powerful challenge to the American empire at home and abroad. The conspiracy to kill Malcolm X was a collective effort by elements in the NOI, FBI and CIA, that is still unresolved today.

Marable deals with the controversial aspects of Malcolm’s life like his hustling days as Detroit Red and his homosexual relationship with a rich white man named Paul Lennon. (This topic was covered by Bruce Perry in his Malcolm X: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America, published in 1991.) The stormy, strained relationship and possible extramarital affairs of both Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz are also covered. Rather than place these events in their political, social and cultural context, in our pop, sensationalized tabloid news, these “revelations” are receiving more attention by the corporate media in its attempts to discredit Malcolm X.

In the Age of Obama
Marable’s most questionable conclusions are the ones in the chapter “Reflections on a Revolutionary Vision.” Here Marable attempts to draw a direct historical line from Malcolm X to President Obama’s presidential win in 2008. Marable exclaims, “These aspects of Malcolm’s public personality were indelibly stamped into the Black Power movement; they were present in the cry, ‘It’s our turn!’ by black proponents of Harold Washington in the Democrat’s successful 1983 mayoral race in Chicago. It was partially expressed in the unprecedented voter turnouts in black neighborhoods in Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988 and in the successful electoral bid of Barack Obama in 2008. Malcolm truly anticipated that the black electorate could potentially be the balance of power in a divided white republic,” (p. 483).


This sorry attempt to mollify Malcolm’s uncompromising stance against the corporate two-party system of U.S. capitalism, is intended to neuter the militant, independent, and revolutionary message that Malcolm articulated in his April 3, 1964 speech, The Ballot or The Bullet.

“They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return. All they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes didn’t need big jobs, they already had jobs. That’s camouflage, that’s trickery, that’s treachery, window-dressing. I’m not trying to knock out the Democrats for the Republicans; we’ll get them in a minute. But it is true - you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last.”

The best example of Malcolm’s independent electoral program for black people could be seen in the 1966 Lowndes County Freedom Organization in rural Lowndes County, Alabama. Organized by Stokely Carmichael and SNCC, it was an all-black independent political party that fought against black political disenfranchisement and white supremacy. This project was spurred on by the events and lessons of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and Fannie Lou Hamer protest at the Democratic Party Atlantic City convention in 1964, when the Democratic and Mississippi Democratic Party leadership refused to recognize the MFDP delegates at the convention. The Freedom Now Party (FNP) was founded in 1963 by black militants within Detroit who had close ties to Malcolm, and they spoke frequently at political rallies with Rev Albert B. Cleage Jr. and Milton brothers, while he was a member of NOI, and then afterward. The FNP ran independent black candidates for governor, congress, the state senate and the board of education in 1964.

The last two chapters of Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, and also Peniel Joseph’s Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama and Ta-Neshisi Coates review of Marable’s biography titled "The Legacy of Malcolm X: Why his vision lives on in Barack Obama" published inAtlantic Magazine are all intended to render Malcolm X’s revolutionary stance against empire and racism “unnecessary” in the face of the so-called “post-racial” U.S. society and the first black president occupying the White House. These apologists for this corporate war president and the capitalist system have re-packaged Malcolm X as an “outdated firebrand” who would have had to check his revolutionary message at the door in today‘s political environment. A far more accurate description of Obama is to be found in Cornell West’s statement describing Obama as “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.” West goes on to point out that Obama has now “become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it” (Chris Hedges, “The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic,” Truthdig, 5/16/11)

The Meaning of Malcolm X Today
Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention allows a new generation to study and learn more about Malcolm. But Marable’s biography shouldn’t be looked upon as the “definitive” work because there are more aspects of his life and political trajectory that demand further study and research. Malcolm’s life experience and world events moved him to be an active participant in the revolutionary awakening and revolt of the 1950s and '60s. Malcolm’s revolutionary nationalism, pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism, and anti-corporate stances inspired the birth of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the militancy of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), militant trade unionism of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit, and other radical and socialist organizations.

Malcolm matters because the conditions that produced Malcolm still exist. The abject poverty, racism, high rates of unemployment, mass prison incarceration, police violence, layoffs and massive budget cuts, are a byproduct of a sick capitalist system - based on delivering profits for a small ruling elite. These conditions are producing a new generation of revolutionaries who will be inspired by the shining example of Malcolm X:

“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash…”
--Malcolm X

Lobby the TUC - Unite against all cuts

National Shop Stewards Network lobby of the TUC on 11 September

For a 24-hour public sector general strike

Opening rally at Friends Meeting House 1.30-3.30pm, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ. Speakers include RMT general secretary Bob Crow and PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka. Then march to the TUC at Congress House.

TUC must call action - by Nick Chaffey

"We can't afford a pay cut or losing our increments. People are beginning to see what they've lost and for some its £1,000. We are being prepared for privatisation and don't want it. The Tories are living on another planet and Labour are no different. The country is crying out for change."
These were some of the views of refuse workers back out on strike in Southampton after the council imposed new contracts on 11 July which meant massive cuts in pay.
In a significant escalation of the dispute they are being joined in a one-day strike by the entire social care department of over 450 workers.
50 social workers in the Adoption, Fostering and ARC Children's Centre will continue strike action for a week. Social workers are angry that after they signed their new contracts, the council attempted to bribe a select few with a £1,400 one-off payment.
Pressure is mounting on the council, some streets have not had bins collected for over nine weeks with public support for the strike still strong.
Selective action throughout the dispute has been well supported. To ensure these cuts are reversed this action should be bought together in a council wide one-day strike and linked up to all local authorities fighting cuts.
Southampton Tory council is undoubtedly getting national backing from the Con-Dem government for its stand. In response Unison and Unite should call a national demonstration in Southampton.
This dispute is an attack on national terms and conditions and should be met with national action. The growing number of local authority disputes and the support for Southampton from branches around the country shows the potential for this exists.
Elsewhere in the city, other cuts are coming with 433 Southampton NHS admin workers facing redundancy.
Workers at the BBC in Southampton came out on strike on 1 August against redundancies. Medirest hospital cleaners are continuing their fight for unpaid wages and sick pay. Locked out workers from the massive Fawley oil refinery are continuing their battle.
With cuts facing the public sector countrywide and a squeeze on private sector workers too there is an urgent need to bring these battles together into a national campaign that could defeat the Con-Dem plans.
Anger is growing, support for the Con-Dem cuts is falling. It is urgent that trade unionists seize the time and prepare for a one-day public/private sector general strike to defend jobs, services, pay and pensions.

UNITE convenor at Honda Swindon sacked - REINSTATE PADDY BRENNAN!

From National Shop Stewards Network: http://www.shopstewards.net/news.130.htm

The National Shop Stewards Network has just received word that Paddy Brennan, UNITE Convenor at the Swindon Honda plant has been suspended from work. More details to follow when we get them, but Paddy's suspension is a provocative attack on a prominent trade union fighter and by extension an attack on the right to organise at Honda. The Honda trade union leadership have been enthusiastic members of the National Shop Stewards Network since its inception and now they need our help. We demand Paddy's reinstatement and the NSSN pledges to do all it can in support of this.

Please text messages of support to Paddy on 07503 174 827 and email letters of protest to humgen@honda-eu.com. More updates to follow.

CWI Summer School: World capitalist crisis

Alison Hill, Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales)
http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/5208

This week, CWI supporters from over 30 countries are attending a CWI Summer School in Belgium. As well as comrades from across western and eastern Europe and Russia, visitors are attending from North and Latin America, Nigeria, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Middle East.

Below, is a summary of a plenary discussion on world perspectives.

Niall Mulholland, from the International Secretariat of the CWI, introduced the wide-ranging plenary discussion on world economy and inter-imperialist relations by explaining how every part of the globe is affected by the deepening economic crisis. Due to globalisation, no continent has been able to escape and none of the fundamental problems have been resolved.

The ruling class worldwide is attempting to keep their priviledges at the expense of the working class and their rivals in other nation states. This means the development of new revolutionary movements and the developing possibility of global tensions and conflicts.

Capitalism is a system of extreme inequality. In the USA the top executives had a 38% increase in their bonuses in 2010, whilst two million people are currently on the verge of starvation in east Africa. Speculation in food prices has catapulted an extra 44 million people into poverty this year alone.

But the famine in east Africa is not an ’act of god’. Scientists believe that the region’s successive droughts may be linked to climate change. Local conflicts and imperialism’s meddling in Somalia have also contributed to the famine tragedy, as has the destruction of traditonal pastoral and sustainable ways of living by big business agriculture.

The environment is a vital part of perspectives today and forms a crucial part of the CWI’s programme, particularly now that the UK, China, Russia, and India all have plans to build more nuclear power stations. Environmental issues can shake governments and even bring them down.

In Australia, the Labour Party/Green government introduced a very unpopular carbon tax. Unpopular because the costs of the tax will be simply passed onto the working class by big business, while carbon emissions are set to increase.

To end famine, environmental disaster and poverty requires the reorganisation of the world economy based on social need, which is becoming more urgent as the capitalist crisis is prolonged.
New recession?

Until recently many economists were talking about an economic recovery – looking at the financial markets and the growth of the economies of Brazil, India and China. Now they have discovered that the world economy is locked in crisis. The global economy is in a period of stagnation but unless there is a fundamental change, the cycles of ’boom’ and ’bust’ will continue. But the general trend is now for weaker, shorter growth phases in a general depressionary period of world capitalism. The wastefulness of capitalism can be shown through one fact alone – global unemployment has increased by 27 million since 2007, to 205 million worldwide.

The barbarism of capitalism can be seen in the thousands who have died in the drug gang related violence in Mexico. Thousands of soldiers are engaged in occupying cities, carrying out torture and killings in the name of the “war on drugs”.

The response of the ruling classes to the 2007/8 finacial and economic crisis was to bail out the banks and launch a stimulus package but that has brought a new set of problems. The government deficits forced a reduction in social spending, while the big corporations, the banks and households are mired in debt.

In the US, Obama’s stimulus package is exhausted. His 2010 tax cuts have been wiped out by the increase in the cost of oil and rents. The bursting of the housing bubble has resulted in a cut in household wealth. There is a depression in the contruction industry and in household spending. US companies are cutting production and sacking workers. Over 24 million people are unemployed or underemployed. The number of people needing food stamps has increased by 50% from 2008 to 2011, so 45 million people – nearly one in seven people in the US - need help to get enough food to eat.

The ruling class everywhere is trying to destroy the social gains won by the working class in the post war period and there are more cuts planned.

The breakdown in negotiations between the Repubicans and the Democrats in the US over the economic programme has alarmed the markets and the IMF has warned that even just a crisis of confidence in US solvency can trigger a new global recession.

The Democrats argue for cuts and a small increase in the taxation of the rich, whilst the Republicans, under pressure from the Tea Party on the Right, only want huge cuts. One third of the republicans in the House of Representatives were only elected in 2010 and are vulnerable to Tea Party pressure, so they fear losing their seats if they go along with the Democrats.

Given the dire consequences of a default, even a temporary default, compromise is likely, but it will not bring a long term resolution to the US economic crisis. The US ruling class have no short term strategy, let alone a long-term solution, in the face of this systemic and protracted crisis of capitalism.

The US workers have no choice but to fight and they have already shown this in Wisconsin in the mass struggle against the right wing governor’s anti-union attacks and social attacks. But the failure to stop these assaults, largely due to the union tops not developing the mass struggle, also illustrates the need to build an independent party and fight for a change in the trade unions.
China

China is also prone to the global contradictions of capitalism. The 2008 crisis resulted in a drop in its exports, which cost 23 million jobs. Fearing social unrest, a stimulus programme was introduced by state directed banks, resulting in fast growth which boosted the markets and which also resulted in rising prices.

For three years, China seemed to avoid the world economic crisis but its overheating economy has created new problems and contradictions, not least huge ’bad debts’. The development of industrial production was dependent on loans from state banks, while local authorities borrowed heavily to invest in infrastructure. By the end of 2010, the debt in local government was equivalent to 40% of GDP.

Property speculation has meant a rise in prices and a surplus of housing stock. Yet millions of people cannot afford to buy or rent.

Brazil, Australia and Canada supply a lot of the raw materials for this growth in China. But that means those countries are vulnerable to a downturn in the Chinese economy. Equally, any slow down would mean an attack on the wages and conditions of the Chinese working class.

The ongoing economic crisis and the relative growing strength of China, sees a stepping up of big power rivalaries and tensions.

The ruling class in Pakistan has been developing increasing ties to China, while their counterparts in India are linking up more with the US – worsening the tensions between those countries.

The US ruling class aims to try to impose compliant regimes in vital geo-strategic regions of the world and to control oil reserves and other vital resources. In Afghanistan they have become reliant on warlords, as the occupation and puppert Karzai government lacks any real popular support. Obama plans to withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, but around 70,000 will stay. They also have 50,000 US personnel in Iraq, in 53 military bases.

There is increasing tensions within the Russian elite in the run-up to presidential elections, mostly around economic policy and the approach to the west. President Medvedev is more pro-western and ’free market’ orientated. Both Prime Miniser Putin and Medvedev want to stand in the elections but both are facing falling support in polls. In the context of growing discontent amongst the massses in Russia, the struggle between Putin and Medvedev could become explosive.
Chavez

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez’s serious illness has brought to the surface the competing factions in the regime. Chavez is still popular due to his social reform programmes, including in health and education. But suppport for the ’Bolivarian’ regime is declining against a background of electricity cuts, corruption, a housing crisis and one of the highest murder rates in the world. A new layer of the ruling bureaucracy is becoming enriched.

Chavez has announced he will stand for another six-year term but if his health worsens and he is out of the country for pro-longed peroids, it can open up a power struggle. This will give a boost to the reactionary opposition. And if the Bolvarian revolution unravels, it will have a big effect on Cuba, which relys on Venezuelan oil.

The only way to defend the social gains which have been won in Venezuela and Cuba, is for the working class to organise in defence of the revolution: taking the economy under the democratic control and management of the working class and spreading the revolution across the Americas.

The polarisation between the rich and poor across Latin America has fuelled the class struggle. In Brazil, there have been battles against corruption and tens of thousands of teachers and students marched in Chile on 30 June in defence of public education.
Industrial struggles in Africa

In Africa, the struggles of the working class have been boosted by the revolutionary movements in north Africa and the middle East. In south Africa, a recent three-week strike of engineers resulted in concessions. South African fuel workers are now in battle. These movements shook the pro-market ANC government but the COSATU trade union federation failed to co-ordinate the strikes effectively and to spread the action to meet the needs of millions of workers and poor.

In Nigeria, a three-day general strike over wages has been called off but this issue has the potential to explode again, given the terrible poverty conditions facing millions.There have also been “unprecented” protests in Malawi, where 75% of the population live on less than one dollar a day.

These examples show the potential for workign class resistance to develop. But there is a big gap between the needs of the working class and the level of conciousness amongst workers worldwide. The CWI aims to link struggles of workers worldwide, to campaign for and where possible help build new mass fighting parties of the working class and to also build the forces of Marxism.

During the plenary discussion, speakers from around the world gave inspiring reports of social and workers’ struggles and also about the development of the CWI.

In Australia, exporting raw materials to China and Japan has resulted in a boom in the mining industry, but also a lop-sided aspect to the economy. Mass conciousness may lag behind Europe and elsewhere but this period of relative quiet will not be maintained due to the crisis that will also hit Australia. The Labour Party minority government is at an historic low in the polls, following the imposition of the carbon tax. If there were an election tomorrow the opposition Right would win but only to launch an even more serious attack on the working class. A European-style revolt could develop in Australia. It suffers the same underlying problems of debt and one third of all jobs are identified as “unstable”.

Malaysia has been a fast-growing economy in recent years but it is not immune to the crisis. Exports of raw material, such as rubber to China, resulted in a 7% growth in 2010. But Malaysia is highly dependent on more powerful economies. Once the country is flooded with cheap Chinese goods, the local market will not be able to compete. Meanwhile the government is looking for further ’liberalisation’ – dismantling price control and slashing spending.

Paul Murphy, a Socialist Party MEP (member of the European Parliament), from Ireland, gave an inspiring report of his recent visit to workers in Kazakhstan. Using his position as an MEP, Paul was able to give concrete support to striking oil workers, who are waging one of the biggest industrial battles of workers in any ex-Soviet country since the collapse of Stalinism.

Kazakhstan is the richest country in the world in terms of its natural resources per head of population, but nearly all the money goes to the ruling elite. The oil workers labour in desert conditions, with very hot summers and very cold winters.

The workers are striking over wages, for the right to form independent trade unions and for the release of their union’s lawyer, who were jailed when the dispute began.

Thousands of workers have been on strike for two months with no strike pay and many have to support a family of eight or nine people. Some have been on hunger strike for 40 days in protest at the bosses.

The full force of the state has been used against the workers. Hundreds have been, in effect, locked out and some have received death threats.

Paul Murphy was warmly welcomed at mass meetings of the striking workers and he was able to help in negotiations with the management. Expecting a token visit from a compliant MEP, the top management were shocked when Paul argued vehemently on behalf of the workers.

All of this was reported prominently in the non-government Kazakh press, which helped to boost the confidence of the workforce. The task now is to build support internationally. Paul promised the company that if they did not begin meaningful negotiations there would be a massive international campaign against them.

Meanwhile, the Kazakh government know this is not just an economic strike – it is inspiring workers across the country.
Environment

One of the big questions facing the working class worldwide is the environment. Pete from the Socialist Party (England and Wales) explained that the National Academy of Sciences in the US concluded that emissions of greenhouse gases “stabilised” since 1990. But a 40% cut is needed in the next ten years to tackle global warming.

There has been a massive export of pollution to China. Between 2002 and 2008, greenhouse gas output in China rose from four to seven gigatonnes.

China consumes half of the world’s cement, coal, steel and iron ore and it is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

The majority of Greens argue for a huge cut in consumption, condemning workers in China and other countries like India to eternal poverty. At least the Green Left activists blame the world’s imperialist powers for this situation.

The Chinese government opportunistically echoes this argument. It develops renewable energy sources but as a part of a profit-driven attempt to become the world’s leader in renewable energy.

The CWI argues that there is no long term solution to the environmental crisis on the basis of private profit. Competitive markets downgrade the environment. We need a democratic plan of production, in harmony with the environment, throughout the world.

There were many other interesting contributions to the discussion, including from Hong Kong, France, Bolivia, Venzuela, Brazil, Israel, Russia, Nigeria and India.

Tom from the US explained how the protests in Wisconsin were a small indication of the fighting spirit of workers; an upsurge from below against attacks on the trade unions, pensions and other social benefits. The protests included thousands of unorganised workers and young people.

The election of right-wing governors, last November, has escalated the attacks on workers. The Democrats in many areas are using the Tea Party as a cover for their attacks on workers.

In Wisconsin, Socialist Alternative supporters called for a one-day general strike, whereas the union leadser argued that further action would “risk losing popular support”and refused to build the action.

But Wisconsin was one battle in a war – the next battles will be on a national level. The working class are being asked to pay for the crisis on Wall Street. The CWI is arguing in the trade unions for independent candidates against the cuts.
Ireland

In southern Ireland, Joe Higgins, a Socialist Party TD (member of the Irish Parliament) hit the headlines this week responding to the Fine Gael/Labour government’s announcement of a new €100 a year ’household tax’. Joe Higgins and the Socialist Party call for a mass campaign on non-payment and have called a national forum on 10 September to organise that struggle. This got blanket coverage in the media. In contrast, a Sinn Fein TD, quoted in the press, warned that “a boycott is very dangerous”.

Summing up the discussion, Clare Doyle from the CWI International Secretariat, observed that the CWI has members in more countries than ever before and that there were more of those represented at the CWI School.

It was clear from the discussion that the ideas of struggle and revolution are spreading. Capitalism is in such a deep and prolonged crisis that the ruling elite in every country is worried about the future. One glaring indication of the depth of the crisis is the record price of gold.

Dictatorships worldwide were shaken by the fall of Mubarak in Egypt and Ben Ali in Tunisia. Futher strikes and protests will erupt, often despite of the trade union leaders. Our task in the CWI is to build our forces and a leadership worthy of the sacrifice and fighting spirit of those workers.