www.workersliberty.org.uk

Steve Aitmatov | 24.07.2002 10:34

This is a selection of new articles from "Solidarity", available online at

http://www.workersliberty.org.uk

Public sector strike: reports and analysis; Ideas for freedom; Capitalism after WorldCom; Livingstone and Labour - should he be let back in; Boycotts of Israel; Civil liberties under attack; IRA apologises - why now? Israel-Palestine - Hijacked history; Picasso/Matisse at the Tate Modern; Put socialism back on the agenda; Colombia: 100 years of corruption and violence / Coca-Cola action day; SWP backs "2 states"?

24 June 2002
New on

http://www.workersliberty.org.uk
=======================================

The following items, from Workers' Liberty magazine and the
fortnightly socialist newspaper Solidarity, are a selection of
new items this week on

http://www.workersliberty.org.uk

All articles can be replied to via the website's "comments" function.
To use this, you need to register for an ID at the site. This can be
done by all users and takes two minutes at the most to do.

The Alliance for Workers' Liberty is a component of the Socialist
Alliance (in England and in Wales) and our supporters are grouped in
the Solidarity Tendency of the Scottish Socialist Party.

=======================================
Public sector strike; Ideas for freedom; Capitalism after WorldCom;
Livingstone; Boycotts of Israel; Civil liberties under attack; IRA
apology; Israel-Palestine - Hijacked history
=======================================

A MILLION COUNCIL WORKERS STRIKE
On 17 July, for the first time in 23 years local government unions
joined together to take national strike action - over pay.
Dion d' Silva reports.

IDEAS FOR FREEDOM
"If you want to go to a political rally where everyone agrees with
each other and all you do is unquestioningly agree to "the line" or
to cheer your leaders, do not, under any circumstances, go to Ideas
For Freedom. You'll hate it."
Jean Lane reports on the Workers' Liberty / Solidarity event, Ideas
For Freedom 2002, held on 13-14 July in London.

WILL THE CAPITALIST ICE AGE COME?
""Capitalism has had a rotten time lately", says the big business
magazine The Economist. "Not as rotten as in 1917..." (when the
Russian workers took state power) it adds, in case its readers
panic..."
Colin Foster looks at capitalism in the aftermath of the WorldCom
collapse.

SHOULD LABOUR LET LIVINGSTONE BACK IN?
In an article not entirely sympathetic to Ken Livingstone, Annie
O'Keefe argues that Livingstone should be let back into Labour Party
membership, as despite his faults, this could represent an important
defeat for the hard Blairites; and that socialists, even those of the
Socialist Alliance, should not entirely neglect Labour.

A JEW HUNT WON'T HELP THE PALESTINIANS
This editorial from Solidarity argues that "boycotting Israel implies
that only Israel is responsible for the present tragic conflict" and
that "this is not true".

DEFEND CIVIL LIBERTIES
Lucy Clement looks at the government's latest planned assault on
civil liberties: restricting the right to trial by jury; and the
introduction of identity cards.

WHY DOES THE IRA APOLOGISE NOW?
"There is nothing qualitively new here: they have "apologised" before
for specific acts....This apology and its timing is a calculated
political act to protect the IRA now....Their connection with
"Marxist" guerrillas in Colombia has alienated the US government."
by John O'Mahony.

ISRAEL AND THE ARABS: HIJACKED HISTORY
Matt Cooper reviews the Socialist Workers Party's current literature
on Israel-Palestine, John Rose's "The Hijack State" and Anne
Alexander's "The New Intifada".

and...
MATISSE PICASSO AT THE TATE MODERN
by Oona Swan

COLOMBIA: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE
by Gerry Byrne

SWP BACKS TWO STATES IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE?
by Rhodri Evans

PUT SOCIALISM BACK ON THE AGENDA
Editorial from Solidarity
=======================================
Most of these articles will be linked to from the front page at

http://www.workersliberty.org.uk , if not, click on "older articles"
(under "past articles" on the right of the screen) for the
appropriate links.

=======================================
Workers' Liberty and Solidarity are supporting an international
appeal to raise $50,000 for the Indonesian trade union FNPBI, led by
Dita Sari. For more details on the appeal, and how to donate, or to
donate online via PayPal, go to the website of No Sweat!, the UK
campaign against sweatshops.

http://www.nosweat.org.uk

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For a free copy of the latest issue of Workers' Liberty journal, go
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Individual subscription rates to Solidarity: GBP 12/year waged; GBP 8
unwaged. European rate: GBP 15 or EUR 25 (in cash). Cheques payable
to "Action" to Solidarity, PO Box 28124, London, England SE6 4WS.
=======================================
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Steve Aitmatov
Homepage: http://www.workersliberty.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

No state but Palestine.

24.07.2002 12:41

The SWP emphatically does not support a two-state solution in Palestine. We do not believe it would be justice to allow Israeli settlers to retain a portion of the land from which they could plan for further expansionist fantasies. The problem is not simply a lack of any state for Palestinians, but the whole ideology of Zionism which sustains the state of Israel. It is a racist ideology which specifically does not recognise the equality of other races living within the 'Jewish State'. It's foundations are expulsion and ethnic cleansing, and its dynamic is expansionist. Hence, Deir Yassin, and hence the settlements.

lenin
mail e-mail: lenin138@yahoo.co.uk

Workers Liberty, with its peculiar name

24.07.2002 13:04

which seems to emanate from a Chartist Mausoleum, has succeeded in the remarkable quest of being more 'centerist' (ie, ignoring all Marxist principles in order to get in with the Labourite majority) than the SWP.
While their intellectual stock is somewhat higher than that of the SWP, they effectively endorse the same Labour betrayers of the workers movement, tragically enough a betrayl of British workers own making. The concept of workers liberty be damned ! It should be SOCIALIST liberty through workers CONTROL. All genuine Marxists emphasise that only through INTERNATIONALISM can the proletariat abolish capitalism, and socialism can only be a system which will bring vast improvemants to the lives of most people, (regardless of whether they are 'workers' or not). Like many Unmarxists, W L shower all sympathy on Israel, using the tired pretext of the NSDAP, ignoring the fact that the population of the USSR was treated just as badly, and in comparable numbers, by the NSDAP as were the Judaists of Germany.
Like the SWP, W L contrives to ignore the true world-wide plundering reality of Britains' "fourth largest world economy", when Engels had pointed out the failure of British workers to do so long before: "What does the British worker think of the empire ? Exactly what the bourgeois thinks. They gladly share in the proceeds." (I Paraphrase somewhat)In THAT light, what does the concept of "Workers Liberty" stand for ? Truly, you can tell a party from its name, and its leadership.

Space-Trotskyist

SWP racism

24.07.2002 14:55

The SWP is a racist party that supports religious fanatics who wish to ethnically cleanse Jews from the Middle East.

Dan

Lowering the tone

24.07.2002 19:56

My dear Dan, it really sounds as if you are deliberately trying to lower the tone and change the subject. It's important stuff, after all. I mean, Marx is such a relevant contemporary thinker, and we really need to know who is the best Marxist in the world ever. What could be more important?

Or could it be that you are just plain bored with all this inter-marxist high level discussion? Perhaps the old zionist/anti-semitic/baby-killing/bus-bombing/house-bulldozing/blah-blah/ fights are slightly less irrelevant?

Come to think of it...

But, much as I hate the SWP vampires, I fear you may be talking oot yer arse on this one. If I'm wrong, can you back up your argument?

Shit, do I really want to ask that? How many trots/trot-haters are going to fill up the wire with arguments and counter-arguments of no real relevance to anything at all? Oh, fuck it, I'll just hit the button.

Christ, it gets you down sometimes, it really does. I mean, whats the point, eh? I ask you...

bored revolutionist

Dan, get a grip.

24.07.2002 22:07

The SWP does not support the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Palestine any more than it supported the ethnic cleansing of whites from South Africa. If this is the depths of slander and stupidity that you're prepared to sink to, then you simply obviate the weakness of your argument. As for the person who quoted Engels, I doubt one could seriously adduce any real evidence that the British worker's attitudes to war and imperialism are exactly the same as those of the bourgoisie. Not when 54% of the British public oppose war on Iraq. At any rate, the working class are said to be the instrument of achieving socialism not because of what they may believe at any one time, but because they are structurally endowed with the power to smash capitalism since its strength derives principally from their labour. And to all SWP-hating sectarians out there, I have this to offer:
....................../´¯/)
....................,/¯../
.................../..../
............./´¯/`...`/´¯¯`·¸
........../`/.../..../......./¨¯\\
........(`(...´...´.... ¯~/`...`)
.........\\.................`...../
..........\\................ _.·´
...........\\...............(
............\\...............\\.....

lenin
mail e-mail: lenin138@yahoo.co.uk

What does the SWP believe?

25.07.2002 10:00

But I thought the SWP supported the valiant struggle of those brave Hamas resistance fighters, who have achieved so much for the Palestinian cause through bombing Bar Mitsvahs and bus stops.

I swear that one day, we'll wake up and won't notice who is worse, the IDF or Islamic Jihad. Then the Jew-bashing SWP will closely resemble the Muslim-bashing BNP.

Frankly, I think the SWP are a bunch of ignorant bangwagon-jumping hypocrits who will throw themselves behind racist fanatics if it will win them a few members.

Dan

Crikey!

25.07.2002 11:30

Who would have thought Mr Lenin could beat Mr Dan at lowering the tone? Another of his sweet little drawings. What a masterful end to such a well-structured argument.

But then, whats this? A great return from Mr Dan! What a match!

But my dear Dan, much as I appreciate the statement regarding bandwagon-jumping etc, why oh why do you have to spoil it with untruths about SWP? There really is no need to exaggerate.

Honest to goodness, the level of debate around here is just pitiful. Think I'll stick to Talk Radio, for some serious stuff.

So long, and thanks for all the pish.

bored revolutionist

Something shows, here

25.07.2002 14:15

Please, all take note that a bulletin from Workers Liberty has resulted in the usual slanging- match about the SWP ! This does begin to look like monomania among the IMC readership; while the SWP is a bit of a problem for the independent socialist movement, Workers Liberty has few connections with the SWP. They even put up susbstantial quantities of their work for criticism here, and almost everyone ignores it.

Acorn Tributor

sigh

25.07.2002 20:34

Dan, I'm afraid I'm no more impressed now with your cantankerous remarks than I was when you were e-mailing them to me on a regular basis. If the SWP hates Jews, then the obvious question is why so many Jews are in the SWP, why the SWP bases it's political philosophy on the thoughts of Marx, Trotsky and Gluckstein. The SWP does not support suicide bombings. The SWP supports arming the Palestinians with F16s and fighter jets and tanks so they can fight on some kind of level resembling parity. So that, possibly, in some distant future, they might actually win. If you read Avi Shlaim's book "The Iron Wall", you'll find a densely documented argument that Israel's policy has long been to suppress the Palestinians to such a degree that they will accept any miserably degraded settlement that the settlers decide to give them - like the little 'bantustans' they were offered at Camp David. So, the Israelis are never going to offer a deal even closely resembling justice for the Palestinians. The problem is not Judaism. Nor is it Islam. It is Zionism.

lenin
mail e-mail: lenin138@yahoo.co.uk

Support the Jews

26.07.2002 09:20

Will the SWP support Jewish resistance to Islamicist aggression? I should imagine jihadis won't stop until all Jews living in the Middle East are either expelled or killed. In the unlikely event of them matching the IDF in arms, who will the SWP support? Will they continue to support those extremists who want to murder all Jews? I'm for peace and security and compromise, not this them-and-us all-for-nothing dogmatism the SWP spews out. I agree wholeheartedly with the Worker's Liberty position, for the triumph of those Islamicists the SWP supports (they call them 'freedom fighters' - how many are free under sharia?) will only lead to a bloodbath.

Dan

Poor W L !!!

26.07.2002 12:25

perhaps its true what one says, that if theres one thing worse than being criticised, its to be ignored...
I at least, tried to make a structured critique of the W L organization; most of the other commentators are so obsessed with the SWP, they forgot the origin of the piece. true, the SWP have been a definite 'drag' on the re-emerging left, and theres a lot of bitterness, but this is a bit cranky.

Space- trotskyist

Resistance, eh?

26.07.2002 20:26

What do you mean by Jewish resistance? You mean Israeli aggression? You want me to support Ariel Sharon when he sends F16s in to blow up Palestinian towns? That's where the aggression begins, with Zionism and not with Islamism. The argument over the Palestinian opposition movement is, of course, crucial. There is good evidence that it is turning left. I want the movement to be won over to revolutionary socialism. But more importantly, I want the movement to win.

The Jewish resistance which I support is the resistance of the 'refuseniks', or the many brave Jews who live in this country like Haim Bresheeth who have unabashedly coruscated Zionism from the start. (Bresheeth served in the Israeli army, so he knows of which he speaks). No amount of emotional blackmail will change the fact that Zionism is a racist, expansionist ideology, and that Israel's strategy has always been to completely subjugate Palestinians - denying, in fact, that Palestinians even exist. The idea that there could be a compromise with Israel has been comprehensively disproven in the last twenty or so years, as Israel's policies have never wavered from the rejectionist extremes of the 1970s. Even during and after Oslo, settlements continued apace. Even as the Palestinians were offering peace, and preparing to accept the most humiliating terms imaginable, the water supplies were being hegemonised by Israeli settlers. Is this 'Jewish resistance'?

I swear. I would be ashamed of myself to say anything else: no compromise with Zionism. Victory to the Intifada.

ps: The 'independent socialist' who's ragging about the SWP being a drag on 'the movement' will have to explain himself a bit more clearly, if he has a case to make.

lenin
mail e-mail: lenin138@yahoo.co.uk