Monday, 10 October 2011
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Europe Against Austerity - a call for co-ordinated global resistance
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| Besancenot: 'the movements must converge' |
Saturday's Europe Against Austerity conference launched a call for international anti-cuts co-ordination. The event at London's Camden Centre, organised by Coalition of Resistance, was addressed by speakers from a wide range of left wing, anti-capitalist and labour movement groups from across Europe. 681 people attended, including 150 international delegates.
The conference took place against the backdrop of a worsening crisis in the Eurozone, with contagion in the continent's financial system and the prospect of imminent debt default in Greece. Governments are committed to cuts and privatisation to make the vast majority of people pay for this crisis.
Greek trade union activists spoke of the social misery inflicted on their country, but also the explosive resistance in the form of demonstrations and strikes. There were speeches from leading activists in Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain and elsewhere. This was the first major event to bring together anti-cuts groups from across the continent to discuss the crisis we face, alternative solutions, and how to build effective resistance.
UK activists talked about 30 November as a chance for a festival of resistance, a day for the whole movement which unites trade unionists with everyone else who is affected by cuts. Other speakers, including from Spain, talked about the experience of mass protests by 'the indignant' and the need to connect such street demonstrations and occupations with the union movement.
Olivier Besancenot, leading New Anticapitalist Party member and a former French presidential candidate, said: "The movements must converge - we must make solidarity with the struggles of the indignant. Today creates new possibilities. Be more radical than we can imagine because the stakes are so high."
Participants agreed a statement which stresses that the current crisis affects the whole of Europe and the need for an alternative economic strategy. It also pledges support for a number of upcoming demonstrations, plus a co-ordinated day of action in early 2012. It calls on European trade unions to co-ordinate strike action.
Workshops throughout the afternoon addressed a wide range of topics, from the roots of the crisis to imperialism and austerity, from youth movements to the defence of public health care. The level of political discussion was strikingly high, with international perspectives and numerous connections between different campaigns and issues. A recurring theme was the need to articulate alternative economic demands, such as a people's debt audit for countries threatened with default and - across Europe - greater public investment to create jobs and growth.
The conference was an important part of a landmark weekend for the anti-cuts movement, with 15,000 demonstrating in Glasgow and at least 35,000 outside Tory Party Conference in Manchester. As we face a deepening international crisis, the need for co-ordination of mass action becomes more urgent.
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Friday, 30 September 2011
Renewing the radical left
Summary of the analysis
Chris Bambery makes the following points:
1) The left does not automatically grow alongside resistance to the system. Growth depends on choices about tactics and forms of organisation, an ability to relate to new movements, and a capacity for fresh thinking about a changing world.
2) There is a gap between the political upturn of the last decade or so and the state of the radical left. Mass movements, political radicalisation and widespread distrust of establishment institutions have not led to growth for the radical left. There are factors beyond our control which influence this, but it's partly because of weaknesses in the established Left. A period bracketed by emergent anti-capitalism and the start of the 'war on terror' at one end and the financial crisis and mass austerity at the other end has not led to a stronger radical left.
3) The radical left in Europe is currently struggling more than it is flourishing. There is unevenness, with the radical left in a number of southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) having greater 'social weight' than elsewhere, though there are still substantial problems in these countries. Italy provides the most powerful example of a mistaken approach and subsequent collapse, but Spain fares little better. Germany's Die Linke is contradictory but relatively successful.
4) There are both similarities and differences between the post-1968 period and the current period. It is not self-evident today that the working class - organised in the trade unions, deploying tactics of mass strikes and rank and file militancy - is central to social change in the way it was to large numbers of young activists four decades ago. The centrality of the organised working class remains a largely abstract argument.
5) Our starting point for analysis has to be the current shape and conditions of the working class. There is an urgent need to engage with contemporary reality. There will not be a simple repetition of historical experiences when new resistance movements develop.
6) Leninism remains marginal. We need a Left that relates to wider layers of the working class in resisting capitalism, but also offers a consistently anti-systemic perspective and articulates alternatives. But while Marx may be frequently cited as an analyst of capitalist crisis, Lenin is more unfashionable than ever. The organised revolutionary left is too small. The anti-socialist backlash following the end of the Cold War has been an important factor in this.
7) We can't have a 'non-ideological Left'. It isn't sufficient to declare ideology dead in the name of 'left unity'. Political questions will always emerge - and need to be addressed. Islamophobia and Libya are good examples. Political and theoretical clarity will always be essential for the radical left.
8) Cadre can be conservative. Lenin's old, familiar warning about the dangers of conservatism in an organisation's cadre is especially relevant now. This is because we've had such a long period of the radical left being on the margins and industrial struggle remaining very low. It is far from automatic that long-time socialists will be able to relate to current problems.
9) The unions remain weak. There is a particular problem with the decline of the trade union movement - with increased bureaucratisation, a low level of combativity and the casework-dominated nature of life for most reps. This inevitably finds expression inside the organised left.
10) Much of the left expresses a mixture of economism and propagandism. In his summing up in the video, Bambery cites Tony Cliff's comment about how Scottish communist Willie Gallacher operated during World War One: for six days a week he was a radical trade unionist and on Sundays he propagandised for socialism. This approach is particularly at odds with a context characterised by a high level of politics but still a low level of strikes, in which trade unionists tend to make an impact precisely when they ally with other groups and address political issues.
11) The radical left in the UK has failed key tests. Specifically, Bambery refers to failures in building out of the student protests of late 2010 and developing a credible response to August's riots. There is a particular tendency to intervene in campaigns and disputes from the outside, reduced to the level of selling publications and trying (with little success) to recruit new members.
12) The left has to relate to the most advanced sections. When new waves of resistance develop, 'revolutionaries have to base themselves within that section of the working class that is in the vanguard of the struggle'. In the early and mid 1970s, for example, that meant orienting on mainly younger militant workers - some of them union reps but some not, many of them in white-collar areas of work not traditionally associated with militancy - who weren't part of the older, increasingly bureaucratised, layers in the unions.
13) In the UK there are fresh opportunities for left unity and renewal. But it won't be done by simply cobbling together the existing fragments of the organised left. Any new electoral formations will develop out of the anti-austerity movement and involve new forces, steered primarily by a younger generation which isn't stuck in the disputes of previous periods.
Developing some key themes
I want to develop my own thoughts about three recurring themes in Chris Bambery's analysis: the shape of resistance today, realigning the Left, and internationalism.
The shape of resistance
If the left is to grow then it needs an accurate grasp of forms of resistance in today's world. A striking characteristic of recent resistance is the tactic of the mass occupation of public space: from Madrid to Tunis, Athens to Cairo, Wall Street to Santiago, youth-led demonstrations in public squares are pretty much the trademark tactic of 2011.
More generally - and this is a long term pattern - it's clear that street demonstrations have been a prominent form of resistance across a range of issues. This is true of the anti-austerity movement: the 26 March demo indicated the unions can mobilise on a large scale on the streets, at a time when there was still insufficent confidence to strike.
We have had 20 years of historically low strike levels. That is thankfully now changing, but it flies in the face of reality for anyone to think strike action is now the dominant form of resistance just because of the prospect of N30.
Union density in the private sector is 1 in 6. The power of the union bureaucracy in relation to the grassroots has, over the last 30 years or more, increased dramatically. The unions are shackled by anti-union laws. Reps are bogged down in casework, with a shift over time from collective action to individual remedies like employment tribunals. Some unions haven't had any strike action at all for many years.
The workplace is increasingly becoming a key site of resistance, but it won't replace other forms of struggle. Rather we can expect strikes to complement - and gain strength from - the protests, marches and occupations. There's still a common idea on the left that 'real power' is in the workplaces - other forms of resistance are a sort of prelude to what really matters, which is mass strikes.
Revolutionaries, however, argue that confronting (and contending for) state power is the highest form of struggle. A mass strike becomes more powerful when it rises to this level and becomes an overtly political confrontation. The fusion of economic and political struggles is especially vital.
The left has to constantly forge connections between trade unionists and different groups. The strengths in one area have to be brought into other areas: the most advanced sections must set the pace for everyone else. The emergence of strike action in the public sector is hugely hopeful, but it must be allied to a broader general anti-cuts movement that can't be dismissed as sectional, self-interested or single-issue, that isn't overly reliant on the whims of the union bureaucracy.
Realigning the left
I am, like Bambery, rooted in the distinctive strand in the history of British Trotskyism associated with Tony Cliff, i.e. the International Socialist tradition. But why would anyone in 2011 define themselves - and their relationship to the wider Left, movements or class - according to theories developed in the post-WW2 world which are now largely of historical interest?
Elements of these theories are still relevant. Most notably, Cliff's theory of state capitalism enables marxists to defend our tradition against the still widespread assumption that marxism - or more precisely Leninism - can be written off because of the legacy of Stalinism. A revised, updated and accessible version of it is therefore essential.
But you can't possibly define your political stance in 2011 with reference to state capitalism, deflected permanent revolution and the arms economy (if you aren't familiar with these terms, that perhaps illustrates my point).
The crucial issues defining today's left are different. At the theoretical and political levels there are many important issues to engage with: Islamophobia, Libya and 'humanitarian intervention', climate change, the rise of China, the working class today, struggles in Latin America, and so on.
Just as importantly, there are questions of political strategy. Sects build nothing. We need a Left that participates in and strives to influence the wider resistance that develops, identifying political priorities and locating where it can be most effective.
The development of any movement is not blind. It requires conscious intervention and organisation. And that means a stronger left, but specifically a Left that grasps current realities and can adapt and renew itself accordingly.
Internationalism
The importance of internationalism is implicit in Bambery's comments, but it's worth foregrounding this and making it explicit. There are two current political reasons for this.
One is that austerity is pan-European, and the resistance to it will be stronger if internationally co-ordinated. Tomorrow's Europe Against Austerity event is not just another conference. It is a unique opportunity to get our act together as an international movement and co-ordinate resistance.
The other reason is the continuing centrality of imperialism and the 'war on terror' to global politics. Crisis, austerity, revolutions in the Arab world, imperialism and the anti-Muslim backlash are the defining features of our epoch.
Anti-imperialism has to remain a priority for the left, not simply at the level of propaganda but as a guide to action. This means building an anti-war movement, regardless of the level of mobilisation being far lower than during its peak period. This is also, for those of us inside the imperialist countries, the most important and practical way for us to demonstrate solidarity with the Arab revolutions. The closely-related Palestinian solidarity movement is also politically important, now more than ever.
Localism and parochialism are problems in the anti-cuts movement. There are chronic problems with achieving national co-ordination, while too much of the Left is allowing an astonishingly good opportunity for international co-ordination - tomorrow's conference - to largely pass them by.
Austerity is imposed by central government. It is framed by an international crisis. National and international co-ordination and solutions are thus indispensable.
Furthermore, the Left's task has to be to make connections and raise the political level everywhere: bring anti-imperialism into the anti-cuts movement, argue within anti-war circles for participation in anti-austerity struggles, and so on. Politics remains central: not as a propaganda exercise, but as a living, integral part of every act of resistance.
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Thursday, 29 September 2011
The Fire This Time
Islands of youth dissent
The above quote is from an article in The Guardian on 13 August, one week after Tottenham erupted in riots. It was called 'A hunger for change - how youth-led revolts shook elites around the world.'
These 'islands of youth dissent' include the riot-torn communities in this country, but more importantly the occupied public squares of Madrid, Athens and elsewhere. Above all, the phrase refers to the sites of revolution and popular uprisings in the Arab world - the subject of this article - where the levels of politicisation and struggle have been highest.
Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight's economics editor, has referred to 2011 as the year it all kicked off. In not only the Arab world but Greece, Spain, Chile, Wisconsin and elsewhere - even here with the student revolts, the massive TUC demonstration on 26 March, public sector strikes on 30 June (and with more to come on 30 November) - there has been a shift in the level of resistance.
The Guardian article I opened with went on:
"The philosopher who coined the term "Black Swan event" - denoting a hugely consequential event that is utterly unpredictable and can only be explained afterwards - was recently asked by Jeremy Paxman whether the violence on the streets of Athens fell into that category. He demurred - and said that the real Black Swan event was that more people weren't rioting elsewhere."
Many of the root causes of anger have indeed been similar, if to varying degrees. There are both economic and political factors at work. Economic motors of revolt include rising food prices, privatisation, growing inequality and - a key element in explaining the generational dynamics - the phenomenon of rising graduate and youth unemployment.
The sense of a 'lost generation', disproportionately victims of the economic crisis and austerity, is unmistakable. It is no coincidence that anti-austerity revolt in this country first found expression in student protests and a wave of college occupations (in November-December 2010).
Political motors of revolt vary in degree. It is true that Western democracies are different to the old authoritarian regimes of Ben Ali, Mubarak, Saleh, Al-Assad and Gaddafi. In the Arab world repression, censorship and overt authoritarian rule were crucial drivers of revolt. But in countries like Greece and Spain the revolts articulate a deep sense of alienation from political structures, of democracy having been hollowed out.
The Arab revolutions are marked by the intertwining of political struggles - focused on democracy - and economic struggles. There is a fusion of economic and political, of young protesters and workers, of the streets and the workplaces. Such fusion is hardly the exclusive preserve of Arab countries.
Tunisia and Egypt
In their new book 'The People Demand: a short history of the Arab revolutions', John Rees and Joseph Daher identify three overlapping phases in the development of the Arab revolutions.
Firstly, the victorious revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. These saw rapid victories as a result of massive demonstrations. In both these revolutionary movements, strikes also played a critical role in the final days before the old regime fell. They were victories for the democratic revolution but also - from the start - raised economic demands.
US and western imperialism were helpless, incapable of a coherent response. Cracks in the ruling elite, including in the top brass of the armed forces, weakened the old order - and emboldened the revolutionaries.
The revolutions inspired uprisings in the wider Arab world. When I visited the occupied West Bank in late February, I asked one of our Palestinian hosts "Are you hopeful about the future of Palestine?" He said yes, so I asked why. He gave a one-word answer: "Egypt". Millions of people elsewhere in the region felt the same hope about not just Palestine, but the destiny of their own country.
The Tunisian and Egypt revolutions have in fact continued, beyond the toppling of Ben Ali on 14 January and Mubarak on 11 February, but with a sharp process of class-based and political differentiation. Moderate elements of the democratic revolution are now emphasising continuity rather than change.
There is a recurring conflict between the elites and the streets. In Cairo, it is between the army council (and its political allies) and the 'Republic of Tahrir', i.e. the alternative model of popular power and participatory democracy embodied by the protesters who keep returning to Tahrir Square.
The continuing struggles concern economics and politics. Workers have raised independent class demands, but there is also the ongoing movement for genuine democratic reform. Different visions of democracy are constantly in competition. The question is posed: their democracy or ours?
Imperialism and counter-revolution
Secondly, there was the imperialist, or counter-revolutionary, backlash. This took two main forms - and at almost exactly the same time.
In mid-March the western powers, led by France, Britain and the US, exploited weaknesses in Libya's revolution and - desiring influence in the revolutionary process, to curtail it rather than to advance it - moved in. The NATO intervention was undoubtedly a turning point, altering the character of the Libyan revolt profoundly, but also shifting the balance of forces in the broader Arab world.
You only have to observe the aftermath of the fall of Tripoli to recognise this is politically very different from the victories of January-February. The dominant elements in Libya's TNC are former members of the Gaddafi regime - these are the people with existing links to the Western powers, after all.
The bombing of Libya has resuscitated the case for 'humanitarian intervention' which was so discredited by Iraq and Afghanistan. Tony Blair feels confident about calling for 'regime change' in Iran and Syria. This is unlikely to happen, but it's a marker of the shifting ideological terrain.
Almost exactly simultaneous to the Libya intervention, Saudi troops entered Bahrain to help the Bahraini authorities crush that country's uprising. Saudi Arabia is an ally of the US and Britain, with close military, diplomatic and trade links.
While in Libya Western intervention played the key role, in Bahrain it was the neighbouring Gulf states which repressed the uprising - but with the tacit approval of the West. US defense secretary Robert Gates gave the 'green light' to US allies in the Gulf for the crushing of the Bahraini movement, at the same time as gearing up for the bombardment of Libya (supposedly to 'protect the revolution').
John Rees and Joseph Daher put it like this:
"The aim in both cases was the same: to crush and control the emerging revolutionary processes. In Bahrain this was achieved by straightforward repression. In Libya the military intervention was used to corral and control the revolutionary process. The result has been to impede the march of revolution everywhere - in Syria and Yemen, as well as in Bahrain and Libya. The dictators have dug in."
Freedom for Palestine
Thirdly, a new phase in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine has opened up. The turning point here was also mid-March. While NATO bombing of Libya and the crushing of Bahrain's uprising were setbacks for the whole movement, the "15th of March Movement" in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was a vastly more hopeful development.
The new, youth-led, movement for Palestinian unity dovetailed with developments in neighbouring Egypt. The interim regime in Egypt is under popular pressure to break from the old cosy relationship with Israel and deliver solidarity to the Palestinians. It is an issue about which millions of Egyptians are passionate.
The Egyptian regime played the pivotal role in engineering a unity deal between Fatah (dominant in the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority), Hamas (ruling party in Gaza) and other political groups. Only Egypt has such authority in the region to do this. Recent claims about Turkey's role as a regional superpower, while reflecting real forces, need to be kept in perspective.
The youth movement inside the occupied territories and the popular pro-Palestinian protests in Egypt have called for unity between Fatah and Hamas, but often also for a renewal of resistance to Israel (sometimes dubbed a ‘Third Intifada’) and for broader unity across the whole Palestinian people and the Arab world. There is pressure on the established Palestinian leadership from within the Palestinian community (notably the 15th of March movement) and from outside, in the form of a post-Mubarak Egypt.
Egypt’s revolution has opened up space in which a post-Mubarak foreign policy can be debated. The demonstrations outside Cairo’s Israeli Embassy – with the Israeli flag twice being removed by protesters as a powerful symbol of popular support for Palestine – exert pressure on the army council, which historically has close ties with the US and a conciliatory attitude to Israel.
The debate inside Egyptian society helped form the conditions in which a unity deal was possible. There are problems with it - just as there are problems with the current bid for Palestinian 'statehood' - but it nevertheless poses a serious challenge to Israel and US interests in the region. The imperial architecture of the Arab world is changing.
What next?
We can see, then, how the Arab revolutionary wave is the most acute expression of a global revolt. Driven by political authoritarianism and economic hardship, young people have played a central role, though in a broad movement which has witnessed strike waves and the emergence of new workers' organisations - as well as the mass occupations of public spaces, which have become the signature of modern youth-led revolts.
The politics of north Africa and the middle east is being re-shaped. This has profound consequences for the West, in particular for US imperialism. The heady days of revolutionary success in January-February have been followed by three processes: political differentiation in Tunisia and Egypt; the imperialist, counter-revolutionary backlash in Libya and Bahrain; and the opening of a new chapter in the movement for Palestinian freedom.
Imperialism has been weakened, but we have learnt - if we didn't know it already - that powerful Western states won't just sit back and let revolutionary change happen in the most geopolitically and strategically important region of the globe. More optimistically, it is also clear that many ordinary people in the region, especially in Egypt and Tunisia, aren't willing to settle for a modest democratic settlement which leaves most of their demands unmet.
In Egypt the revolution continues. On 9 September there was yet another huge demo in Tahrir Square, demanding those responsible for corruption and brutality in the old regime are brought to justice, and more generally pursuing the democratic demands of the 25 January Revolution. There have also been fresh strikes, across a number of sectors, during September.
Two central questions have emerged in Tunisia and Egypt. What kind of democracy are we fighting for? And can change be extended to the economic sphere?
The latter question isn't just about driving out the 'workplace Mubaraks' - corrupt, rich old bosses linked to the former regime. It is about demands for jobs, a living wage and improved workers' rights. More deeply, it concerns fundamental questions of power in a capitalist society.
These are the questions that students of past revolutions would expect to arise. Most revolutions have been limited to struggles for democratic and political reform. The degree of political change has varied, but even in South Africa - where the scale of political change was profound, with the end of apartheid - economic exploitation has remained unaltered.
The Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions have been among the deeper, more profound revolutions of modern times. Think about the vast scale of the demonstrations, the full participation of the working class, the role of strikes, the raising of far-reaching democratic demands and independent class demands, and the continuing momentum of protest since the dictators fell.
These are, furthermore, revolutions happening in a very different context to the upheavals of 1989-94. As revolts against regimes which were simultaneously neoliberal and allied to the West, their effect has been to shift the balance of forces against US imperialism and neoliberal capitalism. This is the opposite of the impact - politically, economically and ideologically - of the eastern European revolutions over two decades ago. The Libya intervention has shifted this balance in the opposite direction, but only up to a point.
In both countries there has been an element of a 'second revolution' opening up within the larger revolutionary process, one that aims at deeper democratic change and seeks to extend the revolution to economic relations, and in which the working class is central. But this process prompts very serious questions about the role of organisation and politics.
John Rees and Joseph Daher write about the necessity of two further elements, both to do with independent working class organisation:
"Working class organisation must assume a form that can challenge the state apparatus for power. And a political organisation which popularises this perspective among workers is necessary."
To focus on Egypt, since February there have been three developments which are hopeful and extremely significant in this respect. There has been growth in independent trade unions, new left-wing political parties and grassroots popular assemblies (whether in Tahrir or in local communities). These three elements are all vital in strengthening working class organisation and creating an alternative political pole of attraction to the dominant moderate elements in the new order.
The unions need to be bigger, the left wing parties need to be bigger - and the experiments in democratic assemblies, which have been extremely sporadic, inconsistent and ad hoc, need to be become systematic and co-ordinated. In every revolution it is necessary for the more radical elements - those committed to sustaining the revolutionary process - to create institutional forms which express alternative political programmes and can, at their most advanced, pose a challenge to the power of the state.
The outcome of the revolutions is yet to be settled. Just as importantly, they have inspired and informed the character of revolts elsewhere, including in Europe. In our struggles, especially in opposition to austerity, we can expect resistance to develop in new and dynamic ways. We may yet, in this country, confront some of the same challenges alluded to above.
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Sunday, 25 September 2011
'The People Demand: a short history of the Arab revolutions' - video trailer
Friday, 23 September 2011
Austerity, political attitudes and the opposition
62% of those polled agree "the cuts are too deep and too fast, they will harm Britain's economy more than they help it". That's a significant majority in opposition to the Tory-led coalition's cuts programme. Despite the backing of both coalition parties and a sympathetic media, the arguments for the 'necessity' of austerity are not convincing most people.
The poll findings are issued against the background of a spiralling crisis in the Eurozone, growing domestic fears of a 'double dip' recession and rising unemployment. It is becoming clear to many people that austerity isn't working, but instead suppresses prospects for economic recovery, and disproportionately and unfairly affects the poorest.
George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, has no solutions. Nor do his European counterparts. Governments across Europe are stuck in repeating the austerity mantra and insisting there is no alternative.
51% of those polled say the coalition government is doing a bad job, compared to only 39% in its favour. It is the first time an ICM poll has registered a negative approval rating for this government.
In this context two things are surely inevitable. One is that Labour will have a clear lead over the Tories. The other is that party leader Ed Miliband and Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls will fare better than their Tory opponents in public attitudes. How could they fail to make political capital out of disenchantment with the government?
But fail they do. Labour has a lead of just 1% over the Tories. For reasons best known to pollsters and psephologists, ICM polls always produce a narrower Labour lead than others like YouGov. But it's worth comparing this with previous ICM polls:
'A year ago this month – immediately after Ed Miliband's election to the leadership – Labour was one point lower than today, the Conservatives two points lower and the Lib Dems four points higher.'
After a year of a growing backlash against cuts, Labour support is barely any better. The approval ratings for Miliband and Balls are still more damning. Miliband has a net personal rating of -14, compared to Cameron's +4. Balls is -18 compared to Osborne's -6, a result utterly at odds with the finding that a majority disagree with the Tories' austerity drive.
The discrepancy can be explained by the defining characteristic of the current Labour leadership: vacillation. Miliband and Balls refuse to step outside the narrow terms of polite debate. They repeatedly miss chances to land blows on their Tory opponents, and fail to articulate a consistent alternative to Tory austerity.
Obsessed with the mythical 'centre ground' of politics, Miliband and Balls try to please everyone and end up pleasing nobody. In public perception, they stand for very little - merely a vague, semi-articulated disapproval of aspects of what the government is doing. And that's about it.
Recall the one time when Labour, briefly, appeared to command the political scene. When the hacking scandal emerged Miliband - after a tentative start - adopted a fierce oppositional stance towards the Murdoch empire and Tory collusion with it. Miliband suddenly appeared a strong leader, willing to confront the Tories and raise demands for a different kind of politics.
It didn't last. On the central issue of our age, Labour's front bench is fatally compromised by its refusal to break from the logic of austerity. Neoliberal ideology is, after 13 years of privatisation and deregulation in office, embedded in the parliamentary Labour party; shadow ministers struggle to think outside its confines.
Worst of all, Labour leaders have equivocated on the issue of pensions and not only distanced themselves from the unions but publicly opposed strike action. Their economic policy ends up looking incoherent. They are determined not to be the political wing of the anti-cuts movement, at a time when that would be a popular move. Vacillation is never persuasive.
It may be tempting for us to leave the political arguments aside - and focus purely on using our side's collective strength in the workplaces, with the prospect of nearly 3 million trade unionists potentially taking strike action. But strike action - and other forms of protest - must be accompanied by engagement in the battle of ideas.
When it comes to cuts, politics runs through everything. There is a close relationship between challenging the dominant austerity myths and people's confidence to resist. If Miliband and Balls won't rally support around consistent anti-cuts arguments and alternatives to austerity, we must create a movement - on the streets and in workplaces - that does just that.
The unfolding European crisis illustrates the urgency of that task - and reminds us of the need for a pan-European political alternative. The creation of a broad movement, with a clear political rejection of all cuts at its core, is required at local, national and international levels.
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Urgent: one week to build Europe Against Austerity
Europe is facing its biggest crisis since the 1930s.
Commentators are admitting the situation is desperate, and that politicians are paralysed. Austerity is driving the economies back towards recession and increasing debt - and in the case of Greece possible collapse.
A Greek default looks almost certain - and soon. In Greece this will mean mass unemployment and immiseration not seen in Europe since the 1930s. It will threaten the European banking system and will send shockwaves through the rest of the world economy.
The European conference against austerity - in London on Saturday 1 October - will now be an emergency conference on the euro crisis and in solidarity with the people of Greece.
Leading activists are coming from all parts of the movement from the German Left Party to the Indignados from Spain. The Portuguese Left Bloc is sending an MP and trade union delegates are coming from all over the continent.
Olivier Besancenot, a leading figure in the New Anticapitalist Party in France, will be there alongside striking Le Havre dockworkers. It could be a historic conference which can start co-ordinating resistance across Europe.
People are now signing up fast online. Two days ago the Greek teachers union got in touch to say that they are sending representatives. Yesterday they were on strike.
If asked, most groups here will send delegations. Cambridge trades council report there will be delegations from a number of the local unions. A delegation of at least 20 is expected from the Oxford anti cuts movement.
Westminster Unison is contacting all its members to organise a delegation as is Ipswich PCS (civil service union) and an East London teachers' union. 5000 leaflets have been distributed by the University of London Union.
Counterfire is urging all members and supporters to go flat out to build the event from now. We need to make sure everyone understands how urgent the situation is and what a difference the conference could make.
As well as ensuring local activists we know are coming and promoting the conference on facebook, e-mail and twitter we should be contacting local anti cuts groups, Stop the War groups, UK Uncut, pensioners' groups, trades councils, trade unions, student unions etc and ask them to organise delegations.
This is a chance the movement can't afford to miss.
Register for the Europe Against Austerity conference
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Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Sanum Ghafoor at Counterfire conference
Counterfire had its first national conference at the weekend. Clare Solomon chaired a public event on Saturday evening, addressed by a range of Counterfire activists: Lindsey German, Sean Rillo Raczka, Joshua Virasami, Neil Faulkner and Sanum Ghafoor. You can watch video of the other speeches HERE.
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Saturday, 17 September 2011
#N30 - students pledge to back unions with 'mass direct action'
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts has now called a national education demonstration for Wednesday 9 November, and we will organise for a day of mass direct action and walkouts to coincide with the strike. We will not allow this government to abolish the welfare state and destroy our futures.
Michael Chessum National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, and NUS NEC
Maev McDaid Liverpool guild of students president
Luke Durigan UCL Union education and campaigns officer
Daniel Lemberger-Cooper Royal Holloway students' union president
James Haywood Goldsmith's students' union president
Edward Bauer Birmingham guild education officer
Sean Rillo Raczka University of London union vice-president
Alusine Alpha Bradford students' union treasurer
Mike Williamson Edinburgh students' association education officer
Alan Bailey NUS LGBT officer
Matthew Bond NUS disabled students' campaign
Alex Peters-Day LSE students' union general secretary
Liam Turbett, Aiden Turner and Liam McCombes Free Hetherington Glasgow occupation
James McAsh NCAFC national committee, Edinburgh University
Gordon Maloney NCAFC national committee and NUS Scotland executive
Bob Sutton Liverpool guild of students vice-president
Aaron Peters NCAFC national committee
Claire Lister NCAFC national committee, Birmingham University
Alasdair Thompson STUC youth committee
Alice Swift NCAFC national committee, Birmingham University
Arianna Tassinari SOAS students' union co-president for education and welfare
Amena Amer LSE students' union education officer
Edward Maltby NCAFC national committee, London
Lukas Slothuus LSE students' union welfare and community officer
Via The Guardian
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Friday, 16 September 2011
Cable Street: they did not pass
'Seventy-five years ago, on 4 October 1936, the people of the East End united to stop Sir Oswald Mosley's blackshirted British Union of Fascists from marching through their community. An estimated 100,000 gathered to prevent this parade of anti-semitic hate behind the slogan 'They shall not pass'.
After hours of confrontation, sometimes violent and centred on Cable Street, Mosley was forced to abandon his march. They did not pass!
Philosophy Football's design is based on the original 1936 street sign for Cable Street.'
Available from HERE
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Thursday, 15 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
#N30 - trade unions plan united strike for pensions
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| Marching together on 30 June |
On 30 June civil service union PCS, teacher unions NUT and ATL and lecturers' union UCU held a co-ordinated national strike involving over half a million people. They plan futher national strike action in November.
But today's announcement by the big battalions of Unison, Unite and GMB holds out the hope of a huge escalation in the campaign to protect pensions. Other unions balloting for action are the Fire Brigades Union, teachers' NASUWT, Scottish teachers' EIS, senior civil service union FDA and Northern Ireland's NIPSA.
There have been strikes by local government workers in Birmigham, Southampton and Doncaster. But their unions, most importantly Unison which has over a million members across local government and the NHS, have previously held back from national strike action.
TUC leader Brendan Barber announced the date as 30 November following a special meeting of public sector unions immediately after TUC conference. National co-ordination is vital to confront a concerted government effort to make workers pay more, work longer and get less.
The announcement of a ballot by Unison general secretary Dave Prentis was greeted by a standing ovation at the TUC. Prentis has recently shown he can retreat rapidly from good rhetoric. There must now be huge grassroots pressure to turn words into action. The stakes could hardly be higher.
Ed Miliband's pathetic stance on the strikes has already been thrown back at him by the Tories in prime minister's question time. This sort of behaviour by Labour leaders is bad enough at any time, but when strikes are clearly on the horizon it leaves him irrelevant - and himself part of a 'squeezed middle' who will become increasingly weak and marginal.
Unity is key - across the public sector unions and reaching out to the private sector. As PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said today: "We have always said that the more united we are, the harder it will be for the government to push through their ideologically-driven and damaging cuts. This is not just a fight for public servants, we want fair pensions for all."
Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary, has emphasised the need to link up with private sector workers over pensions, especially since the government is trying to divide and rule over supposedly 'gold plated' public sector pensions. Given the weakness of union organisation in the private sector, this is an essential part of building a movement across the whole working class. McCluskey has also stressed the need for a coalition of resistance, which can give a boost to the international conference against austerity on Saturday 1 October.
There will now need to be jointly-organised mass campaign rallies and protests throughout the country. These can be on a much bigger scale than before. Trade union activists will be campaigning for the highest possible Yes vote.
The pensions dispute is for the whole anti-cuts movement, not just public sector trade unionists. It is our movement's best chance to strike a blow against this government's austerity drive.
Also published at Counterfire
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