Rising Revolt - French Workers Show The Way

Events in France over the last 48 hours show that whatever the ruling class of Europe thought they could get away with in terms of making the ordinary people pay for the profligacy, recklessness and irresponsibility of the bankers (and their tame government stooges) is now seriously being questioned. This is immensely heartening.
After the people of Iceland showed what they felt and drove the neo-liberal government there from office - and Greek workers and farmers have used the example of their students and youth to go on the offensive against the capitalists - the general strike in France shows that the stakes are being raised. This crisis of capitalism gives immense opportunities, the likes of which have not been seen for a couple of generations, for a reshaping of the world into something where workers and ordinary people, not banks, corporations and corrupt politicians set the agenda.

The IMF report this week showed the scale of what is faced - and showed how in Britain this crisis is likely to be deeper, longer lasting and more consequential than elsewhere. Quite clearly this "recession" (the "D" word is still only hinted at) is said to be going to be worse than any of those of the 70s, 80s or 90s in Britain.

However, although it seems that it takes longer for the working class of Britain to rouse itself than in other parts of continental Europe, the ruling class here should not be complacent, things are beginning to move. The angry walk-outs over social dumping and job cuts that have sprung up this week are a sign of the new mood. Gordon Brown's attempt at whipping up nationalism and racism - "British jobs for British Workers" - is quoted back at him in a new and more dangerous (for him) context in relation to corporate plans to replace local labour.

Obviously there are dangers here also for the workers, in that little petty nationalists and fascists will see the nature of the dispute that has started in Lincolnshire and Teeside as a massive opportunity for the propagation of their ideas. However - the left and union activists should not allow this to happen - this is not an issue primarily about "National interest" or immigration, but about the capitalist class acting in its usual immoral and insensitive way to use working people as pawns in their money-making game. It is also about the labour laws of the new European Capitalist superstate that have been opposed in campaigns led by the likes of the RMT

Meanwhile, the ruling class fall to arguing amongst themselves - hurrah! - Obama (either because he does not see it as good PR at the moment or because he really is pursuing a different agenda) shuns the depressed elite jamboree at Davos and various others grandstand and stage walkouts there.

The opportunity is arising for raising more radical demands than it has been possible to get a hearing for for many a long year. These demands - that workers should not pay the price of the crisis, that economic democracy is something that should be taken seriously and explored, that politics should not be about swapping representatives of the same plutocratic class every few years that their inevitable corruption becomes blatant and that transition to a new "green" economy must be worker-led and socially just - can unite the disparate elements of the left and workers' organisations in Britain and begin to make the challenges that our European comrades are making. When this process gets going in enough countries we will begin to see the marvellous change in consciousness where huge masses of people begin to see that another world truly is possible.

Weekly Links 27/01/2009

Lots of interesting, exciting, and scary developments around the world this week as the impact of the conjoined economic/ecological/resource/political crises becomes stronger. In the developed world, one of the places that is experiencing most change and that consequently has most possibilities at the moment is Iceland. The government has been under increasing pressure from mass protest and revolt, and this has continued despite the calling of an election for May. It now seems that the existing government has collapsed to be replaced by a caretaker regime until the elections - more on Indymedia here. Derek had a piece earlier this week about the Icelandic Green Left Party, riding a wave of popularity in the current crisis. A comprehensive bit of analysis from the AVPS blog here.

Repression and resistance continue to develop in Italy where the hard right government and its fascist outriders face a developing independent radical movement that has tired of the timid and backtracking Parliamentary reformism of the established parties. See here and here

In Nepal, the authoritarian militarists of the Maoist movement are facing increasing workers opposition to their attempts to impose Chinese style state capitalism on the country. It seems they are responding in the usual vicious Maoist manner and encountering growing resistance from rival "left" factions.

Britain
This weekend saw the Convention of The Left Recall Conference and the Progressive London Conference.

Jim reported on the London event here and here.

Meanwhile, A Very Public Sociologist reported this week on the dispute at "Britain's Left Wing Daily", the Morning Star.

Unions
There is a major left-right battle in the Unite Union over the election for General Secretary of the Amicus side of the union. More from Derek here.

Gaza
Mobilisations and demos on the Gaza issue continue across the UK, with a current focus on exposing and attcking the blatant bias of the BBC and Sky blocking the Disasters Emergency Committee Gaza Appeal broadcast. Some enterprising researcher dug up this revealing piece from 2005 that sheds light on the so-called "non-partisan" approach of the BBC Director General.

Meanwhile the Green Party of England and Wales published this condemnation of the BBC's position.

Weekly Links 17/11/2008

Television
The waiting is over! Two long awaited drama serials are set to start on terrestrial TV in Britain this week - the remake of Terry Nation's seminal apocalyptic series Survivors, which I have blogged on before, and the English Civil War story The Devil's Whore by the man who created the brilliant Our Friends In the North.
The BBC is due to air its first episode of Survivors on Sunday 23rd November.
Channel 4 air the first episode of The Devil's Whore on Wednesday 19th November.
Here is a topical (see later) piece by Ronan Bennett on The Devils Whore.

I am very excited by both of these series and will report back in due course, along with posting more links on both.


British Republicanism
Graham Smith, of Republic returns to the fray at the Guardian Comment is Free site this week after a Republican article by him last week got a massive response, pro and anti.

"You may have seen reports that prince Charles wishes to become an activist-King. Not content with meddling in political debates and haranguing ministers as heir to the throne, he craves power and influence at the highest level, but wants to be spared the inconvenience of an election. In the article I argue that a politically active King would be tantamount to winding the clocks back on centuries of gradual democratic reform. The only answer of course is the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a democratic alternative."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/17/prince-charles-monarchy

Graham blogs here.

Workers and Unions
This is from Eric Lee at Labourstart -
I doubt if many of you regularly buy leather goods sold by Prada, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry and Nicole Farhi. These are luxury brands, priced too high for ordinary working people like us.

But the people who make those products are often low-paid, non-union workers. When those workers stand up and fight for their rights, it's our responsibility to stand with them.

Earlier this year, hundreds of workers at the Turkish leather manufacturer DESA -- which produces for all the luxury brands mentioned above -- joined a union. The reaction of the company was fierce: 44 union members were sacked, and 50 more compelled to quit the union.

Nevertheless, the workers have stood firm, holding daily protests outside the factory. Local police have been called in to arrest them, and bribes offered to union leaders to call off the demonstrations.
Families have been threatened.

Workers at DESA need a union urgently. They complain of poverty wages, long hours and terrible health and safety conditions.

Please take a moment to send off a message to DESA's customers -- the luxury fashion brands -- telling them that you support the DESA workers in their struggle:

http://www.labourstart.org/desa

Tell them that a union is right, not a luxury.

Thanks - and spread the word!

Eric Lee

Green Politics
The German Green Party, much reduced after its years of historic compromise has elected a new broom as co-leader.

This from the BBC -

The first ethnic Turkish head of a German political party has dismissed any comparisons between himself and US President-elect Barack Obama.

Cem Ozdemir, who was elected co-leader of the Green Party at the weekend, told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper such comparisons were "inappropriate".

Closer to home, the Green Party Trade Union Group's latest bulletin is now out.

Lefty Politics
For us lefty trainspotter types, there are some interesting, dare I say even slightly original (if still mainly plagiaristic)new boys on the block of lefty politics these days - for example the International Luxemburgist Network and in Britain The Commune, Group of International Communists who put a libertarian socialist motion to the recent Labour Representation Committee conference -

Social Ownership and Workers Self-Management

After years of being told 'There is No Alternative', the crisis of global capital has shown that the entire system can be brought into question. Furthermore the widespread state intervention to preserve finance capital has brought into question previously conceived ideas of nationalisation and "public ownership" traditionally accepted in the labour movement.

As part of developing a vision of a viable alternative to capitalism our movement needs to develop new ideas of social ownership and abandon statist conceptions which have proven to be an historical failure.

1. State ownership, no matter what pseudonym it goes under is not social ownership. They are in fact two counter-posed things: one cannot equate the state with society.

2. The state is not a neutral force concerned only with the welfare of society and possessing the ability and the means to take measures suited to this end. The state
is not a vehicle to achieve 'socialism' and cannot be relied upon to act as a protective shield against capital.

The capitalist system, whether in its private or state forms of appearance, does not and cannot work in the interest of the majority. It is an unjust system, an economic tyranny where the rulers at all levels make the crucial economic decisions that affect our lives, solely on the basis of what will increase their profits and promote their interests. The Labour Representation Committee considers that the people who should have the deciding voice on the economy and its problems are the people most directly connected with it, the workers who produce the goods and services.

As such the Labour Representation Committee sets as it goal a system of genuine social ownership, organised on the basis of workers' self-management, a system of participatory democracy based on the sovereignty of those who produce the goods and services in society.

Conference recognises that if we are to realise the slogan 'another world is possible' workers' self-management is a necessity in the creation of a new cooperative society based on common, social ownership. Workers' self-management is not something which can be proclaimed or enacted from above, nor is there a blueprint. It requires a process of social self-organisation and creativity from below.

The publication of Building a new common sense, Social Ownership in the 21st Century is a welcome initiative in helping rejuvenate discussion of these issues in the movement.

Conference agrees:

1. To hold a series of forums and conferences on the question of social ownership and workers' self-management, with LEAP and fraternal organisations.

2. To publish a series of pamphlets on making the case for social ownership and workers' self-management, drawing on historical, international and contemporary experiences of the working class.

3. To develop with affiliated trades unions the case for workers' self-management in specific industries.

4. From these discussions and debates to take forward a campaign for workers' selfmanagement and social ownership

International
Interesting blogging here on the situation in Iceland.

Some updates from my blog on Saturday re

Italy

and

The Paris Demo