Blogs

Report back from the Right to Work conference

Last Saturday saw the second Right to Work conference take place in Manchester City Centre. Held across two venues; the Methodist Central Hall on Oldham street and the historic Mechanics Institute, it was billed by its organisers as “a conference of resistance and solidarity” in the face of the economic crisis.

The Right to Work campaign has its origins in the SWP, and is a revamp of a similar front it ran in the early 80s. It appears that in the wettest dreams of the SWP central committee, the campaign will be the recession-themed answer to the Stop the War coalition, and provide a similar profile boost.

John Rety 1930-2010

I'm sad to announce that John Rety, ex editor of Freedom and poetry editor for the Morning Star, died last night after a heart attack.

John is today best known for his role in London's poetry scene, as co-founder of Torriano Nights, but he played a lasting role in the British anarchist movement from his arrival in the country in 1947, throwing himself into its various publications, including a lengthy stint as the editor of Freedom newspaper.

The irresistible correctness of anarchism - working class opposition to Mussolini

A lengthy critique of the SWP's attempt to rewrite the history of the resistance to Italian fascism in the early 1920s as well as the revolutionary Red Years after World War I. An important, if not well known, bit of anarchist history.

Original here: http://anarchism.pageabode.com/anarcho/the-irresistible-correctness-of-anarchism

The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini, Tom Behan, Bookmarks, 2003, £8

"If the anarchists are not careful, their enemies will write their history" (Gaetano Salvemini) [1]

Workers' struggles in China (January 2010 Part 2)

Summaries and links to news reports of workers' struggles around China (now including Hong Kong) in the last half of January.

Listed by date, most recent first.

Article in Chinese magazine urging collective bargaining.
http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100649

28th:

Staff at a Panasonic factory in Beijing are demonstrating to demand better severance pay.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-01/28/content_9390550.htm

26th:

Workers' struggles in Asia (January 2010 Part 2)

Summary and links to news stories of workers' struggles around Asia (excluding mainland China and Hong Kong) in the last half of January.

Sorted by country in alphabetical order.

Cambodia

25th: A union plans demonstrations and strikes over the murder of one of their leaders was killed.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010012531034/National-news/chea-mony-strike-must-follow-the-law-ministry.html
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1162315&lang=eng_news

No light, no water and now not very much money...what next for Venezuela?

A currency devaluation, military expropriations, demonstrations, resignations, TV channel closures, more demonstrations – it’s been an eventful start to 2010 in Venezuela.

The country hadn’t even returned to work from the Christmas break when they were hit by the first coñazo, that being the devaluation of the bolívar from 2.15/US$1 to 2.6/US$1.

Who We Are

The Manchester Class Struggle Forum is an open coming together of workers, students and unemployed persons from different backgrounds and class struggle political tendencies in the North West - Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire. It is a meeting place open to all who wish to discuss and debate political questions from radical perspectives in a friendly atmosphere.

Generation Kill, by David Simon & Ed Burns

This deadpan account of a US Marine company’s exploits encapsulates for Tom Jennings the baleful banality of the Iraq war.

Mesopotamian MASH-Up. Television review – Tom Jennings

Donate to libcom.org

We have finally sorted out our PayPal account, so if you have been thinking about giving us a donation, now it's easy!

Our Donate page has finally been updated with working PayPal details:
http://libcom.org/notes/donate

Due to this technical problem which has taken us a ridiculous amount of time to get round to fixing, last year we only received two one-off donations of £10 - meanwhile as our popularity grows our hosting costs continue to rise.

Chavez: When red and yellow don't make green

It may seem like an age ago now in the midst of all the subsequent economic tumult over here, but I wanted to write about Chávez’ recent rhetorical excursion at the emergency Climate Change summit in Copenhagen last month.

Never the one to spare any expense or effort on PR, the Venezuelan President first managed to address a group of Danish leftists through a translator (a somewhat ad hoc exercise in rabble-rousing which turned into a succession of "Vivas!" for his anti-imperialist allies, with Iran a curious omission).

Music of 2009

For those of you with Spotify installed on your computers (pretty nifty if you can cope with the targetted ads), here's a playlist of some of the best music of 2009:

http://open.spotify.com/user/skumbot/playlist/6AiYIt4Kw7T4MAfl4e8aOU

Alternatively, if you'd rather look for the albums online, here's my picks of the year:

Subway - Subway
Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Workers' struggles in Asia (January 2010)

Summary and links to news stories of workers' struggles around Asia (exluding mainland China) in the first month of the decade (as of the 16th of January).

Sorted by country in alphabetical order.

Cambodia

Workers at a shoe factory walk out over sacking of union officials.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010011430831/National-news/workers-at-shoe-factory-pledge-to-extend-protest-against-firings.html
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010011530872/National-news/shoe-factory-protesters-turn-up-heat.html

Hong Kong

Workers' struggles in China (January 2010)

Summaries and links to news reports of workers' struggles around China in the first month of the decade (as of the 16th of January).

Listed by date, most recent first.

15th:
Workers striking over unpaid wages in Suzhou, Jiangsu province smashed vehicles and blocked roads.
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/01/workers-riot-in-suzhou/
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/16/content_12818239.htm

14th:
Protest over a death during a forced land eviction in Pizhou, Jiangsu province.

Ben Goldacre debunks media claims about the Public Sector "gravy train"

Some of you may have noticed a pair of stories in the Sunday Times and the Telegraph respectively claiming that "public sector pay is racing ahead in the recession".

The stories claim that public sector workers earn on average 7% more than their counterparts in the private sector, despite declining productivity. The message is straightforward enough. In the words of Graeme Leach, chief economist and director of policy at the Institute of Directors, “It is ridiculous that pay and perks have risen when public sector productivity has fallen.