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Rail safety

Profit Kills

Renationalise rail now

SEVEN PEOPLE died and more than 70 were injured in the rail crash at Potters Bar on 10 May.

Only the skills of the train driver stopped the incident becoming an even worse disaster.

Government minister Stephen Byers and private rail bosses have been scattering excuses like confetti at a wedding ceremony.

It was an "isolated incident", they claim, or even "it was sabotage".

But Bob Crow, leader of the rail union RMT, says that one of his union members had told rail chiefs weeks before the fatal crash that the track around the suspect points was not in a fit state.

As the interview with a railway engineer on page 2 shows, since privatisation the number of repair workers and inspectors on the rail system has been cut to the bone. Private rail bosses have as their first priority not the travelling public's safety but making the biggest profit.

Thousands of miles of railways in Britain, including busy routes, are in poor condition. As the publicly owned British Rail was split on privatisation into 100 small competing units, Railtrack's main contractors let out work to sub-contractors and sub-sub-contractors.

By the end of 2000, there were 2,000 registered rail infrastructure companies with 84,000 registered temporary workers.

Track staff, permanent workers who knew their local lines, were nearly halved to about 15,000. This system has failed totally.

What has six years of rail privatisation meant for workers in Britain?

A rail system with Europe's worst record on safety. Unsafe, unreliable trains charging passengers sky-high prices. Fat-cat directors paid huge dividends out of massive government subsidies. Rail workers sacked or paid badly.

We say: Put privatised rail bosses in the dock for neglecting safety in their drive for profit. Renationalise rail and transport under the democratic control and management of the workers and users of the rail industry. Compensation should only be paid to shareholders on the basis of proven need. A massive programme of public investment now to improve rail safety and service provision. Rail unions to take action including strikes to force re-nationalisation of the railways onto the agenda and stop PPP privatisation on London's underground.

 

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Israel/Palestine

Stop Sharon's Bloody War

THE ISRAELI army may have withdrawn from towns in the West Bank following its series of brutal invasions but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stranglehold on the occupied territories is far from over.

Judy Beishon

His IDF troops remain around the towns, poised to re-enter at any moment and smaller incursions are being carried out to seek out wanted men and intimidate the Palestinian population.

Having bulldozed houses full of Palestinian families, imposed curfews for weeks and killed anyone who dared to go out to buy milk for their children or medicine for the injured, Sharon declared he had "destroyed the bombing infrastructure" on the West Bank.

But his gloating abruptly ended when a Hamas suicide bomber killed 16 Israeli civilians in a billiard hall in the town of Rishon Letzion.

Far from stopping attacks by Palestinians, Sharon's actions have massively fuelled their anger and will to fight back. For every Palestinian arrested or killed, there are many more prepared to take their place.

The Israeli government has been weighing up whether to escalate the situation further by launching a major offensive on the Gaza strip. After initial plans, they hesitated, realising the difficulties they would face in such a densely populated area and the international outrage that would result.

Ordinary people throughout the world were horrified at the devastation and loss of life during the invasions of West Bank towns such as Nablus and Jenin. A full-scale invasion of Gaza would create an even worse bloodbath.

The Israeli government is holding back for now, but only to discuss how best to complete the destruction of the Palestinian Authority and to try and force the Palestinians into submission through brutal force.

The most ruthless wing of the Israeli government want to see mass expulsions - "transfers" as they put it - of Palestinians out of the occupied territories.

Sharon has just lost a vote in his Likud party's central committee at the hands of his rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, on a resolution rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state.

Sharon wanted to keep formal acceptance of the goal of a state in the government's programme for the sake of public presentation, whereas others wanted to exploit the present increase in fear and insecurity of Israeli Jews to make it clear that a Palestinian state is not on the agenda.

Tragically, further escalation of the bloodshed is likely given the aims of Sharon himself and the pressure from right-wing capitalist politicians around him.

Surrounding countries could be drawn in, resulting in a wider war in the Middle East. Representatives of capitalism in the region and worldwide have no solutions to offer, as none are possible within the confines of their profit-driven system.

The need to build the forces of socialism and to work towards a socialist Israel and a socialist Palestine as part of a socialist confederation of the Middle East has never been more urgent.

How Can A Palestinian State Be Achieved?

National rally for Palestine Saturday 18 May Assemble 12.00 noon, Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park (nearest tube Marble Arch) Rally at Trafalgar Square

 

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Privatisation Has Ruined Rail Safety

A RAILWAY engineer told The Socialist how the safety of passengers and staff has been compromised under privatisation and explained rail workers' attitude towards disaster such as that at Potters Bar.

"IT WILL almost certainly be the poor sod at the bottom who checked those points who'll get clobbered over Potters Bar. They won't even look at corporate responsibility but blame the worker who's probably only been half-trained to do the job.

When you check points and bolts you have to torque up the bolts and make sure they're tight. That almost certainly wasn't done, you can't check them visually. You have to use a torque wrench.

Most rail employees say "Bob Crow was right - you have to renationalise the whole system." On BR you had track walkers as well as people properly testing the bolts, it was all tested. They weren't on the time pressures like contractors are now. Its 'time is money' to them.

Under BR the Divisional Civil Engineer and the Area Civil Engineer were 100% responsible for the track in their area, so they made sure people were trained.

The companies now have a schedule of jobs to do. The contractors rely on part timers and virtually casual labour for larger jobs at weekends. BR had a large core workforce with fully-trained contractors for big jobs - and it had its own direct labour organisation.

BR wasn't perfect but the private contractors cut their core workforce to the bone.

Inspectors and inspection have gone out of the window. These were experienced engineers who did the job for years.

After the Hatfield crash, Corbett [then the Railtrack boss] admitted that the BR engineers had gone. He also admitted they wouldn't come back because they don't agree with the system.

Renationalisation

Rail Safety is an arms-length subsidiary and it hasn't got the engineers to do the surveillance and auditing necessary to make sure the contract conditions are being fully met.

Railtrack carry out audits on all railway contractors. But their auditors don't ask questions and haven't got the in-depth knowledge and expertise to dig around.

Under BR when you signed on as a ganger you were on probation for six months. You would undergo training throughout the entire six months. Now you get a couple of days on this and a couple of days on that and you get a certificate saying you're competent. It's crazy.

Everybody who's been in the industry for any length of time thinks that the whole system is a mess and should be renationalised.

When Byers put Railtrack into administration, a wave of relief swept through workers in the industry because they thought at last something bloody sensible was being done. But it doesn't look like anything will change.

When Bob Crow said take the whole lot into public ownership that struck a chord."

 

Why the Rail Unions Must Strike

AFTER THIS disaster, the RMT and other rail unions must take decisive action in the fight to re-nationalise our railways and stop PPP going ahead on the tube.

Bill Johnson, RMT

How many more disasters like Potters Bar and Hatfield are waiting to happen? How long will it be before Jarvis or Balfour Beatty fail to notice the track breaking up 100 feet underground?

RMT should call an immediate ballot of all rail industry members to take action to demand re-nationalisation of the railways and an end to PPP on the tube.

Members across train operating companies, Railtrack and London Underground have no confidence that they can work in safety if maintenance is contracted out to the private sector.

No 're-organisation' of the system of sub-contracting is acceptable. It does not matter which company wins the contracts. The problem remains - profit and cost cutting is incompatible with a safe railway!

For tube workers Potters Bar is a warning of what privatisation holds in store for us. We cannot allow PPP to go ahead after this latest disaster.

Every sane voice in the country is asking how the government can possibly proceed with PPP by handing responsibility for tube safety to the firms responsible for Hatfield and Potters Bar.

We should take strike action across the industry and hold a demo in London, not a lobby or a candlelight vigil, but a demonstration aimed at mobilising the public.

With the public in uproar at the record of Railtrack and its sub-contractors rail and tube bosses will think twice about running to the courts to try to block strike action but even if they do we should defy them.

The question now is not dare we strike but dare we work on a privatised rail or tube system.

 

The Dangerous World Of Work

A UNITED Nations report says that two million people worldwide die every year from work-related accidents or illness - that's one every 15 seconds! That's nearly double the figures from two years before that report.

It's also higher than the number who are killed by war. 350,000 people died from workplace accidents, 340,000 from hazardous substances and around 100,000 from asbestos.

In Britain, one of the most dangerous industries is construction, including work repairing rail tracks. The Crown Prosecution Service recently said they have "insufficient evidence" to place manslaughter charges after the death in October 2000 of Michael Mungovan, a 22-year old Irish student.

Michael was killed while with an employment agency that sent him to work for Balfour Beatty on a railway track in London. Friends claim that Michael was given insufficient training before starting the job.

Michael Mungovan's case has many similarities with that of Simon Jones, who was killed in 1998 on his first day of work at Shoreham docks.

The Simon Jones Memorial Campaign have produced a film Not This Time - the story of the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign. We will review that film in a future issue.

 

 

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Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE)

Action To Kick Out The BNP Fascists!

THE NEWS that the Nazi BNP had gained three councillors in Burnley has provoked disgust at both national and local level. Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE) is campaigning, on various fronts, for mass united action against them around the slogan of jobs, homes and services, not racism.

Robin DasGupta, YRE, Manchester

Firstly Manchester YRE targeted the city's universities to gain support from students through the National Union of Students (NUS) which has a record of trying to combat racism and fascism nationally.

However, locally the attitude was, sadly, not the same. In the University of Salford for example, when a YRE member asked how to put a motion forward in the next Union General Meeting, the reply was unhelpful. At the University of Manchester, the Union said it had no official position on the situation in Burnley.

So, it is up to ordinary people to take the initiative in fighting racism and fascism. Many students at the University of Salford come from, or live in, Burnley. YRE members are holding regular stalls calling for an Emergency General Meeting.

YRE members at the University of Manchester are putting a motion before the next Union General Meeting on 29 May, pointing out the exact nature of the BNP and whose interests it serves.

The motion mandates the local union to build for two demonstrations against the BNP, one at the beginning of June and the other in the Freshers’ Fair in September.

National demo

Struggles at the universities however cannot be successful on their own. The battle against the BNP ultimately has to come from a mass anti-racist group backed by the trade unions. Manchester YRE is also campaigning for the unions to organise a national demonstration in Burnley calling for jobs, homes and services, not racism.

It should make it clear that the BNP is a Nazi Party that supports the ideas of Hitler. We should be equally clear that the actions of the mainstream parties, with their support for 'free market' measures leading to cuts in public services, are part of the problem rather than a solution to it.

We should have no faith in such organisations and strive to build ones of our own to combat the BNP and the root cause of their existence.

 

 

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Review

Stupid White Men

'SENSATIONAL' CAN be an overworked cliche deployed by publishers to maximise sales. But Michael Moore's book really is sensational. The US capitalists and their hirelings in the media certainly think so, otherwise why try to suppress it.

It was written before 11 September but 'held back' in the hostile mood which followed.

Peter Taaffe

The author was vilified by capitalist journalists for daring to lift the lid a little on the underlying realities of 'corporate America' and the stooge politicians and parties which support it.

Yet hundreds and thousands queued at Moore's book signings to buy copies, propelling it to the top of the best sellers list in the US and now Britain.

Every page teems with scrupulously researched facts and figures. The shocking picture which emerges is of a brutal US capitalism and its political representatives, the Republican and Democrats, mired in greed and corruption.

But it is the weapons Moore deploys - humour, irony and satire - which sets this apart. Critic Tom Paulin was correct in comparing Moore to the great British satirist Jonathan Swift, with US folksy humour.

Send in the marines!

In the chapter 'A Very American Coup' he describes in detail the way that Florida was 'secured' for George Bush by the use of absentee ballots and the debarring of Democrats. "154 million of us... had not voted for [Bush]. In a nation of 200 million voters, I would say we constitute the majority."

Little wonder then that Bush, the 'Thief in Chief,' at his inauguration ceremony in January 2001 was besieged by thousands chanting 'Hail to the thief!'

Moore's solution?: "I have sent a personal request to UN secretary general Kofi Annan to hear our plea. We are no longer able to govern ourselves or to hold free and fair elections. We need UN observers, UN troops, UN resolutions! Send in the Marines! Launch the SCUD missiles!"

Who was behind this 'coup'? The detailed CVs on Bush's cabinet members are very illuminating. Attorney general John Ashcroft, a Christian fundamentalist, for instance opposes 'dancing' and "lost his Senate re-election bid against a dead man".

Bush's White House team is a veritable 'rogue's gallery' of corporate America. Even Colin Powell, mistakenly described by some as a 'moderate', is a multi-millionaire who "sat on the boards of Gulfstream Aerospace and AOL". The latter merged with Time Warner, and Powell's stock rose in value by $4 million.

The author comments: "His son, Michael Powell had been the only Federal Communications Commission member who recommended the AOL/Time Warner merger go through without question".

Moore's conclusion is: "This regime is intent on lining its pockets... These Stupid White Men must be stopped. I have informed Kofi Annan of the various locations where these (mostly) men can be found and apprehended by UN troops... We plead with you: Save the United States of America! Demand that new, clean elections be held. Give the junta 48 hours to agree - and, if they don't, then treat them to a US Air Force-style laser light show".

The author's 'open letter to George Bush' is a similarly irreverent dig at the President. Tracing George junior's roots back to his 'grandpappy' Prescott Bush who 'traded with the Nazis', he records the 'widely held impression' that Bush junior is usually 'asleep on the job'.

Striking a blow for sleep-deprived US citizens, Moore writes: "Your critics berate you for taking naps in the middle of the day and ending your workday around 4.30pm. You should just tell them you are starting a new American tradition - lunchtime naps for all, and everybody home by five! Do that, and trust me, you'll be remembered as our greatest President."

At first, Moore appears to go too far, to be too personal in accusing 'Dubya' of perhaps being a 'functional illiterate'. But he reveals when Bush has told 'porkies' about his past. When asked about his favourite childhood book Bush replied: 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Moore comments: "Unfortunately, that book wasn't even published until a year after you graduated from college."

Moore concludes: "In short, you've been a drunk, a thief, a possible felon, an unconvicted deserter and a crybaby. You may call that statement cruel. I call it 'tough love'."

Moore situates his demolition of Bush in the context of a critique of US capitalism. Criticising the 'mediocre but ruthless few' the author writes: "It's called C-A-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-M...We have the grand total of two and a half US car manufacturers. That's the way it works in our system. You don't like it, you can move to...to...um...damn, where do you move to these days? Oh - of course - Bermuda!"

On the environment, on the searing racism which scars the US, on the oppression and discrimination against women and the crisis facing men, on US foreign policy, on the waste of 'Star Wars', Moore is very informative without being correct in all his conclusions.

Satire overstates, it pushes trends and tendencies to 'absurd' conclusions. Art emphasises different aspects of its subject through different shadings, colour and light, so does satire but perhaps more starkly. Michael Moore, on the evidence of this book, is a brilliant practitioner of this art.

A new workers' party

This book has some weaknesses, particularly in contradictory statements on the Democrats. Early on he states: 'Take over your local Democratic Party'. Yet in a later chapter he says: "Democrats have become nothing more than Republican wannabes. They must merge with the Republican Party. That way, they can keep doing what they both do very well - representing the rich - and save a lot of money by consolidating staff and headquarters into one tight, fit, fighting machine for the top 10 percent.

"The good news about such a merger? The working people of this country will finally get to have their own party! What's so terribly wrong with that? It'll be the second party of the two-party system, except it will represent the other 90 percent of us."

Moore is facing both ways. On the one side he proposes a radical 'takeover' of the Democratic Party, much like the SWP-dominated Socialist Alliance in Britain advocates that the trade unions should make 'one last effort' to take over the Labour Party in Britain. Both in the US and in Britain this is wrong-headed advice.

Undoubtedly the failure of the US Labor Party to develop as a real independent voice of working people - due to the restrictions placed on it by the US labour bureaucracy - explains why powerful political figures like Michael Moore are equivocal and therefore hesitate to clearly help to create a new mass party of working people.

However, mighty events will push the US working class to see the need for a party that does really represent the majority 'the other 90 percent of us'.

In the meantime this book can play an invaluable role in preparing the ground for the emergence of such a party. It is not specifically 'socialist' or even 'anti-capitalist'. It is an indictment of US capitalism and particularly of the corrupt and rotten ruling economic and political elite.

But it is nevertheless a part of the pre-socialist and even pre-political process which the US working class must take in arriving at a socialist consciousness. Hopefully the sale of thousands and millions of Moore's book will help to lay the basis for such an understanding.

I was lucky enough to be given a copy as a birthday present from good friends and comrades, Alec, Linda and other South Wales comrades.

You should try and buy it. If you can't do that beg, borrow or 'steal' It has as much relevance to the tasks that face the British working class as it does to our US counterparts.

 

Stupid White Men by Michael Moore, published by HarperCollins. Special offer from Socialist Books: £18 including postage. Cheques payable to Socialist Books to: PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD. Tel: 020 8988 8789 for credit card orders, or email: bookshop@socialistparty.org.uk

 

 

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How Can A Palestinian State Be Achieved?

ON SATURDAY, 18 March thousands will march through the streets of London to protest at Sharon's and the Israeli state's murderous assaults on the Palestinians.

Hannah Sell

In the Socialist Party we are campaigning to make sure the largest possible numbers attend Saturday's protest in order to demonstrate forcefully the outrage felt by the majority of ordinary people in Britain to Sharon and the Israeli state's war on the Palestinians.

At a time when Sharon's bloody war machine is looming over the Gaza strip it is vital that British workers mobilise to show their solidarity with the Palestinians and to put maximum pressure on Sharon and imperialism.

Palestine is an issue that affects the whole world, and British socialists should comment on the prospects and programme of the Palestinian struggle, just as the Palestinian masses have the right and duty to comment on our struggles.

Can the imperialist powers provide a solution?

IMPERIALISM CANNOT deliver national liberation for the Palestinians, as the failure of the Oslo Accord so graphically demonstrated. On the contrary imperialism, both in the past and today bears the main responsibility for instability and the oppression of national rights in the Middle East.

Because the region is so strategically and economically important to the imperialist powers they have always been particularly quick to defend their interests by deploying the tactic of divide and rule and by backing dictatorial regimes.

Some commentators, unfortunately even including Robert Fisk, one of the best journalists writing in the capitalist press on the Middle East, have in despair at the current situation suggested that US and UN troops should intervene to find a solution. This is utterly utopian. Any intervention by imperialism would ultimately dramatically worsen the situation.

US imperialism has seen Israel as its client state in the region since Israel's inception, it was an imperialist wedge against the threat of socialism and the Arab revolution.

Whilst US imperialism also leans on the conservative, right-wing Arab regimes to varying degrees at different times, Israel remains their primary point of support in the region. What is more, Bush and his cohorts are currently amongst the most crudely pro-Israeli of any US government.

In reality the US government gave Sharon the green light for the slaughter of the West Bank. Bush initially gave open support to Sharon's action by declaring that Israel had "the right to defend itself".

One Israeli minister has reported that, whilst Vice-President Dick Cheney publicly called for peace on his visit to Israel, behind the scenes he called for even more repressive measures against the Palestinians than the Israeli government.

Bush and Co.'s attitude stems partly from domestic electoral reasons in the run-up to November's elections, but is primarily a reflection of US imperialism's overwhelming arrogance following their victory against Afghanistan.

The Bush government imagined that by allowing Sharon to go ahead in the West Bank it would be possible to 'pacify' the Palestinians leaving the US free to concentrate on attacking Iraq. Unsurprisingly, this strategy has blown up in their faces.

The huge demonstrations of the Arab masses in solidarity with the Palestinians, and the consequent terrified pleading by the leaders of the Arab regimes, has forced Bush to at least try and rein Sharon in. He has failed miserably.

Meanwhile, the European imperialist powers, terrified of the consequences of developments in the Middle East, are campaigning more strongly than Bush for a "viable Palestinian state". They decline to say what this actually means.

This is because they have no answers on the central issues of contention - the right of return, Jerusalem, water rights and land rights. In reality a so-called Palestinian state under capitalism would be a tiny impoverished statelet, its borders decided by Israel probably on more unfavourable terms even than the Oslo Accord.

Genuine Palestinian statehood would threaten the power, prestige and profits of the capitalist elite in the Middle East and of imperialism. It would fuel the national aspirations of other nationalities and minorities in the region.

It could also develop into a radical alternative for the Arab masses to the corrupt pro-imperialist regimes in the region and would therefore be a threat to imperialism's strategic and oil interests.

How can the Palestinian struggle be taken forward?

THE PALESTINIANS are facing constant oppression and the likelihood of repeated bloody occupations and incursions by the IDF. They are in a desperate situation.

The Palestinians clearly have the right to armed self-defence against the IDF onslaught. However, attacks on Israeli civilians are counter-productive because they drive the Israeli working class into the hands of their own worst enemies; Sharon and the most reactionary elements of the Israeli ruling class.

It is the Israeli ruling class not ordinary Israelis who are responsible for the nightmare situation faced by ordinary Palestinians.

Of course, the Palestinian people can't postpone their struggle until most Israeli Jews accept the need for a genuine Palestinian state. But as well as organising mass opposition to the occupation, the Palestinian struggle needs to help undermine the support of Israeli Jews, particularly the working class, for Israeli capitalism and all that goes with it. The Palestinians will not win the right to self-determination by military struggle alone.

A successful struggle requires a mass movement of the Palestinians under the democratic control of elected popular committees of struggle. Palestinians have the right to resist arms in hand.

But at the same time mass demonstrations and solidarity appeals to the Israeli conscripts in the occupied territories would have an effect on sections of the conscripts and on the Israeli working class as a whole.

What attitude should socialists take to Israel?

AFTER THE barbarism of the holocaust during the Second World War Jews fled to what they regarded as their homeland. However, the new Israeli entity was achieved on the basis of the forcible removal and dispersal of the Palestinian population - a crime initiated by the Israeli elite for which both the Palestinians and ordinary Israeli Jews have had to pay in blood for ever since.

Genuine Marxists opposed the establishment of Israel, recognising that it was built on the suffering of the Palestinian people, and moreover would become a bloody trap for the Israeli Jews. However, Israel is now in existence and over time the population have developed a national consciousness.

Given this, to deny the Israeli Jews the right to their own nation, is a violation of the right to self determination. Moreover, it is unachievable given the military backing of US imperialism from the Israeli state.

There is an historical logjam. Just as the military might of Israel cannot crush the Palestinians' unquenchable desire for a state, the Israeli Jews' national consciousness could not be destroyed. On the contrary many would be prepared to fight to the death to protect their homeland.

However, this does not mean that the Israeli population is one undifferentiated mass or that large sections of Israeli society, particularly the working class, cannot be won to supporting genuine national self-determination for the Palestinians.

In fact the paradox of this tragic situation is that there have never been better opportunities to win over sections of the Israeli working class. More than 1,000 Israelis have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories. Last weekend a highly significant 100,000 people demonstrated for peace in Israel.

At the same time the working class in Israel is facing vicious cuts in their living standards comparable to those the British working class faced under Thatcher. The latest round of government cuts amounts to $1.5 billion.

Such is the anger of the working class that the leader of the Histradut trade union has been forced to threaten a general strike against the cuts in the midst of Sharon's onslaught on the Palestinians.

Therefore it is completely incorrect to say of the Israeli Jewish working class, as John Rose did in the Socialist Workers Party monthly magazine, Socialist Review: "Sadly, privilege and ideology have always sealed these workers off from the traditions of internationalism and socialism."

In fact, in the Liverpool dockers' strike the Israeli dockers in Haifa took some of the most determined international action in support of the strike.

However, whilst the potential to win the Israeli working class over to the need for Palestinian self-determination undoubtedly exists, in the current situation a siege mentality exists on both sides.

The Palestinians are under occupation and face daily slaughter. At the same time millions of Israelis feel that their right to exist both as a nation in their own state and as individuals is under threat. Without an alternative, the bloody and brutal cycle of conflict will continue.

Many on the British left argue that the only possible solution is one state - "a secular, democratic Palestine in which Jews and Arabs can live together on the basis of freedom and equality." (Socialist Worker 20.04.02)

The Socialist Workers Party argues that this can only be achieved by mobilising the "weight of the Arab world" behind the Palestinians. This only emphasises how impossible it would be to convince the Jewish working class that such a state would mean "freedom and equality" for them.

On the contrary they would see such a state as being built on the bloody destruction of their homeland, within which they would become the oppressed minority.

For the Palestinians to achieve victory it is essential that they split the majority Jewish working class from Sharon and the Israeli ruling class. This can only be done by supporting the existence of two states - Palestinian and Jewish - on a socialist basis, as a part of a voluntary confederation of the Middle East with democratic national rights for all minorities.

Under capitalism any so-called Palestinian state would be at best a new version of the Palestinian Authority. However, the overthrow of the rotten capitalism regimes and the coming to power of democratic socialist governments would create the basis for genuine negotiations between the two peoples.

It would be possible to begin to negotiate a solution to even the most intractable problems. For example, the right of return is ruled out on a capitalist basis, and, even if it were somehow to be implemented under capitalism, would only be a mirror image of what the Jews did to the Palestinians in 1948.

However, a socialist Middle East could provide the full economic and social resources to absorb the millions of Palestinians who would be given the right of return and guarantee increased living standards for the whole population.

That is why the building of strong working-class movements on both sides of the national divide in Israel and Palestine, committed to a socialist programme, is such an urgent task in the region.

 

We Demand:

• The immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces from all Occupied Territories - Gaza and the West Bank. Stop the aggression against the Palestinians.

• A mass struggle throughout the region against imperialism and capitalism - the root cause of the conflict.

• The right of Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupying forces. For a mass struggle to fight for genuine national and social liberation. For the establishment of popular, democratically controlled grass-root committees to provide leadership to the struggle. The right of these committees to provide democratically controlled armed defence.

• The mobilisation of workers and youth internationally to aid the Palestinians' struggle for democratic, national and social rights and for a socialist solution in the Middle East.

• The right of Palestinians to self-determination, including an independent state. For a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel, as part of a voluntary socialist confederation of the Middle East, with full rights for minorities.

• An end to Sharon's war of re-occupation and his reactionary, capitalist government. An end to the use of Israeli soldiers as cannon fodder by the Israeli ruling class and army generals. For the right of all conscript soldiers and reservists to refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories.

• A united struggle by Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinian workers, youth and community activists against Sharon's aggression and the occupation. End institutionalised racism and discrimination towards Israeli Palestinians. For a struggle of the Israeli working-class - both Jewish and Palestinian - to overthrow capitalism.

• A struggle by the masses of the Arab states against the corrupt, reactionary, capitalist ruling Arab elites. For a socialist Middle East.

 

Fighting For Socialism In Israel

YUVAL, IS a young member of Maavak Sozialisti (Socialist Struggle), the Israeli section of the Committee for a Workers' International (the international organisation which the Socialist Party is also affiliated to).

He spoke to The Socialist about campaigning for socialist ideas in Israel.

"The government accidentally helped us with their new economic plan. You get political discussions every time you buy cigarettes as they now cost more. There was a lot of anger in the street that we have to pay for this war both in blood and money.

"They're taking 13 billion shekels out of a 200-plus shekel budget. It's not going to leave practically anything for welfare, education and health. Most of the time our policies get good responses.

"What we are doing is not like the orthodox 'left' which is not left - it's based on the middle class and on liberal views. They approach people with antagonistic points of view and emphasise moral viewpoints.

"We approach people on basic needs - security needs and economic issues and not on grand utopian themes. For instance we had a leaflet against the Sharon government's plan saying we are paying in blood and money for the government's failure.

"Before the big invasion of the West Bank we had leaflets saying 'The politicians aren't afraid but we are. They're failing to give us security, let's look at the reason why'.

"Israel is becoming more radical as it's becoming obvious that capitalists have no solutions. There's a bit of a wall as most people support the war. Some think it will work, some others say: 'We know it's not going to work but what can we do?' But the wall isn't as big as with the liberal Left.

"Most of our members are young but the Israeli working class as a whole has been radicalised recently. We've participated in strikes such as that by printworkers at Israel's largest newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth and at a water company where we put forward a plan to stop water going in to factories to hit at capitalism.

"We were involved in the railways strike in the south and in the docks where we gained much respect.

"The Histradut chairman recently made militant noises threatening strikes to finish not just the plans but also the government.

"The Communist Party and the workers list in Histradut say that workers should not wait for the 15 days they're legally supposed to before striking but strike immediately.

"There's a struggle for deaf and disabled people's rights as the government has reduced their living standards even more than other workers'. The disabled workers' struggle is supported by about 90% of all Israelis.

"There are differences between young Israelis and older though not necessarily in voting.

"One of the particular things that marks out young people from other generations is that the use of drugs has become absolutely enormous. Soldiers for example smoke dope, even in the territories, even in the middle of the invasion. This shows a huge demoralisation, a despair and a search for an escape, which is also shown in other cultural differences between the generations.

"Most young people I meet totally support refusing to go to the war. It's not a question of whether to support the war or not It's just a question of how to do it.

"Older people want to escape Israel - they can see there's no capitalist alternative but can't yet see the forces for a socialist alternative.

"We explain to both Israeli and Palestinian workers that the socialist way is the only solution.

"The Israeli working class are fed up with organisations which speak purely from a 'moral' viewpoint on the situation in Palestine.

"Maavak Sozialisti members obviously have moral standards but politically we stress that there's not going to be any security while capitalism survives."

 

 

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A Breath Of Fresh Air Amidst The Stench Of Corruption

THE SOCIALIST Party in Ireland is the only party putting politics into an election where the main parties are doing their best to avoid it.

Ken Smith

The Socialist Party is standing in five seats in this election - four in Dublin and one in Cork. The party is optimistic of seeing Joe Higgins re-elected as TD (MP) for Dublin West and hopeful that he will be joined in the Dail (parliament) by Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly in Dublin North after the election on Friday 17 May.

The governing party Fianna Fail (FF) - led by Bertie Ahern, which is in coalition with the Progressive Democrats (PDs), a small right-wing party - is trying to bury its trail of sleaze and corruption as "events of the past".

All the main parties are viewed cynically. For working-class people there is nothing on offer from parties which offer such empty slogans as: "Lots done, lots more to do" (Fianna Fail) and "Vision with Purpose" (Fine Gael, FG) - the other main capitalist party.

One of the main items that has dominated the news in the last week has not been the election but a brutal attack on 400 anti-capitalist protesters by the Gardai (police) which also saw reporters and media workers injured.

The attack and subsequent outrage at the Gardai's behaviour provoked another youthful demonstration of 2,000-3,000 outside a police headquarters a few days later.

The only breath of fresh air amidst the stench of corruption lingering over the election has been the Socialist Party; the Irish section of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).

Its manifesto explains how the fruits of ten years of economic growth have been siphoned away from the working class and into the pockets of big business and corrupt establishment politicians: "You gave the establishment the 'Celtic Tiger' [ie the booming economy]," it says. "They gave you corruption; health crisis; bin tax; traffic chaos; housing crisis".

The outgoing Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern hopes the boom will give his FF party an outright majority rather than being in coalition. Opinion polls show FF on 49%.

But the opinion polls do not express the real anger of voters with the establishment politicians. That is why, despite an economic boom, there is growing support for an alternative.

Such a mood in 1997 saw Socialist Party councillor Joe Higgins, elected as a TD for Dublin West, a position he has solidly consolidated by leading a successful campaign which saw the hated water charges abolished.

Joe is currently leading a campaign against the even more hated bin tax: a double form of taxation where people have to pay for the amount of rubbish they have collected by the council. During the election the anti-bin tax campaign has organised debates attended by up to 200 people.

Similarly, Clare Daly is making a big impact in Dublin North, a constituency that is dominated by the city airport.

Clare is an Aer Lingus shop steward and has campaigned against threatened privatisation and job cuts. The first thing you see after leaving the airport is one of Clare's campaign posters. The Socialist Party's, huge billboards have been an exciting feature of the campaign.

If a FF-Labour coalition results from the election this could accelerate disenchanted working-class voters moving to the left and the Socialist Party on a bigger scale than has happened already.

Only the Socialist Party is putting forward a programme which offers these working-class people a way forward as the stripes of the Celtic Tiger rapidly fade.

 

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