The Socialist

The Socialist 7 June 2007

Labour cheats NHS

Labour cheats NHS

PFI - a licence to print money

Petition on NHS: Stop cuts and privatisations (word)


Fight Brown's agenda of war, cuts & privatisation


Postal workers fight closure

Coventry says 'keep our Post Office open'

CWU delegates attack link with Labour

Come to the Shop Stewards' Network conference

National Shop Stewards Network Founding conference

Ritzy - low-paid workers strike again


80,000 demonstrate against the G8 summit

Activists with ideas


Drowning in an ocean of debt


Young people: a bright future... or different shades of grey


Bolivia: Release Adam Ziemkowski

South Africa: Public sector workers in mass fightback

The Arab-Israel 1967 war: repression and bloodshed continues


Don't trust the Trust schools - organise!

Tony Blair "brings church into school"

Weekly bin collections AND recycling schemes

Black and Asian group: Socialist ideas to unite all workers

Take part in the 22-28 June Fighting Fund week of action

The fat cat and the 'cleaning lady'


Remploy management squander opportunities

Tesco strikes show new mood

 
 
Socialist Party logo Socialist Party on the climate change demo December 2007, pic Paul Mattsson Socialist Party News
Socialist Party Policy statements
Socialist Party contemporary Marxist analysis

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Activists with ideas

HAVING SET up camp amongst the five thousand or so protesters at the international anti-G8 camp, members of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) made their way to the starting point for the demonstration. We then assembled a contingent of up to 200 members and supporters representing our sections in Germany, Ireland North and South, England and Wales, Scotland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Festooned with posters, banners and placards, our truck headed the contingent. From here marchers heard speeches from Socialist Alternative (SAV) councillor Christine Lehnert (Germany), SAV and WASG executive member Lucy Redler (Germany), and UNISON executive member Roger Bannister (Britain).

Rapping about issues ranging from war and poverty, to the cuts in social security, to the lessons for today from the Communist Manifesto, SAV member Holger Burner put the message across that we need a socialist alternative as well as ensuring our bloc on the demo was among the liveliest.

From 10am to 6pm when we left the closing rally of the demonstration for our CWI rally, CWI members worked tirelessly distributing leaflets, selling 500 papers and raising 3,000 euros for our campaigns by selling political badges and T-shirts.

In a situation where all sorts of ideas were being raised, we were able to discuss with that highly significant layer of people who had come to the protest in the hope of finding a solution to the problems of capitalism.

This was reflected in the 150 people who attended our evening rally and by the fact that already a number of people had agreed to join the CWI. They included people who had travelled to Rostock with SAV members but who had not before been convinced of the need to join our ranks officially.

But in Rostock the CWI stood out. No other group had as many members who were confident to go out distributing material and engaging protesters in the crucial discussion of how the G8 and their system can be defeated.

No other bloc on the demonstration was so well stewarded or so clear in its political analysis. Speakers from our platform differentiated socialism from the rotten capitalist system we now suffer under but also from the undemocratic Stalinist system that had existed in the old GDR (East Germany).

We explained, in our material and in the discussions with youth, the crucial role that must be played by the working class and the need now for new mass workers' parties and for a socialist transformation of society.


In this issue

Labour cheats NHS

PFI - a licence to print money

Petition on NHS: Stop cuts and privatisations (word)


War and terrorism

Fight Brown's agenda of war, cuts & privatisation


Socialist Party workplace news

Postal workers fight closure

Coventry says 'keep our Post Office open'

CWU delegates attack link with Labour

Come to the Shop Stewards' Network conference

National Shop Stewards Network Founding conference

Ritzy - low-paid workers strike again


G8 Summit protests

80,000 demonstrate against the G8 summit

Activists with ideas


What we think

Drowning in an ocean of debt


Socialist Party feature

Young people: a bright future... or different shades of grey


International socialist news and analysis

Bolivia: Release Adam Ziemkowski

South Africa: Public sector workers in mass fightback

The Arab-Israel 1967 war: repression and bloodshed continues


Socialist Party news and analysis

Don't trust the Trust schools - organise!

Tony Blair "brings church into school"

Weekly bin collections AND recycling schemes

Black and Asian group: Socialist ideas to unite all workers

Take part in the 22-28 June Fighting Fund week of action

The fat cat and the 'cleaning lady'


Workplace news and analysis

Remploy management squander opportunities

Tesco strikes show new mood


 

Home   |   The Socialist 7 June 2007   |   Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe   |   Donate   |   Bookshop

Related links:

CWI:

triangleSri Lanka: Isolate the murderous Rajapaksa regime

triangleSouth African economy: Mass sacking threat demands mass action

triangleYork Socialist Party: The history of the CWI

triangleMay Day - fighting capitalist oppression internationally

triangleReview of 'South Africa: The Massacre that Changed a Nation', BBC2 April 24th

SAV:

triangleThe United Front today & the Left in Germany

triangleSupport striking hospital workers in Berlin

triangleCWI - Building Socialism Worldwide

triangleGermany: Building international socialism

Germany:

triangleWaltham Forest Socialist Party branch meeting: The rise of fascism in Germany

triangleWaltham Forest Socialist Party: The rise of Fascism in Germany

triangleLlanelli & West Wales Socialist Party: What type of leader was Hitler? Revolution & counter-revolution in Germany

Socialist Alternative:

triangleChingford Socialist Party: What's the socialist alternative to the cuts?

triangleInitial Statement on Boston Marathon Tragedy from Socialist Alternative

G8:

triangleMarch against the G8

Capitalism:

triangleBig business tax avoidance scandal