The Socialist inbox: letters to the editors

The Socialist inbox: letters to the editors   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

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Support Grenfell survivors, defend the FBU

Grenfell Tower, photo James Ivens

Grenfell Tower, photo James Ivens   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

On the occasion of the broadcast of the Channel 4 documentary ‘Grenfell: Did the Fire Brigade Fail?’ (18 February), Unite the Union branch SE/6246 (Brighton) renews its commitment to remember those who died and to support the survivors and members of the Fire Brigades Union. Neither will we forget the tenants of the 400 plus council owned buildings similarly at risk…

The documentary was constructed to deflect attention away from the real causes of the Grenfell tragedy: decades of health and safety deregulation, severe cuts to public services, outsourcing of key management responsibility to third parties to limit local authority accountability, and a culture where the needs and safety of working-class people are subservient to the need for profit…

The documentary failed to acknowledge the courage of firefighters in a situation of such an unprecedented scale, who repeatedly put their lives at risk in going beyond the limits for which they were trained.

It further failed to acknowledge the obstacles impeding the collective efforts of the fire crews caused by the sheer scale of the cuts across the city which delayed vital back up…

We need media platforms under the ownership and control of the movement that do not merely defend union members’ interests against assaults from the mainstream media but rather enable working people to become the subject of their own development…

Chair – Ian Harrison, Secretary – Ben Armstrong, Unite the Union branch SE/6246

Hostile Tories

If the government can revoke citizenship at the drop of a tabloid, presumably very few of us are safe.

My father was born in Canada in 1914. I have had British nationality all my life. The new dispensation means I could be deported to Canada. Canada could say ‘not on your nelly’ and I would be up that well-known creek without a paddle.

It is not only Shamima Begum’s rights that are on the line. Home Secretary Sajid Javid is attacking the rights of thousands of citizens in the UK.

He has been described as a ‘human shield’ for Theresa May’s right-wing policies. It is no accident that the majority of the citizens affected will be from racial minorities – the very target of May’s disgraceful “hostile environment”.

Lord Acton observed that “all power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Javid was a Tory to start with, so he began from a low baseline. However, this latest display of arrogance takes the biscuit.

Derek McMillan, East Sussex

Blairite traitors

Blairites are starting to depart the Labour Party and most members will say ‘good riddance’! These venal bureaucrats cite antisemitism as one reason, with not one scrap of evidence – because it’s a blatant lie.

The other reason they give is that the party is being taken over by the “hard left”. This is partly true. The left is using democratic procedures to rid the party of these Blairite infiltrators.

Party democracy is something these traitors despise. They conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Lots of Jewish people have written in support of Corbyn.

Some of these rogues would be at home in the Tory party, or even Ukip. Even if they succeed in keeping Corbyn from becoming PM, if the left succeeds in democratising the party we could have dozens of class fighters elected to parliament at the next general election.

It’s possible we could be moving towards an Italian-style situation with a coalition on the cards, because the Tories, with their defectors, can’t guarantee a majority in parliament either.

Bill Buchanan, Nottingham