Britain

At the University of East Anglia recently Rob Sewell of the Socialist Appeal gave a talk on the Miners strike in Britain 1984-5. The strike was a culmination of the inevitable build up of tension between the ruling and working class. In the post-war period the decline of British imperialism had occured. The Tories of the 1980s were a rabid reaction to that phenomenon, determined to destroy the organised labour movement by taking on its most militant section, the National Union of Miners.

One year ago today comrade Phil Mitchinson died tragically of a heart attack. He was without doubt a very talented comrade who devoted his time to editing the Socialist Appeal and helping to build our tendency in Britain and internationally. Here Rob Sewell remembers Phil and the role he played.

Marxists have always maintained that at some stage the intensity of the class struggle affects even the “armed bodies of men” of the bourgeois state. Such an example was the police strike in Britain at the end of the First World War. In the late summer of 1918 the sight of 12,000 furious Metropolitan constables marching on Whitehall sparked panic among ruling circles in Britain. Under the leadership of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers, militantly class-conscious policemen conspired to overturn their role as the subservient body of the State.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is occupying the headlines of many newspapers with his comments that Britain failed to act on intelligence that could have prevented the 7/7 London bombings. Beyond the response of the bourgeois media, what is the real relationship between the West and Saudi Arabia?

Comrade Phil Lloyd has died in Swansea at the age of 74. He joined the tendency led by Ted Grant back in the 1950s. He was a pioneer of the Marxist tendency and played a key role in its development. Alan Woods was one of the youth that that Phil Lloyd helped to recruit and educate. Here Alan remembers the man and fighter.

Some 130,000 postal workers in the Communication Workers Union were due to return to work yesterday after taking successful strike action in defence of terms and conditions. However, many workers were scandalized to discover that management had imposed new attendance times without their consent.

Last week speculation reached fever pitch in the press over whether or not Brown would call a snap General Election after only three months as prime minister. The Tories were languishing in the polls and the young Turks of New Labour's front bench were keen to launch an election. Then new polls showed a different picture. However, there is little enthusiasm amongst traditional Labour supporters and there are dangers of an economic crisis.

British postal workers have just finished finished four days of industrial action (5/6 October and 8/9 October) over a bitter row over pay and conditions. This will be followed by a rolling programme of strikes until the dispute is resolved. This article, written just before the dispute started, comments on the situation.

We are making available to our readers an appeal by the Labour Representation Committee on the issue of internal party democracy. On Sunday Labour Party conference kicks off. If Brown’s proposals are accepted it appears that from next year CLPs and affiliates will no longer have the right to take resolutions to Party conference.

Over the past 15 years production has risen at about 3% a year in the OECD countries, while money supply, mortgage and company debt, personal borrowing and the massive so-called derivatives market based on this credit has increased at over 25% a year! Result? A huge bubble which is now bursting, starting with Northern Rock.

The collapse of Metronet , the consortium entrusted with upgrading the London tube, spells the collapse of the whole notion of 'Public Private Partnership', otherwise known as the Private Finance Initiative.

This is the final part of the British Perspectives document. The issues which it covers are the trade unions and the Labour party, and the Marxists' orientation towards the mass organisations. Also covered is the importance of the youth, emphasing the importance of theory and the training of Marxist cadres for the enormous events that impend in Britain and elsewhere.

In this section we deal with the question of the Blair government, the increasing abstentions of the working class, and the growing discontent affecting all sections. It also deals with the Conservative party, the natural party of the ruling class, which has shifted to the “centre” ground and won back a layer that voted Liberal Democrat.

Ten years ago in Britain, at the time of the sudden death of Diana, we witnessed an outburst of popular feeling without precedent in recent British history. It was an entirely new phenomenon, reflecting an entirely new situation in Britain. Here we republish Alan Woods’ article written in 1997 which looked at the serious crisis the monarchy and the British establishment were facing at the time.

On Thursday 18th July comrades of the British Socialist Appeal showed their solidarity with the Peoples Youth Block (BJP) by protesting outside the embassy of El Savador against the repressive measures employed by the government. A letter of protest was received, signed by leading trade unionists from the NUJ, PCS, CWU, ASLEF, UNISON and the TGWU.

Brown has replaced Blair as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, but has anything fundamental changed? Absolutely not! And yet behind this seemingly uneventful change lies the manoeuvre to stop John McDonnell to stand for the leadership. All the indications were that John would have made a good showing. Something is stirring in the British labour movement.

As the Middle East descends deeper into a vicious cycle of death and destruction, the Reverend Blair has stepped once again onto the world stage as international “envoy for the Middle East”. Blair has the strong backing of the US President George W. Bush. In other words, Blair will bend the knee as always to US imperialism and its interests.

This year marks the 300th anniversary of The Act of Union between Scotland and England. This was accompanied by the merger of the parliaments into one Westminster Parliament. In January 1707, the Scottish parliament voted 110-67 to ratify The Treaty of Union, which became law four months later.

While GDP in Britain is supposed to be the fifth largest in the world, the division of this wealth is extremely unequal. What growth has taken place has mainly been by increased exploitation of workers. The market principle of profit comes before education and health. Yet British capitalism's share of world exports has continually decreased.