Europe

Labour Councils are being forced to choose between cuts in services or increases in the Council Tax. But the resources are there. Proof of that is the huge amount that has been set aside for the war against Iraq. In Southampton we have the courageous stand of Labour Councillor Perry McMillan who has refused to vote the increase in the Council Tax. Steve Jones explains what has been happening.

A Yugoslav Marxist student looks at the achievements of state education under the old Titoist regime and compares it to today’s level of education as the whole system is being gradually privatised. Although marred by the bureaucratic deformations of the old Titoist regime, it did show the potential that exists from having a fully state run system. What would have been possible if there had been genuine socialism and workers’ democracy in Yugoslavia? And what does the future hold for the present and future generations of students in the former Yugoslav republics as the greedy hand of capitalism slowly but surely begins to strangle what was good in the old system?

The election of a Labour Government in Britain has raised enormous expectations, not least by workers in Northern Ireland who are looking for a way out of the impasse they have faced for nearly a century. Yet the Labour leadership remain tied to a "bi-partisan" approach that has solved nothing in the past, and looks set to present more of the same for the future. In a short series of articles, Cain O'Mahoney examines labour's role in Northern Ireland and the lessons that must be learnt.

The partition of Ireland, following the Government Of Ireland Act in 1920, gave strength to the reactionary 'theory' that has always been perpetuated by pro-Unionist elements amongst the Northern labour movement that workers' interests were better served by maintaining the link with British capitalism.

After 1945, British imperialism had a different agenda for Northern Ireland. Ireland had been partitioned in 1920 to keep hold of the profitable industries of the North, as well as the important military bases that protected Britain's western flanks. More importantly however, Partition served to act as a break on the growing social revolution that accompanied the struggle for national liberation in Ireland, which had included land and factory seizures by the workers.

The decision by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson to send British troops into Northern Ireland in 1969 reflected that government's abandonment of any semblance of socialist policies. It was a squandered opportunity that tied the Labour leadership to the blind alley of 'bipartisanship' for the next three decades.

During the four decades of "the building of socialism" in the former Yugoslavia there had been formulated more economic theories of socialism than in all the other self-proclaimed "socialist" countries of Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Dragan Draca explains the bureaucratic motives behind this to justify every U-turn in economic policy during that period. (February 23, 2002) This is the English version of the Serbo-croatian original ZABLUDE PROŠLOSTI published by the Yugoslavian Marxist website Pobunjeni Um.

The day of action called by the Sindicato de Estudiantes (Spanish School Student’s Union) on February 13, which involved school strikes and demonstrations was a resounding success, in spite of the total silence on the part of the press. There was a massive turnout with 90% of the secondary school students supporting the strike. These antiwar demonstrations made a big splash all across Spain. We organised more than 50 demonstrations. The most significant were Madrid with 20,000 demonstrating, Valencia with 15,000, Barcelona 10,000, Seville with more than 6,000, Majorca 3,000, Santiago de Compostela 1,500 and Guadalajara and Huelva with more than 1,200. The total number of

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Despite all their lofty promises about the priority of "education, education, education", and their pledge that there would be no top up fees, Blair and co intend to pass the bill for higher education once again onto students and their parents, making it yet more difficult for students from poorer backgrounds to get to university.

In January Roy Jenkins, a Liberal Democrat Lord passed away. In the 1960s and 1970s he was right at the top of the British Labour Party. After his recent death the bourgeois press were full of praise for his achievements, the reason being that as of 1979 he had worked strenuously to destroy the Labour Party! No longer able to control the ranks, who were moving radically to the left, especially after the defeat in the 1979 elections, he attempted together with others to build the Social Democratic Party.

As we put this article online, the Blair government has launched a new offensive against the firefighters. Deputy Prime Minister Prescott has announced his intention to change the law to take direct control of the fire service and impose a settlement on the firefighters. This would mean the imposition of the Bain proposals, the derisory pay offer of 4% and thousands of job cuts, resulting in the closure of fire stations and the undermining of the fire service. Such measures are a threat to the entire labour movement, and must be answered by the movement as a whole.

Two Motherwell (Scotland) train drivers refused to move a freight train carrying ammunition believed to be destined for British forces being deployed in the Gulf. This militant and courageous stand was reminiscent of the actions against General Pinochet back in the 1970s and the Jolly George incident in 1920. Railway managers cancelled the Ministry of Defence (MoD) service after the crewmen, described as "conscientious objectors" by a supporter, said they opposed Tony Blair's threat to attack Iraq.

The weekend of 18 and 19 January thousands of people all over the world protested against the impending war in Iraq. In Belgium there was a demonstration with about 10,000 participants that took to the streets on Sunday. Various NGOs, immigrants' organisations, left groups and parties and delegations of trade unions were present.

Filip Staes reports on last weekend's antiwar demonstration in Brussels and on the 'shipspotting' activities of the Anti-War Committees set up by the supporters of Vonk in Antwerp. Antwerp has grown in importance for the war effort as a large part of the military hardware for the Gulf is transported through this port.

On Sunday, January 12, 2003, 100,000 people came to the Berlin socialist memorial cemetery in the Eastern suburb of Friedrichsfelde to commemorate the murder of Rosa and Karl. On the day prior to the big demonstration, the German left wing daily, Junge Welt held their traditional Rosa Luxemburg conference which this time attracted well over 1100 people - considerably more than in previous years. This year, the speeches and debates centred around the question of imperialism and war. As we reported last week, one of the main speakers in the first session was Alan Woods from In Defence of Marxismwho spoke on...