International notes and updates

Saudi Arabia

Sixteen women detained as a result of driving protest

October 26th saw a number of women taking direct action against an unofficial driving ban in Saudi Arabia (see post below). The campaign was a small, but brave attempt at obtaining women's rights in Saudi society which operates a form of sexual apartheid, with women having next to no rights and subject to the oppressive for of male "guardianship" entrenched in the Wahhabi form of Islam promoted by the state.

In addition their website being hijacked by hackers, several of the women have been arrested as this report from Gulfnews outlines:

Riyadh: At least 16 Saudi women have received fines for taking the wheel on a day set by activists to defy the kingdom’s traditional ban on female driving, police and reports said on Sunday.

Only few women braved official threats of punishment and drove on Saturday in response to an online campaign headlined "Women’s driving is a choice".

"Police stopped six women driving in Riyadh, and fined them 300 riyals (Dh293.67) each," said the capital’s police deputy spokesman, Colonel Fawaz Al Miman.

Each of the women, along with her male guardian — who could be a father, husband, brother, uncle, or grandson — had to "sign a pledge to respect the kingdom’s laws", Miman told AFP......

The absolute monarchy is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving. Public gatherings are officially banned.

These women must not be abandoned by those of who fight for human rights. Women's rights are human rights!

South Korea

Teachers union "banned"

Earlier this month I published an appeal by Eric lee of LabourStart calling on trade unionists world wide to stop the South Korean Government "delegalise" one of the teaching unions. The Korean Times reports that this has now gone ahead:

The government stripped the nation’s biggest teachers’ union of its legal status Thursday for not abiding by an order to evict nine members who were fired by the previous government. Employment and Labor Minister Phang Ha-nam said that the ministry notified the progressive Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) that the union was no longer a legal entity because it refused to change a clause in its charter that allows teachers who are fired to retain membership. “We cannot grant legal status to an organization which does not follow the law,” said Phang at a press briefing. According to the Teachers’ Union Law, a union cannot accept teachers who have been fired as members. The KTU criticized the government for depriving it of its legal status and filed an injunction with a Seoul district court to appeal the decision and have it nullified. The union also said that it will continue to fight against the government to regain its legal status. “We will continue our efforts to improving the country’s education system regardless of whether we are a legitimate or outsider union,” said Kim Jung-hoon, chairman of the KTU.

This comes at a time when Public Sector unions in particular are under pressure not just in South Korea, but Britain and Canada as well.

Canada

Civil service unions right to strike under threat

The following and disturbing report appeared on CBC News last week:

The federal government is moving ahead with plans to strip certain public servants of the right to strike.

The second budget implementation act, which was introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty Tuesday, will make it illegal for any bargaining unit declared to provide an essential service to strike.

Instead, such workers will be forced into arbitration in cases of a contract dispute. The rule will apply to any union where 80 per cent or more of the positions are considered to be necessary for providing an essential service.

The proposed legislation goes onto say that "the employer has the exclusive right to determine that a service is essential and the number of positions required to provide that service."

In other words, the government decides when the rule applies. "A democratically elected government should have the right to identify what Canadians consider 'essential services,'" read an email sent to CBC News from Treasury Board President Tony Clement's office.

The Harper government also defended its intent to set public service pay and benefit levels. "The proposed amendments will bring savings, streamline practices and bring them in line with other jurisdictions," said the government's emailed comments. "Our government will sit at a bargaining table on behalf of the taxpayer where the rules are fair and balanced."

Canada's largest union representing public-sector workers says it was caught by surprise by these changes.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says it is too early to say exactly what the impact will be — but they know they don't like it.

"This bill represents a far-reaching attack on public service workers and the unions that represent them," said PSAC President Robyn Benson.

"The government is upsetting the balance of labour relations, and is showing a callous disregard for due process, health and safety and the collective bargaining rights of every single public service employee," Benson said.

"The collective bargaining rights and the protections of workers who face discrimination, who do dangerous work, or who are treated unfairly will be undermined by the proposals in this bill." 

No doubt Frances Maude will be watching these developments with a view to enacting them in this country following severe cuts to civil service trade union facilities implemented by the Coalition Government earlier this year.

France

French Prostitutes demonstrate against new sex laws

Tendance Coatsey reports a demonstration by French Prostitutes:

We are Whores, We are Proud, with the Socialist Party, it’s War!

Some 300 prostitutes, many of whom wore white or red masks, demonstrated on Saturday in Paris against a bill tabled by the Socialist group in the National Assembly (Parliament) which will penalise penalise customers, said a journalist from AFP.

Holding placards “Customers penalised = murdered prostitutes” and chanting “We are whores, we are  proud, with the PS it  is war ,  prostitutes, including   trans,  marched in Paris.

More on this can be found at the Sex Workers Union website.

Support the Saudi Women's Campaign to end the driving ban

Today Saudi women are taking part in a mass campaign of direct action to end the de facto driving ban on women. I had hoped to provide a link to their website but it has been hacked by Islamist extremists and is not available. The hacking message is in Arabic so I have no idea what they are are saying, but everyone should be aware of the views of these misogynist monsters.



The following article is cross posted from Saudiwoman's Weblog which is itself continued at Amnesty Livewire:

If there was one word to describe what it is like to be a Saudi woman, it would be the word patronizing. No matter how long you live, you remain a minor in the eyes of the government.

In Saudi Arabia we take patriarchy to the extreme. The fact that the culture, like many others around the world, is male-dominated is not the major challenge. The real challenge is that the government has allowed this patriarchy to dictate how it deals with citizens. 

To read more, CLICK HERE… 

The BBC also reports this story: here 

Update from the New York Times

Musical Interlude - Sylvia (Focus)

There were a number of Dutch bands having hits in the UK in the 1970's, the first that I remember was Shocking Blue with the excellent Venus, which "younger" readers will recall was covered by Bananarama in the eighties. The other s included Golden Earring (with Radar Love) and Focus who had a big hit with Hocus Pocus.

This single from 1973 reached number 4 in the UK charts and was from their album Focus III.

End of the "Bradford spring"

When George Galloway took a parliamentary seat in Bradford West by-election back in March 2012 the "indefatigable one" claimed as the BBC reported:

Mr Galloway, who co-founded the anti-war Respect Party after being expelled by Labour because of comments he made as part of his opposition to the Iraq war, said the result represented the "Bradford Spring"

He said the "mammoth vote" represented a "total rejection" of the three major parties in the British political system.

He said Labour "must stop imagining that working people and poor people have no option but to support them if they hate the Tory and Liberal Democrat coalition partners.

On the strength of this Respect went on to win five seats on the local authority in May, but things were not as rosy as they might seem. Back in August they quit the party whip and sat as independents in a row over Galloway's plan to stand as Mayor of London.

Now they have decided to quit the Respect Party altogether. The Yorkshire Post reports:

The statement said discussions with Respect officials had failed to address their concerns.

“After much deliberation this has left our group no choice but to fully resign from the Respect party with immediate effect and hence forth we will continue to operate as a group of independent councillors for the remainder of our term. This decision has not been made lightly and we are saddened that certain ‘gatekeepers’ involved in Bradford Respect appear to have no interest in transparency, accountability and equity”

The statement added: “Needless to say we will remain committed to the electorate and will continue to advocate for the citizens of Bradford and work hard for the interests of our constituents and we will continue to represent them in Council on the issues that affect them in the district. 

Of course the Trotskyist types at Respect's "Central Office" issued a retaliatory statement:

This is not about principle, or policy, but self-interest and a naked attempt by the five councillors and one ally to control the party in Bradford. They proposed a constitution which would have given them absolute power in the party in the city. It came to a head when they proposed installing their ally in what they considered to be a safe seat at the forthcoming May election. These machinations were rejected by the national party. Since then they have continued to act against Respect.”

“If they had a shred of principle they would now resign their council seats and stand again in their new colours. Or will they instead continue to draw thousands of pounds of public money until they are removed by the voters?

No love lost there then.

Local Labour Party councillor Ralph Berry sums up these developments succinctly:

I think the manner of the whole Respect situation is typical of the conduct of hard left Leninist authoritarian politics where the cult of the Leader rules.

I think the councillors are now doing the right thing. It means the aspirations George claimed to be supporting were cynically used and then dropped.”

Didn't all this happen in Tower Hamlets? And whatever happened to Salma Yaqoob?

As for George he is busy flogging his wares over at the odious Press TV station, the mouthpiece of the Iranian clerical fascists.

Updates on two previous posts about the SWP

I have received a couple of updates to two posts about the continuing crisis in and around the Socialist Workers Party which I thought worth drawing to your attention.

Comrade Delta goes to university:

The campaign launched by the Angry Women of Liverpool website has been responded to by Hope University. Unsurprisingly they are not happy and have issued the following letter:

To the owners of the Angry Women of Liverpool website,

Over the last week your website has made a series of allegations about Professor Lavalette, Liverpool Hope University and the appointment of a PhD student. 

As Professor Lavalette knew one of the candidates for a part-time PhD place he backed off from the recruitment process. Two proposals were reviewed by four professors (three from Hope and one from an external university) and four members of staff in the Social Work Department. For clarification, none of these people were members of the Socialist Workers Party.

The eight reviewers all thought the University should accept both proposals.

The two applicants were then offered places at Liverpool Hope University. One of these is a qualified social worker and is based in the Department of Social Work. The other is based in another Department at Liverpool Hope.

The version of the appointment of these PhD students that has appeared on the web is therefore quite inaccurate. The University and Professor Lavalette believe it is libellous and they would ask you to remove your post and stop your campaign. The University and Professor Lavalette reserve the right to pursue legal means if you fail to do so.

Kind regards

Graham Donelan
University Secretary
Liverpool Hope University


Unison United Left split over SWP:

The Socialist Workers Party have responded to Jon Rogers and others who quit the UUL over the continued involvement of the SWP in the organisation. It's quite clear from their response the comrades still don't get it!

SWP reply to Jon Rogers

Many of you will have seen a statement put out by Jon Rogers a well know Unison activists and seven others withdrawing from the Unison United Left and citing their relations with the SWP as their reason.

This is a reply that’s been worked on by the SWP Unison fraction committee and the industrial department. It will be posted up as a reply to Jon Rogers’ statement on his blog today.

SWP statement on Unison United Left

Recently a statement was made by eight members of the UNISON United Left in London, including NEC member Jon Rogers, announcing their decision to resign from the UNISON United Left because they are not prepared to work alongside members of the Socialist Workers Party.

We believe that this decision is highly regrettable.

The decision to leave the United Left with the aim of setting up a rival grouping in the union will make it harder for the left to intervene effectively in Unison. It will make it harder to keep up the pressure on the union leadership to lead the fightback and to build support for the battles that are taking place.

It is just three weeks since the magnificent TUC demonstration in Manchester in defence of the NHS in which our union played such a prominent part. The size and mood of the UNISON delegation showed clearly that our members are angry and want to fight against the Tories and their austerity policies.

The teachers and fire-fighters’ strikes and the votes for action at Royal Mail and in Higher Education show that this mood can generalise across the working class.

There are signs in our union that the leadership is at last recognising the need to fight. They seem more willing to approve strike ballots in many parts of the country and provide branches with the resources they need.

It would be at tragedy if the left in our union becomes more divided and allows the opportunity to build resistance to pass us by.

The Socialist Workers Party has recently been through a major internal crisis.

We don’t agree with Jon’s outline of that crisis, and believe his version of events contains some serious factual errors. Our party is doing its best to resolve an extremely difficult situation.

We are proud of our record over many decades of standing up to all forms of oppression. We have been in the front line of the fight for women’s liberation, LGBT rights and against racism and fascism.

A united left by its nature will involve organisations with very different traditions, backgrounds and experiences. Sometimes these organisations will have arguments. Sometimes organisations will go through internal debates and crisis.

Some on the left have argued that Labour’s record on war and austerity means that we cannot work with the party’s activists. We have always argued this was a completely wrong approach.

As SWP members in UNISON we are committed to continuing to work with everyone in the union on the left and beyond that is serous about fighting against the Tory attacks and all the forms of oppression that they use to divide us.

Just read the post below and tell the SWP to get stuffed!

The final nail in the coffin of the Socialist Workers Party

The following and quite disturbing comment was made on Facebook


"We believe comrades should know the position of comrade W: she has been severely damaged by the mishandling of the case and the fallout which followed. She came forward to the CC and DC trusting that her organisation would behave in a principled fashion. She has been hounded, isolated and ostracised. As a result, she has left the SWP and feels she has no choice but to leave the city she lives and studies in because she cannot bear constantly seeing or being afraid of seeing the comrades who have played a role in making her life so difficult."

I never again want anything to do with the people who let this happen. This was done by people who would go on to argue that their revolutionary morality and integrity was literally beyond questioning. Monsters.


You may also be interested in a thoughtful short essay published today by Jim Jepps:

Go to his website here

PCS backtracks on planned strike

The PCS National Executive Committee met today to consider the results of the consultation exercise over the future of the (current?) dispute. They received feedback from nearly four out of five of branches which means around a fifth did not take part.

Most of us were expecting the announcement of further strike action following the NEC meeting today but none has been made. In fact if you actually read the report placed on the PCS website you will hard pressed to know what the actual outcome of the consultation was. They write:

The national executive wishes to thanks branches for their positive and serious engagement in the consultation exercise.

The executive discussed how the consultation could inform the campaign strategy. 

First, it was agreed to step up attempts to build co-ordinated joint action with other unions over the public sector pay freeze and pension cuts. Approaches will be made urgently to unions currently engaged in campaigns of action. The national disputes committee will meet to consider whether effective co-ordinated action is possible.

Secondly, the executive agreed a strategy of national and targeted action aimed at exerting sustained pressure on the employer in the civil service and related organisations. The national disputes committee will identify key operational areas where action can have a serious impact and persuade the employer to negotiate a settlement on our national demands. The executive agreed to divert resources to these areas and a national levy will be implemented to raise funds to support members taking action in the targeted areas.

Political campaigning will be built up to increase pressure on politicians in their constituencies to support PCS members.

Lastly, the executive agreed to issue encouragement and guidance to members to take part in the day of action called by national anti-cuts forum the People’s Assembly on 5 November to protest against the government’s damaging and unnecessary austerity programme.

There has been a suggestion that the result was "narrowly against" further action which would explain the lack of resolve on the leaderships part. I say this because the Janice Godrich the PCS President and other members of the  Socialist Party on the NEC have continually campaigned for a "General Strike" since the consultation exercise was launched.

The NEC should either publish the full report from the consultation exercise or at the very least circulate copies to Branches. Reps need to know the details.

If the Socialist Party are unable to get the only union in their control to take action then their whole strategy is exposed for the political joke that it is and they are. There was a call for a strike at the NEC meeting from a minority (probably the SWP) but it was roundly defeated.

The PCS leadership are off to find out what other unions might be interested in doing, if anything "fruitful" comes out of it they will reconvene the NEC. More likely they'll try and revive all this closer to the internal union elections next year.

Watch this space.