Wednesday 21 November 2012

From the River to the Sea


At first glance, who could oppose the Palestine Solidarity Campaign?

The very name implies one of the most noble human aspirations – solidarity with a people. And in particular a people like the Palestinians, whose suffering is genuine. No doubt many people who join the PSC, attend its demonstrations, donate money to it or encourage their unions to back it are expressing their support for the idea of solidarity with the Palestinians.

But there’s a difference — a huge one — between showing solidarity with the Palestinians and supporting the PSC. Despite the PSC’s best efforts to convince everyone that these are one and the same thing, they aren’t.

And this becomes obvious whenever things heat up in Israel and Palestine, and when war is in the air.

Last week, I found myself at the demonstration of the PSC opposite the Israeli embassy in Kensington.

The call for the demonstration focussed on the Israeli air offensive against Gaza and was issued at a time when the only casualties seemed to be Hamas fighters, in particular Ahmed al-Jabari, the leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Still, by the time demonstrators began to arrive at the embassy, things had gotten worse and a number of civilians — on both sides – had been killed.

The demonstration would have focussed on those killings, right? It would have called for a cease-fire or something like that, wouldn’t it?

But the very first thing I heard was not a call for an end to the violence — which would have been understandable and would have gotten sympathy from anyone — but instead was the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free“.

From the river to the sea?

Sorry, but there’s no way to be polite about this. That chant, and the PSC’s own logo of a map of Palestine from the river to the sea, and the subsequent chanting of “Israel out of Palestine” really could mean only one thing.

The demonstrators, or at least the people leading the chanting and making up the slogans, were supporting a one-state agenda, a solution to the century-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians by demanding that one side pack up and leave.

As it’s unlikely the Israelis are going to do this voluntarily, realistically what the demonstrators were calling for was the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine.
Not from the illegal settlements in the West Bank — no one mentioned those.
The Jews are to leave “Palestine” — from the river to the sea.

This is an exterminationist agenda. I don’t think that’s too strong a term.

These are not people who dislike Israelis or Jews, or who want to discriminate against them, or put them in their place, or treat them as second class citizens. That would be ordinary anti-Semitism.

This is a different kind of anti-Semitism, the kind that imagines a Palestine without its six million Jews, from the river to the sea.

An exterminationist anti-Semitism whose solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be another Holocaust.

Of course one expects to see radical Islamists at a demonstration like this — after all, that’s been their agenda for decades.

But it’s not the agenda of the mainstream Palestinian national movement, not anymore. It’s been nearly a quarter of century now since Arafat and the leadership of the PLO embraced the two-state solution, which paved the way to the Oslo accords.

Palestinian President Abbas isn’t calling for driving the Jews into the sea. The Palestinian trade unions aren’t calling for that.

But that’s what the Palestine Solidarity Campaign was doing in Kensington — that’s their agenda.

So what was the Socialist Party doing there — a party which historically opposes the boycott of Israel and which supports a two-state solution? On their website, they write that “The Palestinians and the Israeli Jews have a right to their own separate states.” They don’t say that one of those states will be in Palestine, and the other — in the sea?

And what was the SWP doing there, for that matter? Do they too support the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine?

It is fitting and proper for people who are shocked by the violence, and angry at the decision of the Israeli government, to protest and to show their solidarity with Palestine.

But to do so by chanting for the destruction of the Jewish state is to do the Palestinians no service.

For socialists to participate in such a demonstration is a disgrace.


Howard Fuller (4TM) adds:

For some time PCS has had “Palestinian Solidarity” at the “centre” of its “International work as the website blurb states. Some of us have always objected to the one sided view that the union takes as the result of the activities of the PCS Deputy General Secretary Hugh Lanning who is Chair of the so-called “Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

I wrote to PCS Reps earlier this year pointing out the uncomfortable fact (for Mr Lanning) that the former Chair of the PSC was expelled from their organisation as he was a promoter of Holocaust Denial (and said he was proud of it). In other words he promotes the disgusting view that there were no mass murders of six million Jews under the Nazis during the Second World War.

Disturbingly one fifth of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign voted against his expulsion. To me that says a lot about some of the members of this pernicious organisation and would call on PCS to disaffiliate and support instead a genuine peace orientated organisation Trade Unions Linking Israel & Palestine.

Trade unionists should be trying to bring working people together, not perpetuating sectarian conflict.

Go to: http://www.tuliponline.org/  for further information.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

More employers must sign up to the Living Wage

The living wage is a voluntary rate of pay designed to help low-paid workers to afford a basic standard of living. The new rate is £8.55 an hour in London and £7.45 elsewhere. The adult minimum wage rate is £6.19 an hour.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the UK's biggest companies increased their cash reserves by over £80bn between 2007 and 2011. There is no excuse for cash-rich employers to deny low-paid staff a decent wage.

Hope Not Hate


A new fascist party is being born in Britain. Called True Brits (TB), it is made up of current and former members of the British National Party (BNP) and it will seek to attract the hundreds of activists who have left the BNP in recent years.
But it will also bring together some of the more extreme elements of the British far right, including antisemities and holocaust deniers.
Last month, Yorkshire and Humber MEP Andrew Brons resigned from the BNP claiming mistreatment from Nick Griffin and the party hierarchy. This was the green light the rebels had been waiting for.
The fall-out between Brons and Griffin are organisational disputes rather than political differences and, if anything, the new party will be even more extreme than the BNP. It will remain embedded to racial nationalism and total opposition to a multiracial society. Only last year, in a radio interview, Brons described the English Democrats’ “courting of multiracialism” as the primary reason he opposed their party.
The new party will include some of Britain’s most hardline racists, antisemites and Holocaust deniers. It will be BNP mark II but even more toxic. It will be TB in name and equally dangerous.
The new party will be led by Peter Phillips, a former BNP member who in 2006 stood for election as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Andrew Brons will become its President. Newcastle-based Kevin Scott is acting as the Secretary of the Steering Group and Andrew Moffat and Ken Booth its deputy chairmen.
Around them will be former BNP organisers and activists, people drawn from small and hardline groups such as England First and the Democratic Nationalists and a number of former National Front activists who were prominent in the 1970s and 1980s.
The new party will include some of Britain’s most hardline racists, antisemites and Holocaust deniers. It will be BNP mark II but even more toxic. It will be TB in name and in nature.
Its strength will initially be in the North East, Yorkshire, East Midlands and London, though it is likely to quickly attract other disillusioned BNP members from across the country.
Britain’s most hardline antisemites and Holocaust Deniers will be joining True Brits. These include Peter Rushton and Bob Gertner. It was Gertner, together with Phillips, who registered the party with the electoral commission.
Another person who has been involved in the discussions over the formation of the new party is Richard Edmonds, John Tyndall’s former deputy and now a leading figure in the National Front. Edmonds is a hardcore nazi and Holocaust Denier, so any involvement from him will clearly demonstrate the true nature of Brons’ new party.
Brons’ group will be expected to contest some of the forthcoming parliamentary by-elections, including Middlesbrough and Croydon, both to be held on 29 November. However, the new party will really look towards next year’s county council elections to stamp their mark on the British far right.
The next few months will decide whether Brons’ new far right outfit replace Griffin’s BNP as the dominant force on the British far right or whether Griffin will weather the storm and remain in control. True Brits will have the activists and the enthusiasm but Griffin is a political street fighter and his party has the recognised brand name.
However, let us not think that there is anything moderate in this new party. It is simply BNP Mark II but even more toxic.
And whoever emerges dominant, HOPE not hate we will be there to oppose them at the ballot box and in the community.

Thursday 1 November 2012

William Hague's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff

The Foreign Office has spent £10,000 on the "essential maintenance" of a stuffed anaconda called Albert.

The story was uncovered through a Freedom of Information request by political gossip website Guido Fawkes.

We wonder what the civil servants who are losing their jobs feel about £10,000 being spent on Albert.

The Tory Argument Against Regional Pay

It’s not common for a Government to conclusively lose the argument about one of its own policies purely on the basis of the evidence.  Ministers are usually able to construct something resembling an intellectual fig-leaf which maintains their dignity and allows them to press ahead with their project.  Not so with regional pay in the public sector.  Ever since George Osborne announced his grand plan to introduce “market-facing pay” in his 2011 Autumn Statement, it has increasingly looked like a policy in search of a justification.

http://labourlist.org/2012/11/the-tory-argument-against-regional-pay/

NEC meeting to agree campaign activity in November

The Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called for a Day of Action and Solidarity, across Europe on 14 November in order to mobilise the European trade union movement behind the ETUC policies set out in the ‘Social compact for Europe’.


The NEC of PCS will consider campaign activities for the day.
The government continues to attack the civil service and we all face a bonfire of our terms and conditions of service as the Cabinet Office demand every department reviews all terms, conditions, policies and practices - the things civil servants rely on to manage their working lives. Included are:
  • Hours
  • Leave
  • Parental and special leave
  • Childcare
  • Job sharing
  • Volunteering
  • Vacancy filling
  • Promotions
  • Attendance management.
The NEC will be considering a campaign plan involving a day of protest at the end of November against the coalition government's proposed review of civil service terms and conditions.
Members in PCS must fight to protect our terms and conditions of employment otherwise they will be driven down to the barest legal minimum by the current government.
Our NEC need to listen to ordinary members and understand the leadership role model they want. They want a leadership that fights for our members rights and not one that fights personal political gain.