STRATEGIES AND tactics sometimes seem like dirty words to young activists getting involved in the movement today. They see tactics as something used to fool people. People say, why can't we just confront our enemies head on? But the new movement, born at Seattle in 1999, has already had to face tactical questions.
A LEFT challenge to New Labour was launched at a vibrant convention of the left in the Brent East constituency last week. Over 90 people attended the meeting in west London in the run-up to a by-election in the area. Everyone there was determined to build an alternative to Tony Blair's pro-war, pro-privatisation policies.
JOHN REES'S timely article (Socialist Worker, 2 August) was an important statement on the tasks facing the left. I want to focus on one particular element-the link between socialists and radicalising elements in the Muslim community. I was elected as the Socialist Alliance's councillor in Preston.
THE NEW national executive of the PCS civil servants' union has held its first full meeting since the left and democracy candidates swept the board in last month's elections. The executive agreed to step up the union's national pay campaign in response to the government's recent policy of forcing departments to make unacceptably low offers.
IN HIS assessment of the left after the war, John Rees writes, "The Blairites have so marginalised the left that it is difficult to see how the Labour Party can be easily reclaimed. "Even the 175-strong selection meeting for the Brent East by-election, open to all Labour Party members, chose the pro-war, pro-Blair MEP Robert Evans." This ignores two rather inconvenient facts.
BIG FLEAS have little fleas on their backs to bite 'em. Little fleas have smaller fleas, and so ad infinitum. It's the same with lies. Big lies generate all sorts of little lies, and in a political world where real ideas and real ideology have been shovelled into the background, the politicians and their media become obsessed with the little lies, and churn them over incessantly so that their audiences and their readers become confused and disorientated.
"THE WORST estate in the country" is what the mainstream press have called the Stonebridge estate. The press talks about "Jamaican drugs crews", gang shootings and teenage drug dealers. But Stonebridge is not very different from hundreds of estates across Britain where people's lives are blighted by poverty, neglect and the fear of crime.
WHEN TONY Blair goes, who will replace him? With the vultures circling around the current occupant of 10 Downing Street, chancellor Gordon Brown must be wondering if he will eventually get the post he has long coveted. Brown is the favoured candidate of several senior figures in the Labour Party and the trade unions.
THE WORKERS Party candidate Lula's victory in the Brazilian presidential election last October represented the hopes of millions of workers. But straight after speaking to cheers at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, he jetted off to Davos to speak to the bosses at the World Economic Forum. Will he live up to his promise?
THE ANTI-WAR movement has a huge impact on trade unionists in Britain. The two million strong Stop the War Coalition demo on 15 February transformed the working class movement in this country. It deepened the swing to the left inside the unions, which has been reflected in almost all union elections.
AROUND 600 workers struck last week at Rhodia's factories in Oldbury in the West Midlands and Widnes in Cheshire. They are out to defend their right to have a decent retirement, and the "final salary" pension scheme which guarantees that. Their multinational employer wants to join a growing stampede of bosses who are out to end such schemes.
ASIANS WHO have traditionally voted Labour, already angry about the war on Iraq, privatisation and the demonisation of Islam, are even angrier after being snubbed again. The Labour Party has narrowly selected the Blairite MEP Robert Evans instead of Shahid Malik as their candidate for Brent East. The election may be as early as September.
