SOCIALIST UNITY

The document agreed by the GMB and ASDA can be found at:

http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/PressItems.asp?NodeID=94098

Compare and contrast:

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention:
Part III : Status and treatment of protected persons #Section I : Provisions common to the territories of the parties to the conflict and to occupied territories.
No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.

With the following statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry:

“In response to the abduction of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit on June 25, IDF forces entered the southern Gaza Strip during the night, moving into the region of Dahaniya in the southeastern Gaza Strip.

- Artillery fire at open areas in the southern Gaza Strip.
- Aerial attacks on three bridges in the central Gaza Strip.
- Aerial attack on electricity transformer station south of Gaza city
- Entry of armored forces into the Dahaniya area, mainly the abandoned airport. The area of Dahaniya represents a strategic control and observation point over the area of Rafah and the southern Gaza Strip. So far there has been one incident of gunfire and anti-tank missile fire at the forces, but no injuries or damage were reported. “

GMB shop stewards in ASDA have voted to accept a new national agreement.
The five day strike due to start at Midnight on Friday has therefore been called off. More news tomorrow when the details become clear.

(Remember you read it here first)

The degree of lawlessness to which Iraq has descended is summed up by today’s statement from President Vladimir Putin that Russian special forces will track down and kill the kidnappers who executed 4 Russian diplomats in Iraq.

According to Pravda, Putin’s statement did not specify what special forces might be involved. Agents of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Security Service - the main successor to the KGB - could be considered special forces. The Russian army has not historically employed specialist units equivalent to Britain’s SAS or the American Delta Force.

Obviously the killings are horrific and regrettable, but hang on. Isn’t Iraq supposed to be a sovereign state with its own elected government? On what legal basis will the Russians be able to send troops into Iraq to carry out vigilante killings? It will be interesting to see whether the British government protests against the KGB being deployed in iraq to murder people.

Last week the Miami Herald published remarkable confessions from Jose Antonio Llama, a former board member of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), who admitted creating a well armed paramilitary organisation during the 1990s, which aimed to commit terrorist atrocities in Cuba. The CANF, was created in 1981 by President Ronald Regan, and its board members allegedly also have strong links with the present US government.

Jose Antonio Llama, known as Toñin, told El Nuevo Herald that the arsenal to carry out these plans included a cargo helicopter, 10 ultralight radio-controlled planes, seven vessels and abundant explosive materials. He also provided the newspaper with proof of the financial transactions.
Llama remembers that the project started to take shape during CANF’s annual meeting in Naples in June 1992. He said businessman Miguel Angel Martinez of Puerto Rico proposed the idea of ”doing more than lobbying in Washington” to overthrow Castro. About 20 of the foundation’s most trusted leaders agreed and designated Jose ”Pepe” Hernandez, the current CANF president, and Mas Canosa to choose the armed group. ”It was agreed that since this was a delicate matter, details about the paramilitary group would be discussed in petit comite [a small committee],” Llama said. “At the meeting that board members and trustees held the following year [1993] in Puerto Rico, the chosen ones started to meet and consider everything that needed to be bought.”

To buy explosives, the group used businessman Raul Lopez, an anti-Castro exile involved in infiltration operations in Cuba in the 1960s, Llama said. Lopez owned a company authorized to purchase explosives to open up sewage canals for South Florida’s sugar industry.

The plans failed ultimately failed only after Llama and four other exiles were arrested in Puerto Rico in 1997 on charges of conspiracy to assassinate Castro during the Ibero-American Summit on Margarita Island, Venezuela. A jury acquitted them after a US judge would not allow the defendant’s confessions to be used as evidence.

Nor is the case of Jose Antonio Llama unique. In April this year the American Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms seized over 1000 automatic weapons from the terrorist group Alpha 66. When the searched the house of Alpha 66 member, Robert Ferro, Federal agents reported finding weapons wherever they looked — behind framed paintings, thermometers and mirrors, inside hollowed-out walls of closets and under the staircase. They said they found some of the most powerful firearms — Uzis and AK-47s — in the master bathroom and bedroom, behind clothing and plywood. The investigators also found rockets launcher and grenades.

The admission of Cuban exile Mafiosi in the USA that they were planning and are engaged in terrorism is extremely important in connection with the so-called Miami Five. Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Gerardo Hernandez were part of the La Red Avispa network; a collection of the Cuban agents living in Florida reporting on the activities of a number of organisations involved in terrorist activity. The information discovered by Cuban agents has helped thwart numerous bombings and assassination attempts, and even helped the FBI catch a cocaine smuggling ring. And yet all of a sudden in September 1998, the Florida branch of the FBI arrested all five and fitted them up on chrages of espionage and murder. In December 2001, after a trial in Miami, where given the influence of anti-Castro exiles there was no chance of a fair trial, U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard gave the five Cubans a collective total of four life sentences and forty four years in prison, with no chance of parole.

As Labour MP, Michael Connarty, has described the case: “By monitoring [those] who were threatening Cuba by planning terror and acts of violence against an autonomous country, [the Miami Five] were doing something legitimate. We now have a situation where the US legal system has been brought into disrepute by the vicious use of state apparatus against a group of people who were not in anyway threatening the US.” Michael Connarty is also perceptive in explaining how the incarceration of the Miami Five is also an act of war: “There is however, a general feeling in US politics that you deal with things you don’t understand by smashing them. The reality in Cuba is that there is no way for capitalist power to buy into the internal system. It is carefully fed into to the US political psyche that if you can’t influence or pull strings within that system, then you have to wipe it out, and I think that they see present day Cuba as something they would like to wipe out of the political equation. I have no doubt that this is a factor in the Miami Five case, a way of the US showing that they will be vicious to anyone representing that system.”

Last Saturday I went to an excellent day-school organised by Socialist Resistance on the politics of Latin America, and they had brought Cuban Trotskyist, Celia Hart, to speak. Celia made an excellent point that when she is debating with people in Cuba the lack of solidarity by the international left for the Miami Five is constantly raised against her.

Sorry this is a bit late. I decided to post a report here rather than on the main socialist unity website so that people could comment.

Stop the War conference had about 400 delegates, about one quarter women, and judging by appearance around one tenth black or Asian. We sent three delegates from Swindon.

Generally I thought the conference was very positive, and better than I was expecting. There were 25 motions, 9 of them from local Stop the War Groups (Edinburgh, Swindon, Merseyside, Oxford, Yeovil, Finsbury Park, Tyneside, University College hospital, and Hounslow), there were also motions from the National Steering Committee, Respect, SWP, and a joint one from the RMT and CWU. As this was a working conference on building the anti war movement there was little in the motions that was contentious, and so the business flowed fairly smoothly. As with any organisation, and any conference, knowing how the system works is important.
With Stop the War, there is a little bit of behind the scenes horse trading, where the officers’ group will ask some motions to be subtly amended so that they don’t prove impossible to implement, but I think this is all part of a constructive dialogue.

Over the last couple of years there has been a problem of the officers group not necessarily implementing all the motions passed at conference that create policy, but the Coalition does run with very limited resources.

A more general problem is that there is insufficient debate or even awareness of the current state of the coalition on a national basis. Last year I was the only member of the national steering committee from outside London, and the only delegate from a local Stop the War group, and it proved difficult for me to keep going, not least because the meetings were at 6:30 on a weekday in London, and there was no pooled fare arrangement.

Personally I try to keep in touch with people in a few Stop the War groups around the country, and the picture I get is that there is a tiredness, and an emphasis on localism, that requires more than routine of big national demos to address. Given the overwhelming unpopularity of the war, and the fantastic work that has been done by Military Families (and full credit to Chris Nineham and Andrew Burgin for that) I think there needs to be debate about why the anti-war movement is not doing better at setting the news agenda. If peo9ple want to know more about MFAW or anything else I will answer questions in the comments.

I was a bit disheartened recently when I went to a pre-conference meeting of Bristol stop the war Coalition, that after I gave what I thought was a very balanced view of both the strengths and weaknesses of the movement at the moment, based on several years of persistent organising in the peace movement, I was basically pooh-poohed by some young SWP comrades who seem to have newly got involved with the Stop the War Coalition, and for whom it is all ever onwards and upwards.

Anyway, the opening session at conference should have been an opportunity for that debate to emerge, but it didn’t quite happen. However I was heartened by how many delegates there were from local groups, doing the unglamorous routine work of grass roots campaigning.
I had two areas of concern. One was that Sami Ramadani’s expressed the opinion that the sectarian violence in Iraq is largely the creation of the occupying forces, and this seemed to be accepted by most delegates in an uncomplicated way, with some seeming to believe that it is all a dirty tricks campaign by the US.

The other area of concern was the debate over Iran. Firtslt the whole debate went a bit weird because the platform speakers, Dilip Hiro and Elahah Povey did seem to take the eccentric view that the Iranian government are brilliant, and the women’s movement and democratic movement in Iran are an example to us in the west (I exaggerate hardly at all). There were flurry of speakers slips around this, but I think correctly the conference arrangements committee took the view of not allowing the eccentricities of the platform speakers to overshadow a debate on the need to oppose a possible attack on Iran.

The motion moved by Callinicos on behalf of the SWP on Iran was to my mind much to weighted to the idea that there is a settled US policy to attack Iran, and I am not at all sure that is the case. The prevailing mood in the coalition seems very uncritical of the probability of war on Iran, and I personally think it is over-emphasised, in contrast for example to Afghanistan

After lunch we split into several workshops. Alarm bells rang for me as this is sometimes a manoeuvre to prevent debate, but at this conference the effect (and I am sure the intention) was quite the opposite, The smaller groups and more informal atmosphere allowed much more participation in discussion.

So generally the conference was a good experience, and was conducted democratically and in good spirit, but there still needs to be a serious debate about how to take the peace movement forward, and it is not clear how or where that can be achieved.

Dear Readers.

As this Blog is a co-operative exercise sometimes the contributors don’t completely agree on how it should be run. But really there is no evidence for us to decide who is right and who is wrong, so what do you think?

How often should there be a new posting?
If there are two postings on the same day, do you only read the top one?
How long should the postings be?
Do you think the mix of contributors could be improved?
If there are two consecutive postings on the same topic, is that confusing?
Do you think the balance of serious and fun/quirky postings is about right?
Do you think it is a problem if there are two or more consecutive postings from the same person?
Anything else you think we should be doing better?

GMB Members In ASDA Wal-Mart 20 Distribution Depots Deliver An Overwhelming Vote For Strike Action

GMB Shop Stewards National Council and officialls are meeting today in Manchester to consider the ballot result and set dates for industrial action.

the strike vote by GMB members in Asda Wal-Mart’s 20 distribution depots across the country went 3 to 1 (74.1%) in favour of strike action in support of their outstanding claims with the company. They also voted by an even bigger margin of more than 4 to 1 for industrial action short of a strike.

GMB members who were balloted work as HGV drivers and warehouse picker and loaders at Asda Wal-Mart 20 distribution depots including Bedford, Chepstow, Dartford, Didcot, Erith, Falkirk, Grangemouth, Ince George in Wigan, Lymedale Staffordshire, Lutterworth in Leicestershire, Portbury in Bristol, Skelmersdale, Teesport, ADC Wigan, Wakefield and Washington. They move 30,000 tonnes per day of ambient, fresh, chilled and frozen produce from 20 distribution depots to 300 Asda Wal-Mart Stores around the country.

GMB members in Asda Wal-Mart’s distribution depots want to see the establishment of proper national bargaining structures between the company and GMB covering pay, conditions and union facilities in all 20 distribution depots.

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary responding to the ballot result said, “GMB members in the 20 Asda Wal-Mart distribution depots have spoken. They have voted by three to one to take strike action despite all of the company’s attempts to dissuade or intimidate them to vote no. GMB members have been subjected to unprecedented interference and propaganda by Asda Wal-Mart. This ballot result shows that it is time for Asda Wal-Mart to wake up and smell the coffee. GMB members tell us that the company is gearing up and may illegally attempt to use agency labour to do our members jobs. This is what is behind the company statement that in the event of industrial action the customers will not notice a thing. Using agency labour during an official trade dispute is illegal and GMB will not allow Asda Wal-Mart to run a coach and horses through UK labour law. Any attempt by outside agencies to interfere or undermine this lawful industrial action by GMB members will be responded to with full vigour.”

Update: Asda reps at the GMB national shop stewards meeting have voted for a 5 day strike with effect from midnight on 30th June, ending on 4th July. Bring it on.

The news that prominent left MP Alan Simpson is to be disciplined by the Labour Party, and could even lose the Labour whip, is further evidence of the relentless determination of the Labour right to crush all opposition within the party.

Chief whip and Blairite numbskull, Jacqui Smith has also reported Alan to Nottingham South CLP, who will decide whether to censure their MP tomorrow. Of course this is a dangerous course of action for the Blairites, as Alan is popular with his constituency party, and with the voters.

From their point of view they may have picked on the wrong target, as Alan offers them few weaknesses to exploit. He is probably the most committed MP in Westminster towards environmental sustainability, he is a leading figure in Labour Against War, and an articulate socialist.

But the move does raise the question of what strategy the Labour Left now have. I went to a very interesting workshop at the recent Stop the War Coalition conference on working in the Labour Party, that was addressed by the ever brilliant Alice Mahon.

There were around 15 people in the room, of whom half were in the Labour Party, and it would be fair to describe the rest as sharing the politics of the labour left, but cannot see any point in continued participation in the Party.

Although the meeting was intended to discuss how to work for peace within the Party, inevitably the meeting veered into a discussion of whether the left should even still be members. The discussion was very interesting with several of the delegates complaining how moribund their local wards or constituency parties are. In particular there seems a general experience that union branches no longer send delegates to the GMC, often as in the case of my union branch, because there is no-one eligible, as individual membership of the Labour Party is increasingly rare amongst union activist.

Alice Mahon reported the victorious fight by her CLP to select the excellent socialist Linda Riordan, in the teeth of determined opposition by the Blairites, who used all sorts of dirty tricks. Unfortunately, the experience of Swindon South where Millbank were able to orchestrate the victory of the woefully useless Anne Snellgrove over left NEC member Christine Shawcroft seems more typical. Indeed Swindon is a good case study of the collapse of the Labour Party in the south of England, where despite two Labour MPs, the council now has a thumping Tory majority, and 5 former labour councillors have defected to the conservatives in as many years. A comrade from Portsmouth described how there is an awful atmosphere in the local party, and other comrades reported experiences of being marginalised.

The workshop was then addressed by NEC member Pete Willsman, who unintentionally revealed the gap between aspiration and reality. Pete argued forcibly that the left were still a major force within the party, as they have 4 out of 6 constituency delegates on the NEC (but there are 33 members of the NEC), and that if only they could win between 30 and 35 members on the National Policy Forum (NPF) they could get items on the agenda for conference, and if then passed they would be in the manifesto.

But the positions held by the left give them no substantive power, and they are a million miles away from winning enough positions on the NPF. Even then – Labour governments have never felt mandated by their manifesto commitments.

Okay, you decided to support T&T, good on you - but who will you be supporting on Tuesday? The reason I ask is simple, if we take a look at the table supplied here at the SU World Cup Aggregator with one game to go there is only one scenario where T&T can get through to the next round.

With T&T on one point and Sweden on four T&T must win their match and rely on England beating Sweden with a healthy goal difference. Now are you supporting T&T and therefore willing England on to a hefty victory against Sweden or was it a stance to irritate England supporters, in which case a defeat by Sweden could force England into second place and the more difficult second round match?

Do you feel torn?