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Morning Star Saturday/Sunday July 11-12 2015
Red
Star
A festival of politics, culture, ideas and debate July 31 - August 2 Clerkenwell Green, London
BEN STEVENSON welcomes you to the next big festival on the left
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HE DAY after the Tories were returned with a majority many might have expected despondency to set in across the labour and progressive movement. Instead we responded by organising one of the biggest political demonstrations in a decade. After the bonanza for big business provided by George Osborne’s Budget this week very few people are under the illusion that this government — returned to office on the back of support from just 20 per cent of the adult population of Britain — is going to do everything it can to ensure that those of us who can least afford it shoulder the burden of austerity.
Whether in Greece or Spain, this isn’t just an ideologically motivated attack by nasty people in government, it’s fundamental to the continued existence of this rapacious and repugnant version of unchecked capitalism. Red Star Festival is a unique opportunity for leading figures in the labour and progressive movement to get together with activists involved in struggles to discuss, debate and argue the critical issues facing us all. But unlike many other events participants at Red Star will be able to get involved, join the debate — not that everyone will need encouraging — with workshops, roundtables and education sessions.
Jeremy Corbyn and Vince Mills will be at the centre of Saturday’s discussions with a roundtable on the future of the Labour Party and trade unions. Workshops will range from practical discussions on building People’s Assembly groups in your area, led by activists at the centre of the movement, to engaging and informative discussions on anti-fascism, education and the Middle East. Across the weekend debates on topics ranging from the future of the NHS and the housing crisis to the radical policies of Latin America will be led by panels of some of the most influential activists on the left. Interested in political economy? Or the
significance of history from a left perspective? We have the workshops for you. Learn about the battle against fascism in Spain in a venue that is home to Britain’s International Brigades archive. Or even take an introductory course on Marxism in the library that bears his name. Nestled in Clerkenwell Green, which is steeped in working-class revolutionary tradition and history, Red Star Festival will be an engaging and thought-provoking experience, but we need you to make it a success. A festival like this can only be as engaging and vibrant as its attendees, so book your tickets now and even give us a call to see how you can help make Red Star great.
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HE Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School is a very special place with a red door on Clerkenwell Green. For over 80 years it has been a jewel in the crown of the British labour movement. The library was founded in 1933 by a delegation of communists, socialist and trade unionists. It was seen as a fitting way to commemorate 50 years since the death of Karl Marx, particularly in the context of the nazi book-burnings that were taking place in Germany. But it was never intended to be simply a library and from the start the building played host to the workers’ school with its evening classes on science, history and political economy. The building marked 37a Clerkenwell Green — built in 1738 to house a Welsh charity school — is an ideal repository for a socialist library. It has a radical history stretching much further back than the foundation of the library itself. The International Working Men’s Association met here, Twentieth Century Press printed socialist literature at the turn of the century for the Social Democratic Federation that would eventually help found the Communist Party and Lenin worked in exile in a tiny office — a highlight of many a library tour — for 13 months in 1902-3. The library’s focus is on the science of Marxism, the history of socialism and the working-class movement. For decades it has collected books, historical papers and artefacts on a range of related subjects including the Spanish civil war, the print unions and peace and solidarity movements. Many of our holdings are unique
Through the Meirian Jump reveals the delights on offer at the Marx Memorial Library, host to the Red Star Festival and people come from all over the world to view our archives. A catalogue of our published collections is available on our website. One perhaps of most interest to Star readers is the complete run of the Daily Worker and Morning Star from the first time it rolled off the press in 1930. You can peruse all of the paper’s special editions, including the Scottish Daily Worker and the underground publications produced when the paper was banned at the beginning of the second world war. The library is an educational charity and organises regular classes, lectures and events. And we’ve embraced new technology, hosting our own online courses. We have a 20-strong team of volunteers and are working on cataloguing our collections and making them available in exhibitions and education sessions. Now everyone who comes through our doors — researchers
in the reading room, trade unionists attending our evening classes, school groups visiting for an archive session and tourists joining our twice-weekly guided tours — can access our collections and see our walls adorned with posters, banners
and plates all celebrating the proud history of the British and international labour movement. Forthcoming projects and events include an exhibition on socialist opposition to the first world war, a series of classes on historical
memory and the launch of themed taster courses for trade union activists. We will be marking next year’s major anniversaries with special events including the Easter Rising, Cable Street, the General Strike and the formation of the International Brigades. Our newly relaunched journal Theory and Struggle engages with current debates on Marxism and reviews studies on the radical and progressive movement worldwide. We are a charity and rely on membership dues and donations to continue our work. Members and affiliates can borrow books, hire our hall at a reduced rate and receive our journal free electronically. Please help support the library. You can join, donate and find a catalogue of our collections at www.marxmemorial-library.org.uk. n Meirian Jump is archivist at the
Marx Memorial Library
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what’s on offer at Red Star 2015? Rallies
Pic: www.theefaction.org
Sit back and listen to leading speakers from the labour and progressive movement in Britain and special guest speakers involved in workers’ struggles around the world
Round Tables
Panel-led discussions on various topics opening up to engaging question and answer sessions with attendees
Workshops
Smaller sessions allowing for attendees to get involved in detailed and collective discussions
Briefing
Detailed presentations from leading experts in their field
Culture
Hear, see and participate in politics through music, poetry and film
Pic: Ewan Munro/Creative Commons
ABOVE: Thee Faction, who will grace the Red Star stage for the Morning Star 85th birthday party Right: A sample of the displays at the Marx Library BELOW: The Crown, which will host to some Red Star sessions on Saturday
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theory & struggle T
HE left in Britain certainly isn’t lacking in ideas or in the range of campaigns, organisations and activities it carries out but the two often seem disconnected from one another. As the adage goes, theory without practice goes nowhere, practice without theory takes you nowhere. All of the main sessions at Red Star Festival will draw at the connection between the two. But for those interested in either sharpening their practical or theoretical skills we’ve got something for you. Introductory sessions on Marxist philosophy, economics and history are ideal for those relatively new to the left. For the slightly more seasoned activist we have sessions that critically engage in debates within the global Marxist movement, including contemporary cultural debates. Academics, theoreticians and worker intellectuals will help facilitate group discussions and debate about major developments in the labour and progressive movements in Britain and globally, including movements for gender equality, for racial equality and for peace.
Renowned left economist Jonathan Michie will help lead a session looking at changes in the British economy in this century. The further strengthening of anti-union laws by the Tories pose a challenge to the continued battle for trade union freedom. Barrister and campaigner John Hendy QC and Professor Marj Mayo discuss the way forwards.
global solidarity T
HE parasitic nature of imperialism has become more and more pronounced since the crash in 2008 with both capital and power being increasingly held by fewer and fewer individuals, companies and organisations. As jobs and finances are shifted across the globe faster then ever in search of profits and markets, international institutions controlled by the ruling elite have been unleashed to subvert national democracies and any popular opposition to imperialism. In Europe, austerity is being doggedly imposed, forcing countries such as Greece into unending stagnation and the popular strata into prolonged destitution. Transnational corporations and politicians from both sides of Atlantic sit in secret meetings to discuss TTIP, an agreement which will see the right to extract profit placed beyond the reach of sovereign governments and any progressive polices they may seek to enact. Imperialism’s drive to control the planet’s limited natural
resources has created and sustained wars across the world, in particular in the Middle East and Africa. This has led to the rise of extremism as organisations such as Isis fill the political vacuums left by the West’s destructive wars. However we have seen the rise of popular governments in Latin America which are providing a real alternative to the destructive effects of global capitalism, placing education, social care services and the protection of the environment at the top of their plans. Even the creation of a new development bank by the Brics nations may seek to break the monopoly of the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation, whose interest are firmly tied to the United States and European Union. At Red Star Festival, experts from across the globe will discuss the European Union, the Greek crisis, the future and hope for Latin America, the wars in the Middle East and many other topics. So come join us at Clerkenwell Green.
what’s going on labour, unions - where now? L
ABOUR’S defeat at the last general election was hailed by many right-wing commentators and Tory MPs as a decisive victory for the austerity agenda, the final death blow to the left’s revolt against destitution. But the Conservative victory may turn out to be a pyrrhic one, and while George Osborne and David Cameron plot and plunder with their recently re le a sed Budget to the applause of media barons, a new rallying call can be heard, a call that has a l r e a d y reached over 250,000 people
who took to the streets on the June 20 to oppose austerity and has galvanised support for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign. To suggest that the tables have turned against the continued offensive of the ruling class is false — Osborne’s Budget will lead to further hardship for the
poorest and most vulnerable in our society. But the opening up of the Labour leadership elections to include a candidate with a real alternative to austerity, one backed by trade unions and grassroots activists, has created a new environment in which the future of the Labour Party can be discussed. Join us at Red Star Festival, where Jeremy Corbyn, Vince Mills and others will lead a discussion on the future prospects of the labour movement, its party and the upcoming leadership elections.
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Who’s who? some of the wide selection of speakers at red star 2015 Obed Thembinkosi Mlaba Obed is the current High Commissioner of South Africa and in 1996 he was elected as the first mayor of Durban (Ethekwini), a position he held for six years. Mlaba has an active member of the ANC for 25 years.
Vince Mills Vince is chair of the Scottish Campaign for Socialism, an active member of the Labour Party and contributed to Class, Nation and Socialism: The Red Paper on Scotland. “We need to be the party that rejects austerity, Trident, PFI and privatisation, that wants public ownership of rail and energy, that is absolutely committed to the principle of redistribution.”
Martin Mayer Martin is the chair of United Left, a grouping in Unite committed to promoting a socialist agenda in the union. “Strong unions can and do win!”
on?
Romayne Phoenix Romayne stood as Green Party candidate for Lewisham West & Penge in the 2015 general election. She is a former teacher, campaigns officer for the London Green Party and committed anti-austerity activist.
Claire is the former local groups organiser for the People’s Assembly. She is lead organiser of her local group in Waltham Forest and a keen political activist.
Rosie Rawle Rosie is a student activist based at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She is national fundraiser for the People’s Assembly and active in its Norfolk group. She used to be an activist for People and Planet.
Trish Lavelle Trish has been an active trade unionist for over 20 years. She is currently the head of education and training for the Communication Workers Union and has helped to forge links with sister unions around the world.
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Joana is a journalist for the Morning Star covering social affairs such as housing campaigns and disability rights.
Mary Davis Mary is a professor in labour history, penning books on Sylvia Pankhurst, the history of the Woodcraft Folk, among others. She is a member of the Communist Party executive committee.
Liz Payne Liz is chair of the Communist Party and secretary of the National Assembly of Women.
Ben Chacko Ben is editor of the Morning Star and a member of the Communist Party political committee.
Rahana Azam Rahana is the GMB union’s national organiser for the NHS and founder of the People’s March for the NHS.
Chris Guiton Chris is secretary (interim) of the People’s Press Printing Society, the co-operative that publishes the Morning Star.
Jeremy Corbyn Claire Groom
OD Save the Queen is one of a select few national anthems in the world which does not mention its people throughout its entirety. Yet the nations and peoples of Britain are steeped in a rich musical and cultural history, a history which is not limited to the rise and fall of feudal dynasties but embedded in the hearts, actions
Joana Ramiro
Jon Schwochert and struggles of its people. From songs encapsulating the plight of the miners to the modern punk poetry of Attila the Stockbroker and the comedic derision of capitalism by Thee Faction, the Red Star cultural events, culminating in the Morning Star’s 85th anniversary celebrations seek to remember and embolden an alternative through song, dance and art.
Jon is the website organiser for the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. A member of the London district committee of the Communist Party and former secretary of the South-East London People’s Assembly. He is currently the British Wife-Carrying Champion, coming sixth in the World Championship.
Kadeem Simmonds Kadeem is the sports editor for the Morning Star. He writes frequently on both discrimination and inequality in sport.
Jeremy Corbyn MP is the muchloved Labour MP for Islington North, a constituency he has represented for 32 years. Jeremy is a dedicated trade unionist, antiausterity and peace campaigner and socialist and is vying to become the next leader of the Labour Party. “Our timeless task in the Labour Party is to stand up against injustice wherever we find it. That notion has driven me throughout my political life — and it’s what drove me to stand for Parliament in the first place.”
Jackie Longworth Jackie chairs women’s equality network Fair Play South West and is vice-president of the Women’s Engineering Society. A Labour Party member, she has been active on the South West TUC executive since 2001.
Bob Oram Bob is chair of the People’s Press Printing Society, the co-operative that publishes the Morning Star, and a member of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign executive.
Zoe Streatfield Zoe is general secretary of the Young Communist League and a member of Unite the Union’s Scottish youth committee.
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People’s voice T goes back to scene of pride
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HE Daily Worker was born on New Year’s Day 1930 as a voice of the people, in response to the monopoly of the press barons over the media industry. The paper faced immediate boycotts from the newspaper wholesalers and a new distribution mechanism had to be devised. Hundreds of Communist Party members responded to the call and a distribution network involving volunteers collecting papers from stations and delivering them to newsagents and sellers was set up — a system which continued for 11 years until the wartime ban. By 1932 the dedication of the volunteers had enabled the paper to reach 20,000 readers daily — 46,000 on Saturdays — and by 1935 weekend sales occasionally topped 100,000. In 1941 Herbert Morrison, Labour home secretary in Winston Churchill’s wartime cabinet and a rabid anti-communist, closed the Daily Worker down. In August 1942, after a massive 19-month campaign for press freedom, the ban on the Daily Worker and wholesaler boycott was lifted and a hasty 10 days later the paper was reborn. Half a million copies of the paper were ordered for the first post-ban addition but only 100,000 could be printed due to rationing. As a response the paper printed the slogan “10 readers for every copy” across the front page. Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have read that edition as people shared and passed
You can read digitised pages from the Morning Star’s forerunner the Daily Worker (1930-45) and the Star itself (2000 onwards), as they appreared in print at http://tiny url.com/DWMS archive. Ten days’ access costs just £5.99 and a whole year is £72.
on their copies of the paper, a tradition which still exists to this day, as many of the paper’s readers leave their paper on buses, trains and in workplaces for others. After the defeat of fascism in Europe the Daily Worker expanded on its successes and in February 1948 the paper issued its first special edition, a full reprint of the Communist Manifesto which sold 230,000 copies. This sale figure was later surpassed when on International Workers’ Day of that year when the paper sold over 250,000 copies. Five months later on October 31, Harry Pollitt would proclaim “the greatest and proudest day” in the paper’s history as the first edition rolled off the press in its newly acquired building in Farringdon Road. William Rust, who had started editing the paper in 1930 aged just 27 and had intermittently been in charge since, held up the first copy of this paper to a crowd of 20,000 and was carried shoulder-high to Clerkenwell Green, where he auctioned off the edition for £45. In 1966 the paper changed its name to the Morning Star. Sixty-seven years after Rust was carried to the green the Morning Star will once again be in Clerkenwell, as Ben Chacko, the paper’s second-youngest editor, celebrates the 85th anniversary of the world’s only English-language socialist daily at the Red Star Festival.
HE Morning Star is the only paper that actively campaigns for working-class politics. The only paper that reports accurately on strikes and industrial disputes. The only paper that supports the People’s Assembly and reports authoritatively on what is happening in Cuba, Palestine, Ukraine and elsewhere. The Star offers a unique, non-sectarian perspective on national and international industrial and political issues, not offered by the mainstream media. We are a reader-owned cooperative, with nine trade unions represented on our management committee: Unite, CWU, NUM, POA, Ucatt, FBU, Community, GMB and RMT. No other daily newspaper carries such a range of voices from the left — trade union leaders and activists, left Labour MPs and the Communist Party, the Stop the War Coalition, the anti-fascist campaigns Hope Not Hate and Unite Against Fascism, the Green Party and more. We also feature distinctive arts and sports coverage unavailable elsewhere. This year, the Morning Star reached its 85th anniversary. It was founded in 1930, in a country mired in the Great Depression that followed the Wall Street Crash, to act as the voice of working people resisting a ruling class determined to make them pay for its crisis. The parallels with today are obvious, and the need for our paper — the voice of the organised labour movement, the only daily paper committed to anti-imperialism, peace and socialism — is more acute than ever given the outcome of the general election. The result on May 7 was a disaster for our class. The Conservatives may only have scraped a quarter of the electorate’s votes, but they are now entrenched in power with a parliamentary majority. The first few hours of Tory rule saw the announcement of plans to cap access-to-work funding that helps deaf and blind people secure jobs. Since then the blows have come thick and fast. They plan to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights and axe the Human Rights Act. Arbitrary turnout thresholds are to be introduced on industrial action in “essential” industries. Shameless ministers couldn’t care less that if such thresholds were applied to Parliament they wouldn’t be sitting there in the first place. Those £12 billion in welfare cuts David Cameron was so shy of specifying before May 7 are headed our way. The Conservatives will seek to accelerate the privatisation of the NHS as well as extend privatisation to all remaining areas of the public sector. The heaviest and most brutal attacks are going to come quickly. They want to push as much of their agenda through as possible before disagreements over the EU or anything else start to cause problems for No 10. In Parliament little can be done to stop them. The real fight will be on the ground. Industrial action, community resistance, strikes, sit-ins, occupations — anything and everything necessary to derail the neoliberal assault, whether that’s by keeping an A&E service in a hospital or a
ROARING WELCOME: 20,000 people greet the Daily Worker at its new site in Farringdon
Morning Star important to library open, helping a school avoid being forced to become an academy or scaring a private company away from a public-sector contract. Trade unions, solidarity organisations, campaign groups and broad alliances such as the People’s Assembly will all need to come together to make this resistance as effective as possible. And the role of the Morning Star will be crucial. We all saw how brazenly a mass media owned by a handful of billionaire tax-exiles tried to manipulate the election, using all their clout to demonise Ed Miliband, the Labour Party, the Greens and, south of the border, the SNP. Any departure from the neoliberal savagery that caused the bankers’ crash in 2008 has, thanks to the Tories, prompted howls of outrage from Britain’s “free” press. Resistance under the Con-Dem coalition was continuous. There were the huge marches against student fees,
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A media for the masses editor BEN CHACKO explains why it’s have a press that works for the public “ The Morning
Star is not just a newspaper. It is a tool for education and mobilisation in the workplace and community that no politically committed person on the left should be without ”
the founding of the People’s Assembly, the teaching unions’ routing of Michael Gove, the People’s March for the NHS, the Focus E15 mums’ occupations and more. But where could you read about all this? Even liberal titles such as the Guardian have a horror of direct action and a distaste for covering trade union initiatives. In the eyes of most of the press, it’s not “proper” politics unless it takes place in Westminster. The Guardian backed Labour in May, and it might back Labour in 2020, but you can bet it will not help campaign against this government in the meantime. If we play the parliamentary game and wait five years, the Tories will have created a “new normal” — a Britain poorer, weaker, more divided and more unequal. The Morning Star is different because it is owned by its readers. Anyone who buys a share can come along to our annual general meetings and take part in discussions
around the way forward for our paper. We are the paper of the labour movement, in a very real sense, telling the stories of working-class struggle the other papers ignore. But the Morning Star is not simply a newspaper. It is a tool for an education and mobilisation in the workplace and the community that no activist or politically committed person on the left should be without. We hope you will become a daily reader. You can place an order at any retailer selling newspapers. It is also available from all branches of Martin McColl (www.martinmccoll.co.uk) and One Stop retailers (www.onestop. co.uk/). Or you can buy the e-edition, which is available as a PDF or app (on both Android and Apple devices). To subscribe go to: www.morningstaronline. co.uk/subscribe. n The Morning Star is media partner of
the Red Star Festival
THE STRUGGLE GOES ON: Editor Ben Chacko (left) with the Star’s new banner
8 red star Red Star Festival will feature a wide range of speakers from the labour and progressive movement in Britain and international guests in debates, workshops and round-table discussions. Don’t miss the Morning Star’s 85th birthday bash on Saturday night with a stellar line up of bands. Also Red Star breaks out of central London and hits the road with cultural and political events in towns and cities across Britain throughout July. Check online for full listings or pick up your copy of Britain’s only socialist daily newspaper the Morning Star. If you or your organisation want a stall or you want to volunteer to help out during the festival then contact us at accounts@mml.xyz.
Festival partners:
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n communist-party.org.uk n marx-mermorial-library.org.uk n morningstaronline.co.uk n #redstar2015 n @CPBritain n @redstarfestival n @MarxMemorialLib n @M_Star_Online
go online to get the mo st up-to-date informatio n
Communist Party
Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School NCP, YCL and the Co-ordinating Committee of CPs in Britain
booking form
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Book online http://goo.gl/K8Ygr0 or phone (020) 8686-1659 for discounted tickets. Full festival pass Full £25 Concessions £12.50 Saturday day Full £15 Concessions £7.50 Morning Star 85th birthday bash Sat evening £10 Sunday day Full £15 Concessions £7.50 I’ve enclosed a cheque/postal order payable to “MML” Credit card (circle appropriate): Visa/Delta/Electron/Mastercard/Eurocard Card number: _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ Security code _ _ _ Valid from _ _ _ _ Expires _ _ _ _