Day after day we see and read news that proves that capitalism isn’t working, that it can’t solve the problems that face the people of the world. The occupation of Iraq has made life worse for the mass of Iraqi people. The Zionist withdrawal from Gaza has gone hand in hand with an extension of their settlement of the West Bank. The response to Hurricane Katrina showed that the world’s richest nation could not and would not protect the poorest sections of the population. In Britain, the educational system remains riddled with inequality and the NHS is being slowly privatised. Now is the time for socialists and anti-imperialists to be out on the streets, campaigning for the socialist alternative, and that is where FRFI supporters have been.
In London, the weekly pickets of Marks and Spencer in Oxford Street have continued to get a very positive response from the public, in the face of two years of organised Zionist opposition. Regular pickets are also taking place in Rochdale and Newcastle, where they have been joined by local members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Supporters have also brought opposition to the occupation of Iraq to the streets of cities in England and Scotland. In London, Manchester and Newcastle street meetings have made the link between the occupation of Iraq and the attack on democratic rights in Britain, exposing the Labour government’s intention to impose an ever more repressive and racist regime in this country. More recently they have made the link between the onslaught on the Iraqi people and the US government’s racist contempt for the lives of the poor black people in New Orleans.
In Glasgow, comrades worked with Action Against War (AAW) to organise a successful day of action on 24 September. The SSP/SWP, having demobilised opposition to the occupation, refused to support it and instead urged their supporters to go on a 400-mile trip to London. SWP members said that those who were trying to organise an event in Scotland for Scottish people were splitting the movement, and threatened AAW supporters with violence. However, this did not stop mobilisation from taking place to ensure that people in Scotland did not have to travel to the south of England to make their protest. Comrades in England meanwhile mobilised to ensure that a real anti-imperialist voice was heard on the London march.
In August, two members of the RCG went to Venezuela to take part in the World Festival for Youth and Students (see page 10). This is all part of a process of developing links with other socialist and anti-imperialist organisations in other countries. As members of a communist organisation in the heart of the oldest imperialist country in the world, we relished an atmosphere where communist, anti-imperialist sentiment was the dominant feature, rather than the stale Labourism of the left in Britain.
FRFI student supporters organised stalls at Freshers Fayres as the academic year began. There has been solid support for FRFI societies at: in Scotland, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Caledonian Universities and Glasgow Art College; in England, at Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Salford and Sheffield Universities in the north, and at King’s College, LSE and SOAS in London.
The vibrant anti-war movement which existed before the invasion of Iraq has now all but disappeared. The FRFI societies will be taking up the task of rebuilding this movement and creating a genuinely anti-imperialist coalition of students against imperialism and repression in Britain. All other progressive student societies will be invited to co-ordinate campaigns under the umbrella of the Student Anti-Imperialist Network (SAIN).
The Network’s first conference will be on 29 October in Newcastle. FRFI societies will be arguing that its platform should include:
• Opposition to the imperialist occupation of Iraq;
• Support for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination;
• Opposition to racist attacks in Britain and defence of all immigrants and asylum seekers;
• Defence of democratic rights against the increasingly repressive standpoint of the Labour government;
• Support for socialist Cuba and revolutionary Latin America.
The network will be completely independent of Labour and its apologists. It will therefore pose a challenge to those on the left such as the SWP/Respect who place their alliance with the Labour left before the need to build a real movement.
Student readers from anywhere in the country are urged to contact us for more details, and to get active with us, giving a voice to the fight against racism and oppression, and supporting those fighting back against imperialism.
Events
LONDON
Every Thursday 6-8pm:
Picket of M&S, Oxford Street
(Marble Arch End),
Every Saturday/Sunday 12-3pm
Street stalls. Call/email for details (see below)
Join the activities in London!
Call: 020 7837 1688,
email [email protected]
or [email protected]
or [email protected],
Write to BCM Box 5909,
London WC1N 3XX.
MIDLANDS
For information on activities email:
[email protected]
NORTH WEST
MANCHESTER
For more information or to get active with Manchester RCG
email manchesterfrfi@revolutionary communist.com
or [email protected]
or visit www.manchesterfrfi.5u.com
for information on student activities email: [email protected]
NORTH EAST
For more information on activities contact:
Call 07813 073 846
email [email protected] or
[email protected]
SCOTLAND
Every Saturday. 12-2pm
Active Against the War Street Stalls at Borders Bookshop, Buchanan Street, Glasgow city centre
For details of FRFI activities in Scotland:
Call: 07779 785 529
email: [email protected]
For more information on anti-war activities: Email: [email protected]
FRFI 187 October / November 2005
