Sconfiggere la Spinta Guerrafondaia Fascio-Sionista di Trump & Netanyahu
– Per Azioni dei Lavoratori negli Uffici, nelle Fabbriche e nei Porti per Boicottare il Commercio di Armi con USA & Israele
– Porre Fine a Qualsiasi Cooperazione del Governo Britannico con la Guerra di Trump contro l’IRAN
– Fuori Tutte le Forze Armate Britanniche dal Medio Oriente e dal Mediterraneo
– Per Combattere il Razzismo e il Fascismo Dovunque Dobbiamo Lottare per Diritti Veri per Rifugiati e Immigrati – Liberta’ di Movimento! Aprire le Frontiere!
Il Popolo Iraniano ha il Diritto di Decidere il Proprio Futuro
La Guerra USA/Israele e’ un Tentativo Fallimentare di Ricolonizzazione, non Liberazione – Il Popolo Iraniano ne e’ Consapevole e lo Rigetta
Londra, MFJ alla Marcia Nazionale Contro la Guerra 28/03/2026
La Guerra ingiustificata di Trump & Netanyahu contro l’Iran ha sollevato lo spettro del fascismo demente, del sionismo genocida, e della Guerra totale – e fa rabbrividire il mondo intero. La crisi di lungo termine dell’economia globale capitalista si approfondisce. La risoluzione della crisi climatica globale di un mondo legato all’olio & al gas e’ ancora una volta rimandata a un futuro ancora piu’ distante. I poveri e gli oppressi diventano piu’ poveri, piu’ malati, e ancora piu’ oppressi. Le classi dirigenti di ogni paese aquistano piu’ armament, pagati da piu’ tagli a quello che rimane dei servizi educativi, sociali e di sanita’ pubblica.
Tuttavia, fin dall’inizio di questa guerra, Trump e Netanyahu hanno incontrato una resistenza da parte dell’Iran molto più grande, meglio preparata e più creativa di quanto avessero mai pensato possibile. La forza dell’Iran sta già mettendo in evidenza le differenze tra le loro agende: l’attenzione di Trump è sul far valere la sua immagine di sé come il dominatore fascista del mondo; per Netanyahu, l’attacco all’Iran è una fase a lungo pianificata nella lunga guerra per il controllo e l’occupazione israeliana del Medio Oriente. I governi imperialisti e le classi dirigenti d’Europa – i presunti alleati NATO degli Stati Uniti – riconoscono questa guerra USA/Israele come un altro segno del loro potere in declino e del concreto sfaldamento dell’alleanza NATO. Si trattengono, osservano gli sviluppi, ed esitano.
Tutte le organizzazioni della classe lavoratrice, progressiste, antirazziste e antifasciste devono unirsi in azione e combatterecon qualsiasi mezzo necessario per porre fine a questa guerra e per impedire al nostro governo di prenderne parte. La manifestazione di oggi è una dimostrazione della nostra potenziale unità. Dobbiamo unirci per fermare la guerra. Dobbiamo sfruttare le divisioni e le esitazioni dei politici per bloccare la loro inevitabile inclinazione a unirsi alla guerra di Trump. I movimenti di massa per la libertà dei palestinesi e per i diritti dei lavoratori, dei rifugiati, degli immigrati, ecc. hanno questo potere potenziale.
Iran e Imperialismo
San Francisco, BAMN alla protesta “No Kings Day” 28/03/2026
La guerra contro l’Iran è un tentativo di capovolgere la rivoluzione iraniana del 1979, che fu una sconfitta importante per l’imperialismo occidentale e per lo Stato di Israele – il principale agente degli Stati Uniti in Medio Oriente.
L’Iran ha la più grande superficie terrestre e popolazione tra i principali paesi produttori di petrolio del Medio Oriente. Per più di un secolo, le potenze imperialiste hanno cercato di dividerlo o di prendere il controllo della sua politica e delle sue risorse. Negli anni 1920, gli imperialisti britannici deposero la vecchia famiglia reale e imposero il governo brutale e repressivo della dinastia Pahlavi. Quando un governo iraniano eletto nazionalizzò l’industria petrolifera nei primi anni 1950, Gran Bretagna e Stati Uniti organizzarono un colpo di stato e reinstaurarono il secondo Shah Pahlavi (Re).
Sotto il governo notoriamente brutale dell’ultimo Shah, l’Iran era secondo solo a Israele come alleato e agente degli imperialisti occidentali in Medio Oriente. Nel 1979 lo Shah fu rovesciato dalla rivoluzione popolare. I leader religiosi (Ayatollah) che lo Shah aveva mandato in esilio, tornarono in Iran. Nel caos della rivoluzione, riuscirono a usare la loro autorità per istituire uno stato teocratico che è diventato sempre più repressivo.
A partire da quella rivoluzione, l’Iran è stato soggetto a crescenti pressioni e sanzioni da parte degli Stati Uniti e dei suoi alleati. Questo ha causato un aumento della povertà tra il popolo iraniano. In risposta, il regime ha aumentato il suo controllo autoritario e si è rivolto alla Russia e alla Cina per ottenere sostegno. L’autoritarismo del regime è stato sfidato da focolai di resistenza che hanno scosso la sua autorità, ma sono stati repressi dal suo considerevole potere militare.
Le pressioni imperialiste sull’Iran hanno funzionato più per preservare il suo regime autoritario e teocratico che per rimuoverlo. La grande massa del popolo iraniano capisce bene che non deve fidarsi delle false promesse degli imperialisti e ha dimostrato di non avere alcuna intenzione di consegnare il proprio paese all’imperialismo statunitense e a Israele.
Perché gli Stati Uniti e Israele Sono Entrati in Guerra – e Come hanno Calcolato Male la Risposta
Per il regime fascista di Trump in America e il regime fascista di Netanyahu in Israele, l’attuale guerra contro l’Iran è una continuazione della loro guerra genocida e della ‘pulizia etnica’ contro il popolo palestinese, al fine di distruggere ogni resistenza e mantenere il loro dominio sul Medio Oriente e le sue risorse. Allo stesso tempo, Netanyahu ha intensificato gli attacchi israeliani sul Libano e ha occupato la parte meridionale del paese.
Gli obiettivi di Trump e Netanyahu mettono lo Stato di Israele in uno stato di guerra permanente, che, se continuata, finirà in autodistruzione. Attualmente è possibile solo grazie al sostegno americano. Sono uniti dalle loro illusioni fasciste, ed è questo che li rende – e rende questa guerra – così pericolosi.
Per Trump e il suo circolo in declino di devoti, questa è la sua guerra fascista, e nient’altro. Non ci sono ragioni razionali per questa guerra in questo momento. È profondamente impopolare in America, anche tra gli stessi sostenitori di Trump. L’unico scopo di questo presidente fascista nell’entrare in guerra contro l’Iran in questo momento è dimostrare al mondo il suo potere sfrenato di distruzione inumana e fascista, dimostrare – non solo ai nemici ma anche agli ex sostenitori insoddisfatti – che le loro opinioni non contano nulla, lui è il Re dei Re.
In questo momento storico, Trump e Netanyahu credevano di avere un’opportunità perché l’influenza regionale del regime iraniano era in declino, a seguito dei contraccolpi subiti dai gruppi di resistenza antisionisti che aveva sponsorizzato: Hezbollah e Hamas. Tuttavia, sono rimasti accecati dal potere della resistenza di un popolo sotto attacco e non prevedevano la rinascita di Hezbollah.
Per i poveri e gli oppressi del Medio Oriente e del mondo intero, per tutte le comunità discriminate, i rifugiati, i lavoratori immigrati ecc. in Gran Bretagna, la risoluzione più positiva di questa guerra è la sconfitta militare degli Stati Uniti e di Israele.
L’azione dei Lavoratori Può Fermare la Guerra: Boicottare Tutto il Supporto e le Forniture per la Guerra Contro l’Iran
In Gran Bretagna il movimento che ha marciato per la Palestina sta ancora marciando. Coloro che hanno costruito il massiccio movimento anti-guerra di resistenza all’interventismo di Starmer, difeso Palestine Action, si sono mobilitati contro i fascisti e hanno riempito innumerevoli tribunal, sono ora per le strade a chiedere una fine immediata della guerra USA/Israele contro l’Iran. Ogni volta che marciamo per la Palestina dobbiamo marciare anche per l’Iran – Una lotta! Una battaglia!
Tutte quelle forze progressiste e contro la guerra in Gran Bretagna, specialmente nei sindacati, devono ora organizzare boicottaggi per indebolire e interrompere l’attacco USA/Israele contro l’Iran. Dobbiamo agire nello spirito dei portuali nei porti europei e mediterranei che hanno bloccato le spedizioni di armi verso Israele, e dei funzionari britannici che si sono rifiutati di concedere licenze per le armi a Israele, e dobbiamo agire più ampiamente e creativamente per fermare, ostacolare o indebolire il trasporto e la consegna di qualsiasi forma di armamenti, merci, servizi e comunicazioni che possano assistere gli attacchi contro l’Iran.
Dobbiamo esigere che i nostri leader sindacali organizzino questa campagna di azione, o almeno la supportino e la difendano, ma non possiamo aspettare loro né fare affidamento su di loro. La necessità di questa azione è urgente, quindi dobbiamo organizzare gruppi di azione di base nei nostri luoghi di lavoro, qualunque essi siano e ovunque si trovino.
La lotta Contro il Fascismo
Questa lotta non è semplicemente una campagna contro una guerra imperialista; è una battaglia contro il fascismo. Una vittoria per gli Stati Uniti e Israele significherebbe una vittoria del fascismo su scala globale – e ulteriori guerre. I capitalisti ricchi e potenti di tutto il mondo si stanno rivolgendo al fascismo perché il loro sistema economico e politico ha raggiunto un vicolo cieco. Hanno creato i più grandi livelli di disuguaglianza in tutta la storia umana e non riescono a risolvere nessuno dei giganteschi problemi che hanno creato. Si rivolgono ai fascisti per SCHIACCIARCI, per portarci via TUTTI i nostri diritti e le nostre libertà, per negare il nostro diritto alla libertà di parola, ecc. Questo è ciò che Trump sta cercando di fare, e ciò che Netanyahu sta facendo in Israele.
Per ottenere il potere, i fascisti usano il razzismo, il nazionalismo etnico, le divisioni religiose e intimidazioni violente nelle nostre strade – e usano anche il Parlamento. Questo sta accadendo ora in Gran Bretagna – non è “estrema destra”, un termine impreciso che nasconde la realtà. Si tratta di fascismo, e per sconfiggere i fascisti dobbiamo lottare per i diritti e le libertà che intendono distruggere: libertà di parola, di manifestazione, È fascismo, e per sconfiggere i fascisti, dobbiamo lottare per i diritti e le libertà che pianificano di distruggere – libertà di parola, manifestazioni ecc., difesa contro gli attacchi razzisti/fascisti, e lotta per la libera circolazione delle persone, che è un diritto umano fondamentale. Distruggere la libertà di movimento, come sta facendo il governo di Starmer, sta aumentando il razzismo. I nostri movimenti di massa dovrebbero costruire unità di difesa antifascista e rivendicare di APRIRE LE FRONTIERE.
Se noi in Gran Bretagna, come lavoratori, rifugiati e immigrati, come persone nere, asiatiche e musulmane, come persone povere e oppresse, combattiamo con ogni mezzo necessario per costruire un’azione significativa contro la macchina da guerra USA/Israele che sta attaccando l’Iran, indeboliremo il nostro stesso governo razzista e anti-lavoratori, e infliggeremo un duro colpo al programma fascista di Trump negli USA, e contro il fascismo in questo paese, in tutta Europa e in Medio Oriente. QUESTO DEVE ESSERE IL NOSTRO OBIETTIVO.
Join MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE. Lottiamo per vincere.
Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary movementforjustice.co.uk movement4justice.bamn@gmail.com X/IG: @followmfj TikTok: @joinmfj Facebook: movementforjustice
BAMN – Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary BAMN.com contact@bamn.com IG/Tiktok: @joinbamn Facebook: bamnpage X: @followbamn
International Trotskyist Committee for the Political Regeneration of the Fourth International (ITC) Revolutionary Workers League (U.S.) Revolutionary Internationalist League (U.K.) itc4.or
Dennis Carabott Wins Key Victory Against his Unjust Sacking by Newham Council. This is a Victory for all of Newham and Tower Hamlets!
Demand Newham Council reinstates Dennis Carabott now. We will not accept attacks on our leaders. We will defend our jobs and communities against austerity measures and against racist and anti-immigrant attacks.
On December 18th Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) Judge Barklem found that the original Employment Appeal (ET) Judge’s decision against Dennis was not based on the evidence and was “arguably perverse”. Perverse means a decision made by an employment tribunal that is so clearly against the weight of evidence and so irrational, one sided and unjust that no reasonable person could have reached that conclusion. This is a spot-on description of ET Judge Massarella’s decision against Dennis Carabott.
Dennis Carabott is a refuse worker and a highly regarded champion of workers’ rights. He is a trade union activist and strike leader. Dennis was a refuse truck driver and worked for Newham for 16 years, before he was suspended in 2019. Dennis was unlawfully and unjustly sacked by Newham Council in response to his record as a workers’ leader who would not back down – who exposed the bullying, discrimination and corruption of Newham management and successfully defended his co-workers – including another union steward – who were unjustly targeted by managers. Management response was to set-up Dennis to be sacked on spurious charges in retaliation. He has been fighting to reverse this cowardly and baseless attack by Newham and expose their actions ever since.
Throughout his fight, Dennis has had the unwavering support of Newham refuse workers, Tower Hamlets workers, and communities across Newham, Tower Hamlets and all of London. This is a victory that points the way forward for the kind of struggle we need, in order to defeat the austerity policies we now face under the Labour government. Dennis is the kind of leader who will not back down. He speaks truth to power.
Dennis’ victory is a victory for all of Newham and Tower Hamlets. However, Dennis, his union support person Alex Owolade, and his US-based legal team (BAMN – MFJ’s sister organisation) were told that he had no chance by every solicitor, barrister, UK employment law site and union official they reached out to for help. And the judge who first reviewed Dennis’ EAT application of appeal rejected his appeal and described Judge Massarella’s decisions as “well-reasoned.”
There were two important developments before Dennis’s second EAT hearing on December 18th, where judge Barklem gave his strong decision in support of Dennis’ right to appeal his case. First, Movement for Justice (MFJ), the anti-racist, pro-worker and pro-immigrant rights organisation that supports Dennis’ fight, redoubled its public organizing campaign to mobilize support for Dennis. Second, his legal team went on a self-taught crash course in UK employment law, in order to add further grounds for his appeal and to sharpen our arguments. By the time the winning case was heard, Newham Council had been scandalized and Dennis had irrefutable legal arguments to convince Dennis’ new EAT judge to rule for him.
Employment Tribunals are terrible, pro-management bodies, aimed at making workers feel subhuman and so demoralized, angry and hopeless that many workers just want to abandon their cases rather than endure hours more of bullying and shaming.
Dennis won because he is an honest leader dedicated to the fight for workers’ rights and Justice. But he could never have won fighting alone. Dennis had an organization to support him and develop a winning strategy, based on an understanding of how to beat the rich and powerful. He had a group of co-workers and community supporters and family members standing by his side urging him to keep fighting. Without all of these different kinds of support most workers would lose or give up. The lessons of Dennis’ victory are that you need: a) an organization to win; b) to know that having any illusions in the fairness of the ET process is a guaranteed way to lose and c) to ignore the advice of weak, routinist solicitors and barristers who are more concerned about looking good to a judge than fighting for their clients to win.
The Employment Tribunal Kangaroo Court of Judge Massarella
Last year Dennis’s case was unlawfully shut down by Judge Massarella, at the East London Employment Tribunal. Dennis was denied the opportunity to present one speck of factual evidence from the overwhelmingly strong case against his illegal sacking by Newham Council – a sacking on the ludicrous charge that he took a 20 pence discount on a can of soft drink from a store owner (sic). Judge Massarella sprang into action when – before any evidence was heard – the Council’s barrister made a reference to Dennis’s leadership in the Newham and Tower Hamlets refuse workers strikes.
The ET panel then allowed Newham management to enter a new and unverified email message as evidence on the second morning of the hearing. It was supposedly sent from the manager to Dennis, sacking him three days before he received the letter by post. They were attempting to argue that Dennis’ ET case should be thrown out of court because it was out-of-time. Dennis had never received this email, and out of scores of emails it was the only one that was not copied to his union representative worker and MFJ leader, Alex Owolade. David Humphries, the manager who supposedly sent the email was not even in court for questioning.
Instead of demanding that the Newham Barrister prove the suspicious email was authentic and explain how Newham management failed to find it for three years, Judge Massarella put the burden on Dennis and his family to prove the email did NOT exist. But given that it was never sent, it was no surprise that Dennis couldn’t produce it. This entire farce was dictated by Judge Massarella in open court in order to avoid Newham having to answer for its scandalous and unjust sacking of Dennis.
It was these actions that Employment Appeal Tribunal judge Barklem called “arguably perverse” and arguably “errors of law” in Dennis’ hearing on 18th December. The judge’s decision is definite and strong, giving Dennis the best chance possible to win at the forthcoming full hearing of the Employment Appeals Tribunal. That hearing should give Dennis his first chance in the 5 years following his illegal sacking to finally get his case heard and his sacking reversed.
Defend our workers’ leaders – Defeat the austerity attacks by Labour
Dennis would not give up. Newham workers and the community would not give up. Newham Council had one play in its gamebook – endlessly delay; they live by the old adage that “justice delayed is justice denied” and they plan to achieve that delay/denial at every step. No trick, no lie is considered too wrong – but now we have turned the tables, and now Newham Council is on trial.
The job of the movement now is to mobilise, and force Newham to drop its embarrassingly weak case against Dennis. It is too costly and too much of a diversion to continue. The Council needs to reinstate Dennis and stop wasting the Council’s resources. But it will not do this unless we mount an all-out campaign of action that unites the community, the unions and workers, and all the oppressed & struggling people of Newham.
The Council fears that if it cuts its losses and reinstates Dennis, then every worker and community member will gain the confidence to wage a collective campaign to stop the cuts in community services and the redundancies on the horizon. What our Councillors fears is precisely what we have to build, and the fight for Dennis Carabott’s immediate reinstatement is a vital part of building such a campaign of resistance to the attacks on the community and workers.
Newham Councillors were elected by the community; they should respond to our fight against austerity and the struggles of their own workers. They should be organising the fight against the Labour Party’s depraved campaign against local communities and against its own past history of progressive, pro-working-class policies.
Newham can and must lead a fight right across London boroughs and beyond, to stand up for the workers they employ and for workers generally, to stand up for struggling middle class community members, including market traders and small businesses, and especially for the youth and the immigrant and refugee communities.
The only question is, will our elected councillors participate in the fight or do we need to clear them out of the way to win. Either way, we must build independent committees of action to lead the fight. We cannot place our futures in the hands of tired, scared, subservient and sure to sell-out leaders, like the current union bureaucrats, or religious and civic leaders who only know how to fight to lose.
We have a base to build on. The movement in support of victory for the inspiring and courageous struggle of the Palestinian people has already galvanized hundreds of thousands of people in the UK and millions worldwide. Our job is to unite our movement to stop the cuts with the Pro-Palestine movement and the other progressive movements, so that we have the power to defeat all the bankrupt policies of the Labour Government and the Labour Party in Parliament and in local councils.
We demand that Newham Council Reinstates Dennis Carabott now.
Organize and Unite the movements to Defeat all attacks on the leaders we elect and trust.
Build Independent Committees of Action to Defeat the austerity measures.
Join the Struggle now to defeat the Labour Party’s anti-working class & anti-poor cuts and redundancies; against racist, sexist and homophobic policies ; against the pro-imperialist War drive; and against attacks and deportations on immigrants and asylum seekers.
If We Stand Up Together and Prove We Are Inseparable, We Can Win
Email/message us to help mobilise to win: movement4justice.bamn@gmail.com
Defend Public Education: end the hated SATS system
Fight for art, music, and drama and extra-curricular programs
Reverse Brexit
End all racist police brutality and fascist attacks against our black, Asian, Muslim, and immigrant communities
All-out indefinite strike action
Strike to Win
On 1 February, 500,000 strikers led by the teachers’ unions and joined by tens of thousands of other striking workers, took to the streets of major cities and small towns. The teachers call for a national day of strike action to win a pay raise, to stop the government’s Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, and to save education was joined by students and community supporters eager to join what felt more like a celebration of the power of Britain’s working class and oppressed and less like another day of union strike actions. This was a rare day in the maelstrom of huge strikes that began in the late summer of 2022, because it was one of the tiny number of strikes in which strikers from a single sector of public workers were unified and fighting together. 300,000 teachers from every level of education starting with primary schools and continuing up to university teachers from 150 universities across Britain were acting on the founding principles of trade unions: unity, solidarity and power in numbers.
The wall-to-wall teachers’ strike was joined by 100,000 public sector workers, rail and transport workers, and other strikers. There were special rallies embedded in the day of strike action to protest the government’s union-busting Strike (Minimum Staffing) Bill written specifically to stop the strike wave that is electrifying the UK.
In London, a spirited and defiant demonstration of 40,000 people led by teachers started their rally at Portland Place and then marched to Downing Street. Throughout the day, professionally made union banners and flags including a lead banner saying “Save Our Schools, Children Deserve Better” could be seen flying high and proud. Students of all ages and community supporters carried tens of thousands of homemade placards in support of all the strikes. The overwhelming popular support for the strikes is based on the common understanding that the government is responsible for the hyperinflation that is instituting pay cuts, and its attacks on the NHS, Education, the Rails and all public sector jobs must stop now.
Less than a week after the February 1 Day of Action, nurses and other NHS workers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland held the biggest days of strike action in the 75-year history of the NHS. These strikes were just as euphoric, exhilarating, powerful, and popular as the teachers’ national day of strike action. In the next few months there will be an array of new strike action. The six-month strike-wave that has been sweeping the country has the potential to unite and change Britain forever. We are speaking for the great majority of people who hate the Tories and want to see them defeated.
The government’s declaration of war against our strikes
Our strikes are not typical trade union struggles. Despite the claims of our top union leaders, the government, and the press that our strikes are only about winning a pay increase, our strikes are inherently a political challenge to the program of the government.
Every one of our strikes is objectively both an economic and political fight. Every victory for our side is a defeat of the government’s austerity and privatization policies. Every wage increase we win that keeps us ahead of inflation makes it possible for the 47,000 openings for NHS nurses and the tens of thousands teacher vacancies to be filled. Winning pay increases and increased staffing levels for striking NHS workers, teachers, and other public sector workers will be a blow to the government’s austerity and privatization efforts. Winning safe working conditions and pay increases for rail workers, ambulance drivers, firefighters, bus drivers, refuse workers and all other striking workers whose lives are being placed in jeopardy every day, will make clear that government’s murderous COVID-19, immigration, and policing policies will no longer be tolerated and must end now.
Our strikes are strong, but to beat the government we need to create a broader movement that gets our passive supporters and other activists into the streets fighting with us.We have broad public support that can be mobilized and strengthen our strikes. We are fighting for our patients, students, passengers, and anyone who benefits from the public sector. Right now, as a matter of fact, our union struggles for health workers are struggles to save the NHS and the healthcare of the overwhelming majority of the people of the UK, which the current government is attacking. Right now, as a matter of fact, the struggle to win a better contract for fire brigades is a struggle to prevent entire blocks of houses from burning down. However, those broader political and social demands are being left implicit. In a situation in which the stakes are so high, these demands must be made explicit.
Women demonstrate against closure at South London Women’s Hospital (1984-85)
This means that under these conditions, the current demands of our strikes are too narrow. We need to place demands on the government that go beyond contract demands and present our struggles explicitly for what they really are: struggles to save the NHS and the other essential public institutions we are defending. If we start fighting for the reforms we need to win to assure the survival of the NHS and to improve education, our strikes will be transformed into a bigger, stronger movement that can defeat the government’s plans to privatize the public sector or chop away services from the NHS and the other public institutions whose services are essential for the majority of the people of the UK to lead a decent human life.
We can draw students and youth into our movement if we include the demands to improve education that young people are passionate about. Ending SATS and creating more academic and extracurricular programs are two demands that students will fight for and can be won through our teachers’ strikes. Students organized their own strikes prior to the pandemic to fight for policies to stop global heating. A joint struggle of all the education unions and student unions would scare the pants off of many government MP’s. All of modern history has shown that a fundamental rule of thumb for any serious mass struggle is that the role of youth is essential to the possibility of victory.
We have already marched to defeat the government’s new Strike Bill. But that is not enough to kill the bill. All of the striking unions should make the government withdraw its new pending Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill. In reality, it is part and parcel of a whole series of new laws designed to attack the whole range of the democratic rights of the whole working class. All of these reactionary, anti-democratic, proto-fascist laws that are now before Parliament or have already been passed by Parliament are being fought against by community members who support our strike. These attacks on basic human rights range from giving police unlimited powers to commit crimes, including murder, without suffering any consequences, to locking refugees in new detention centers/concentration camps.
If we stand together and fight jointly, our strike will be much more difficult to defeat, and we will be able to defeat some or all of the government’s repressive and dangerous laws. If we take up the demands of campaigns against police brutality and defending the rights of immigrant communities and asylum seekers and the whole Tory integrated and intertwined proposals to foster racism and anti immigrant bigotry we can build a united movement committed to winning equality, respect, dignity, and justice for the working class, the poor, and the oppressed.
Defeating one or more of the Tories’ policies will inspire more people to join our fight. We can defeat the ability of the government to institute any aspects of their plan to privatize the public sector. Every victory we score against the government will literally preserve human lives. We know how ruthless and indifferent to life this government is. We have witnessed and are still witnessing the needless deaths of thousands of people because of the government’s put-profits-before-people COVID-19 policy.
Our strikes and the movement we help build are the fight for a future that is far better than what exists today. Our union members and the students, patients, commuters and communities we serve are the lifeblood of this society. Our lives are intimately intertwined with the different communities we serve. We know we are fighting for so much more than pay raises. We just need to make that explicit by placing demands on the government that must be met for us to settle our strikes.
The sooner we take the steps we need to win, the better. Time is a friend of the government and an enemy of ours. The longer, more drawn out our strikes become, the greater the chance of demoralization and scabbing on our strike. If the support of the community is based on building a movement together, our support will stay strong for longer. If community support is based solely on supporting our contract fight, it will tend to wane more if it feels to some people it is taking too much time for us to make headway. We have taken on a big responsibility. We need a winning battle plan that ends in victory. We have the power to win. Our problem is we have too many leaders afraid of our power. Therefore, in order to win, we are going to need some new leaders to step forward who are not afraid of winning.
Strike to Win
In the coming weeks, there will be many national, regional and local strike days, and although these struggles are important to maintain our movement, in their current limited form, they will lose in immediate terms. The strikes are too short, sporadic, infrequent, drawn-out, fragmented and uncoordinated. The on-again-off-again strike dates, the local and regional schedule of partial one day actions of different teachers, NHS, rail, and other union strikes, make it impossible to follow which union is on strike on any given day and to know what services will be affected. The Guardian, The Scotsman and other media sources regularly publish strike calendar spreadsheets to explain who, where, and which workers are on strike. These strike calendars are constantly revised. The strikes that do take place are primarily used to get the government to return to the bargaining table. In most cases, as soon as bargaining begins again, strike action is indefinitely suspended. This means that the government, not the unions, is controlling who, when, and where strike actions will take place. The policy of one-day rolling strikes that divides strikers in the same union into small and weak brigades of an army that could win fighting as one is, to put it mildly, crazy and stupid.
We cannot continue to engage in these losing tactics. The basic premise of trade unions is that there is strength in numbers. The two principles that every union is built on are unity and solidarity. But now when we need to be acting on those founding principles, our union tops are rejecting them for no good reason.
We need to use our numeric strength to win. We need all-out indefinite strikes by each of the unions to win. We need to demand that every one of our union leaders call for all-out strikes of each of their unions. We need to remove the roadblocks that our union tops, who are managers of each of their respective union’s bureaucracies and privately empathize more with our bosses than they do with us, are putting in the way of our strikes. We need to demand that TUC leader Nowak, who is the dutiful lapdog of the Labour Party, which is opposed to our strikes, step down now. Anyone who supports Nowak’s anti-labour, pro-government strategy to our strike action is our enemy. The last thing we need is a traitor leading the TUC.
The strikes of education workers led by the teachers and teaching assistants provide an example of how to squander our power and passion to win. We know that the teachers’ strikes are popular and well-organized, but are achieving next to nothing because of their flawed tactics. Teachers in Scotland just finished sixteen days of continuous rolling strikes which ended without a better contract settlement. University teachers have already carried out strike actions. They want to wage a national all-out strike but are being prevented from doing so by General Secretary Jo Grady. The union is 70,000 strong and represents teachers at 150 universities throughout the UK. There are 2.6 million university students. In November, the National Union Of Students (NUS) endorsed the University teachers’ strike. The NUS is campaigning for free education, available to all, including every community member regardless of age, formal qualifications and availability to take classes in person. It is seeking larger student stipends so that working-class, poor, black, immigrant, and asylum seeker students can get a university education without the mental health problems these students face because of their economic status.
The university teachers’ strikes are planned for three days a week during the month of February. The university teachers’ strikes, which are the largest strikes in the history of higher education, provide students with the vehicle they need to win their demands. Both university teachers and students have the same goals and meet the economic demands needed for both teachers and students to flourish and improve and broaden access to higher education. If they unite and strike together in an all-out indefinite strike, everyone could win. Right now, the limited demands, intermittent character of and needlessly enforced isolation of the University teachers’ strike, are diminishing the power of the strike and setting it up to fail.
The strike strategy of our union leaders makes us look weak and scared. We can not win if we continue to follow the agreed-upon, losing tactics of leaders of each and every union. Obviously, if our aim is to win quickly, every union should be participating in coordinated strikes, so we shut down Britain and keep it shut down until every union wins.
We have been given two reasons for the intermittent, fractured tactics for conducting our strikes. The first is that we should believe in the infantile Christmas Eve strategy. If we are good, respectful workers, then we will wake up and see that the government has collapsed and granted our demands. This is about as likely to happen as Father Christmas shimmying down a chimney with a sack full of gifts. The second is that patients, parents, commuters will continue to support us if our strikes cause minimal disruptions. This makes no sense, first because anyone that relies on one of our striking institutions would prefer that we have settled on all-out strike dates, and that teachers, nurses or rail workers will take indefinite strike action together throughout the UK to win quickly. It is much easier to arrange collective babysitters and/or teacher-run strike schools in libraries or churches than it is to scramble for childcare on a strike day that may not occur.
The NHS is the beloved crown jewel of the British social welfare state.The aim of our strikes is to strengthen and preserve it. In the 1980’s when the government was carrying out a series of hospital closings and other attacks on the NHS, nurses led hospital occupations and, with the help of doctors and other staff, ran the facilities themselves. The workers escorted managers out the door, fortified the entrances to the hospitals so that the police could not break their occupation/ strike. Ambulance workers and other hospitals coordinated services with the occupied hospitals to assure that patients were kept safe and received the care they needed. The attacks we are facing now are much larger and more dangerous. We have an answer to the government’s anti-union Strike Bill: keep the hospitals open under worker control. Our strikes that are walkouts have a great deal of public support. If our strikes become occupations, they will galvanize and inspire the nation. The rank and file NHS workers who know how to run health care must take charge of our strikes so that we can implement a winning strategy for our strikes.
We must elect rank-and-file workers’ leaders to negotiate our contracts
Our current bargaining process is a charade. Our union bosses set new strike dates every month to initiate more bargaining sessions with the government. The government negotiators are intransigent. Our so-called leaders drop our demands the moment they sit at the bargaining table. They are always prepared to capitulate.
Days or weeks go by and nothing is accomplished. At some point, the government decides to shut down the free-lunch- joint-management-banter-sessions and demands that union members revote on a reshuffled version of the contract offer which they already rejected. This preposterous charade ends with the union managers stating that they are “disappointed” that the government is so insensitive and did not offer more and then they usually try to shove the contract down their members’ throats. Like every other boss, the union managers expect workers to never question management decisions and do what they are told. On occasion, the union managers do not make a recommendation on the settlement, especially when they know that they lose their authority and influence with their members if they try to orchestrate a yes vote that has no chance of winning. During the time period that union members are voting, a government minister/ blowhard bully lies, claiming he/she will not return to the bargaining table. This theatrical production, sponsored by the government, which we have seen too many times already, can be easily defeated.
The NHS struggle in Scotland shows how to beat the blustering government ministers. The last round of NHS negotiations in Scotland, which began last summer, and continued into late November and early December, involved a number of NHS unions bargaining together. However, these unions did not strike together. The unity they shared at the bargaining table was undercut by their leaderships’ obsequious posture before the government. Unison and Unite’s poorly paid unskilled NHS workers voted for the contract, which allegedly will give them a 7.5% raise.
Three unions, the RCN, the GMB and the RCM (midwives union) members overwhelmingly rejected the contract. SNP Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Humza Yousaf, responded to the no vote of nurses, ambulance drivers, and midwives by puffing out his chest and publicly declaring that he would impose the new contract on all the NHS workers. His dictatorial declaration was quickly defeated by the nurses and ambulance drivers and midwives, who refused to accept his sweeping anti-union pronouncement. The RNC and GMB simply set new dates for strike action in January. This was a victory for the unions.
Unfortunately, this victory was squandered when the RCN canceled the January strike dates because Yousaf backed off his threat and returned to bargaining.
The bus drivers showed how it was possible to resist the strong-arm tactics of their union managers and make sure their bargaining charade ended. After their union bosses tried every scurrilous trick they could think of to engineer a yes vote on a bad contract, the bus drivers turned down the contract twice.
There are only so many times that anyone can watch a bad play. We need the rank and file members of every union to take the bold step the Abellio bus drivers took. Our strikes are about winning wage increases, but they are about so much more. Every one of the ongoing strikes poses the same question: who will decide what the UK looks like a year from now. We can not let the Tories win. We need our strike movement to humiliate them and force them to back off their policies and resign in shame.
Save Britain from the rising tide of fascism
We are in a fight for our lives and for the promise of hope we owe to the next generation.
Our movement must use its power to shift the balance of power now and take control over determining and implementing the political policies we know will save Britain. If our strikes lose and our movement has no other plans to keep the struggle moving forward, then the Tories will move quickly to implement the laws they are passing to crush union rights, to eviscerate democracy and diversity, and to give the police unlimited powers needed to create an authoritarian one-party government in Britain. If the Tories succeed, war is on our national agenda.
The Tories’plan to exploit their control of Parliament now to do what Mussolini’s fascists did in Italy and the Nazis did in Germany and Italy, manipulate ostensibly democratic processes and institutions to create a fascist government. Mussolini and Hitler did not come to power through a coup. They assumed positions of power on the basis of the supposedly democratic constitutions of Italy and Germany, and then used those positions to create “legal” dictatorships. On the basis of these “constitutional” processes, they used their parties’ domination of Parliament to empower police, the military, the SS, border patrol, intelligence, and secret service agents etc. to crush all dissent and opposition. The fascists never could have won in Italy or Germany if the mass actions of workers and other oppressed people had crushed them when they were weak and unpopular. If months of mass actions fail to resolve the hyperinflation and economic crisis because they have lost because of bad leadership, the ideology of racism, immigrant-bashing, sexism, anti-LGBT+ and white nationalism can triumph. We are in a position to stop this from happening now while the Tories are divided amongst themselves and hated by the majority or people of the UK.
Our union misleaders have a different policy for defeating the government. Their aim is to replace the current government with a Labour government. This means in all likelihood waiting for the next elections in 2025. They assume that every victory for the current government increases the chances of a Labour parliamentary victory in the next election. But if we wait until 2025 to defeat this government, it will be too late. If the Tories have the next two years to establish a fascist regime, then it is highly unlikely that new elections will take place.
The other road to a new quick election would hypothetically be a general strike. The Labour Party opposes our strikes and our union managers are so scared of the power we possess that they are fighting to lose – not win. If we take control of our strikes, then we can force the Tories to accept a partial or total defeat, which could lead to the resignation of the government. Everything rests on what the movement can win. And that in turn means we need new leaders to take control of our strikes and to lead our movement to victory.
Join Movement for Justice
The aim of the Movement for Justice is to develop new leaders.
The working class and oppressed must win and win quickly. But that means we need new leaders to come forward. For most of us, becoming a leader is not a choice, it is a necessity. We lead because there is no other way to win. Being a leader is nothing more than the task someone assumes as a part of the division of labor that is required to make it possible for our organizations and movement to win.
First insight into new regime in Yarl’s Wood detention centre since its conversion into a short term holding facility for cross channel refugees. Report highlights lack of access to legal advice and failure to identify victims of trafficking and torture.
Since August 2020 there have been no more women detained in Yarl’s Wood and the Home Office confirmed that its small short term holding facility was expanded to process cross channel refugees[1].
The report we release today is the first public insight into the new regime and is the result of four weeks of discussions with 20 refugees who were detained in Yarl’s Wood during September 2020.
Over half of those we spoke to had been victims of torture or trafficking; many had been enslaved in Libya and subject to brutal torture, forced labour and rape. They spent 5-7 days in Yarl’s Wood[2].
During this time, no one was provided with access to a solicitor; the Detention Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS) was not functioning. Some were given a list of numbers after several days but lack of phone credit and language difficulties meant it was impossible for them to secure representation.
People are moved to other accommodation with no representation, no support, and in many cases with no phones. They are dispersed to areas where charities are overstretched and where legal aid immigration solicitors either have no capacity or are few and far between. Language difficulties and lack of phone or phone credit makes it impossible for many to find the legal advice, medical help and support they need.
Home Secretary Priti Patel and the Home Office have been vocally critical of ‘last minute legal claims’ which ‘frustrate’ removals; this report reveals the truth, that people are denied legal advice at an early stage and victims of trafficking are not being identified. For these refugees a ‘last minute claim,’ when they are taken to Brook House and given notice of a flight, is the only way to stop what would be an unlawful removal.
“The UK’s stated commitment to Human Rights is being trampled on by Priti Patel, the UK Home Office and this government. They have designed a Dover to Deportation pipeline, at every stage frustrating refugees’ ability to get the legal advice, care and support they need. Yarl’s Wood is but one link in that pipeline, but it is a crucial one. Had those asylum seekers been able to access legal representation at the earliest opportunity they would not have been subject to the further torture of detention and threat of removal, which has led to so many suicide attempts in Brook House[3]. Karen Doyle (MFJ National Organiser)
Victims of trafficking and torture, people with families here, people with serious health conditions and mental health difficulties are being taken from their accommodation and thrown into Brook House IRC for removal on charter flights with just five days notice[4]. When lawyers take on these cases at short notice and help their clients to access the protections available to them in law they are branded as ‘lefty lawyers’, akin to traffickers, and vilified simply for doing their job.
“This government is pursuing a relentless and dishonest campaign to vilify refugees and those who support and represent them. It has an incited an epidemic of race hatred and attacks, like the recent attempt to murder an immigration lawyer[5] and fascists targeting places where refugees are being housed. We will fight together with refugees and immigrants to end the super-charged Hostile Environment of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel. Antonia Bright (MFJ Chair)
On Saturday 4th July 2020 we marched for immigrant rights as part of the growing worldwide #BlackLivesMatter movement. We started in Brixton, stopping at Brixton Police Station to remember those who’ve died at the hands of Brixton police, marched on to Serco and G4S head offices (the private companies responsible for the brutalisation, abuse and murder of so many) and ended at the Home Office. At each stop people who have experienced the racism and brutality of detention and deportations spoke out.
OUR DEMANDS…
* End the racist Hostile Environment for Immigrants policy
* No more charter flights – Stop immigration raids & deportations
* Shut down ALL detention centres
* Amnesty Now! Extend settled status to ALL immigrants who want it
* Defend & extend the free movement of people
* Widen the Windrush Scheme to all Windrush Generation descendants
* Jail killer police and immigration enforcers
* Build the independent, integrated, youth and immigrant led mass movement fighting for immigrant rights and equality
The fight against racism will decide our futures. It will decide whether Britain, the USA and Europe have a future of progress as democratic, multiracial societies based on equality, whether poor and oppressed people can resist and defeat our exploiters, whether young people can live hopeful, creative lives – or if our countries will be dragged backwards by the politics of Donald Trump and his backers, Boris Johnson and Brexit, and the Far Right across Europe. That is why we, on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, responded immediately to the mass movement that took to the streets after the police murder of George Floyd, and is still marching in every city & state in the US, day after day and week after week.
A future without racism requires the defeat of racist policies that blame immigrants and black youth for the failures of government to meet the needs of poor, exploited and oppressed people. We are marching today, on 4th July, as youth speaking the truth about racist police brutality, and as immigrants and communities fighting for our right to live here with respect and dignity.
Black lives more than matter: the leadership of black and Asian people has been critical to every progressive victory in Britain for decades – to every victory that has taken us closer to equal quality education, decent healthcare and workers’ rights. Each new generation of immigrants from Britain’s former colonies and the rest of the world brings a new, fierce aspiration for a bright future, that is shared by the youth of all races.
That is the basis of the dynamism and hope that can fire a mass movement. That is the fear of the politicians and the rich & powerful who are desperate to divide us and dampen our ambition.
Our fight back matters: The anti-racist movement that has taken to our streets must assert our power to decide our future, by raising and fighting for clear demands. The Home Office runs the immigration system and police; it is responsible for too many deaths and acts of brutality and too much forced squalor at the hands of the police, the immigration authorities and the private contractors who profit from the government’s racist Hostile Environment policy. We demand: jail all killer cops and immigration enforcers; announce an amnesty for all immigrants; shut down all immigration detention centres; stop immigration raids and deportations.
This first video is of Ugandan lesbian activist and leader in MFJ, Prossie. She was detained for 5 months in Yarls Wood in 2013 before being removed to Uganda under the now unlawful fast track system, for the first time here she publicly speaks out, in front of Serco headquarters (who run Yarl’s Wood) about what she went through and why she continues to fight…
At Brixton police station as we started to speak about those who have died at the hands of Brixton police, a passerby started shouting ‘all lives matter’ – they were swiftly shouted down!
“Immigrants – HERE TO STAY – Charter Flights – NO WAY!” marching through central Brixton
“When they say go back – FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT BACK!”
“Tear down the fences – OPEN THE BORDERS!”
“whose streets? OUR STREETS! and Where is our power? ON THE STREETS!”
“How we gonna do it? BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!”
“Yarl’s Wood – Shut it Dooooown SHUT IT DOWN!”
“no Justice – NO PEACE – AGAIN – NO JUSTICE – NO PEACE!”
“IMMIGRANTS HAVE THE RIGHT – HERE TO STAY HERE TO FIGHT!”
MFJ leader and Windrush descendant Eulalee speaks outside Serco Head Office, her son was deported to Jamaica and murdered five months later.
Outside G4S Headquarters “I SAID – No Justice – NO PEACE!
“the racist immigration system is a virus – at least they are looking for a cure for coronavirus”
Perfect chant for outside the Home Office “WE ARE STRONGER!”
MFJs Tacko speaking outside G4S headquarters
MFJ’s Eulalee speaking outside the Home Office
MFJs Larry speaks about his experience as a Gay Nigerian asylum seeker
