To know all that is happening at #OccupyLondon and across the world, follow us at twitter.com/socialistrevo or keep an eye on this page.
AND…
Rachel from REVO London was interviewed by the Guardian. Listen to her here:
REVO at #OccupyLondon
October 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Black History Month 2011
October 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
University campuses across the country are currently hosting hundreds of different events for this year’s Black History Month. Since 1976, Black History Month has served as an acknowledgement of the culture and events of the African Diapora. This year REVOLUTION members are organising meetings on the politics of the Black Power movement.
With the onset of the great capitalist crisis in 2008, nationalism and racism have increased sharply. The growth of fascist groups like the EDL has seen racist attacks soar in the areas where they organise. While democracy and anti-cuts movement spring up all over the world, the ruling class are using corporate media, education and the police to use racism as a tool to divide resistance from “the 99%” to the austerity imposed by the “1%”.
As the racist backlash following the English riots in August and the execution of Troy Davis in the USA proves, the issues which have dominated the struggles for Black liberation since the 60s have not disappeared. These days, the riots may be co-ordinated on bbm and lethal injection may have replaced lynch-mobs but the importance of racism to the capitalist system which dispossess the masses and sets them against each other in competition for jobs, housing and healthcare, has only grown sharper over the decades.
Here we present a selection of articles from the archive covering everything from anti-racist struggles, the revolutionary life of Angela Davis to theoretical pieces, and articles on racism in popular culture.
- Racism: not just a bad idea
- Racism: part of the capitalist system
- Riot response shows capitalists have no answers
- Troy Davis: a victim of institutional racism
- Ethnic cleansing in Dale Farm
- Resist austerity; fight racism
- My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding: racists’ last frontier?
- Jack Straw – racist
- Niqab Ban – racist attack on Muslim women
- Angela Davis – revolutionary fighter against racism
- The Bradford riots of 2001
- The fight against racism
- Institutional racism rife in our schools
- Blame the bosses, not foreign workers
Students march on bankers!
October 11, 2011 By 1 Comment
Taking inspiration from the Occupy Wall Street (and soon Occupy London Stock Exchange) movements, the second London Student Assembly of the term has voted this Sunday, 9 October, to direct the student anger towards the City of London in a month’s time.
The National Demonstration and Walkout on the 9 November will start off from the University of London Union on Malet Street, like many of last year’s marches did, and march to the City of London, the country’s finance district and headquarters to many of the world’s wealthiest corporations.
The aim is to remind everyone who’s guilty of causing the current crisis, which is the cause of the austerity measures imposed through the cuts to education and the sudden “need” for a rise in tuition fees. While universities are hit with budget cuts and thousands are out-priced of education, the bosses in the City have got their million pound bonuses back!
This demonstration, with such a radical route, is also part of the build up to the strikes on the 30 November. As student activists we have to lead by example and challenge the trade union leadership to do the same. What we do on the 9 will set the tone for the 30. From ULU to the City we can show what people really want: hold the banks accountable for the economic meltdown and kick out the Coalition for punishing the young and poor by orchestrating the biggest attack on education ever seen in this country.
All out on the 9 November! All march on the City!
Anger rises as 35000 people march against the Tories
October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In a year the Coalition Government openly attacked the welfare state, the usual anti-Tory Party Conference demonstration was peaceful but ten times stronger. Amid chants of general strike, Sally Turner reports.
Over 35,000 students, trade unionists and anti-cuts campaigners resisting the Tory cuts took part in the TUC’s ‘March for the alternative’ through the streets of Manchester on Sunday, October 2.
The atmosphere was lively and loud due to whistles, horns and various chants going on. The march began on Liverpool St and while we were waiting for it to start we talked to various activists and trade unionists as well as selling our magazine. People had travelled from all over the county, from many different universities and seemed pleased that the demonstration was more centrally, in Manchester.
Once the march began it was quite fast moving, we tried different chants but not many of them picked up within the crowd but there was a definite feeling of anger towards the Tories and the cuts being imposed. Comrades from London who had been on the student feeder met up with us partway through the demonstration and it headed towards where the Conference was being held.
Photo by ©Sarah C
The security around Manchester’s central conference centre was immense, with four lines of police, solid metal barriers as well as two lines of wired fencing. There were also police snipers on the corners of surrounding buildings, and a massive amount of police presence
on the ground.
As we reached the rally and set up a stall the mood was still buzzing. When November 30th was mentioned on the stage the mass crowd cheered.
The fact that the demo was 10 times the size it was last year just highlights how angry people are about what they’re doing. While they are out to take our NHS, schools, pensions and jobs we need to be fighting back. This needs to be the start of a mass Autumn resistance, building up to November 30th where every town needs to have mass pickets and demonstrations to bring down the Conservative Government!
Protest on 9 November, but fight for clear objectives
September 17, 2011 By 2 Comments
We need to consider whether last year's slogans fit our tasks for today
With thousands of students returning to university, and thousands more about to start for the first time, young activists are gearing up for a massive autumn of struggle.
Socialist Youth descend on Upminster…
August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
From the 8th – 12th August 2011 REVOLUTION held its international summer camp in Essex. It was a gathering of revolutionary youth from across Europe, with people from Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden and Great Britain attending. The week was full of socialist politics, discussions and partying.
SlutWalk Leeds – a missed opportunity
July 27, 2011 By 2 Comments
On Saturday 23rd July, around 70 people marched through Leeds at the city’s first Slutwalk demonstration.
REVOLUTION supports SlutWalk marches to oppose the blame culture and build a mass women’s liberation movement, but we feel that the bureaucratic methods used in organising and building the Leeds SlutWalk were a key reason for it’s small size and apolitical character.
Despite the positive atmosphere, the turnout came nowhere near repeating the successes of Manchester and London earlier this year. While this is partially explained by the limited appeal of SlutWalk, and the diminishing momentum of the campaign, no efforts were made on the part of the organisers to counteract this and try to engage wider layers in building the march.
Instead, as we reported some weeks ago, the three SlutWalk planning meetings were small (less than 10 people), and subordinated to the control of Student Union sabbatical officers. The organising meetings were never intended to be able to democratically decide the nature of the march. This became clear as a decision to march past the courts, calling for the resignation of Ken Clarke was immediately vetoed by the (absent) bureaucrats.
In line with this apolitical approach and poor organisation no leafleting was done prior to the demonstration and there were few attempts to engage the wider community outside of the student left.
After two SlutWalks each numbering several thousand-strong, the appeal for a third was always going to be lower. This only increased the importance of generalising the issue to draw in the much wider layers who want to actively oppose sexism, but were not attracted by the aesthetic of the original SlutWalks.
Placing Ken Clarke’s comments on rape at the centre of Leeds SlutWalk would have been an effective way of mobilising beyond the student body and enabling SlutWalk to effectively highlight how the sexist attitudes in wider society are rooted in capitalism’s economic and sexual oppression of women.
We called for the organising meetings to be prepared with greater thoroughness, giving plenty of advance notice, and choosing a more accessible location than an office secreted upstairs in the Met Student Union.
The experience of the Student movment shows us that the wider the numbers, and more transparent the democracy, then participation and impact is that much greater.
Despite our concerns over the exclusive nature of the organising for Leeds SlutWalk, REVOLUTION continued to build the demonstration and put forward our suggestions at the organising meetings. It came as no surprise when we heard that a deal had been arranged with the police so that the march would stay on the pavements and a detour would be taken to avoid possible ‘sexual harassment’ in the main shopping areas.
The whole purpose of Slutwalk was to combat the attitudes which allow this sort of behaviour to take place in the public sphere unchallenged. To allow the march to be confined, and avoid confrontation with sexists in the high street defeats the purpose of it.
On the day itself, political chants were dropped and the one speaker at the rally failed to link the struggle against sexual harassment with the wider struggle against the Tory government’s austerity cuts which threaten to set back women’s achievements in the workplace and society by decades.
In conclusion, the reluctance to engage in a political event meant the demonstration itself and its influence were severely limited. In our struggle against sexual oppression we must remember that we cannot achieve full liberation under capitalism. This means we need to consciously link anti-sexism with a political struggle against the capitalist system which breeds and reinforces sexist values through the courts, media and schools.
The Polish Marxist Rosa Luxemburg said that there could be ‘no women’s liberation without socialism, and no socialism without women’s liberation’. As revolution sweeps the Middle East, and the bosses’ cuts bite in the imperialist heartlands, victory for the working class means uniting women’s struggles for liberation with the international resistance to capitalism.
Read more:
Socialism and Women’s Liberation
SlutWalk Leeds: Ken Clarke must go
June 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Following the success of SlutWalk London, planning meetings have been arranged to organise a Leeds SlutWalk.
We support the SlutWalks because they represent the potential for building a new working-class women’s movement which can fight against violence, for control of our bodies and resist the Tories abstinence drives and attacks on abortion rights.
It is necessary to see the struggle against sexism in the context of the Con-Dem’s general cuts offensive. With a majority of women working in the public sector, and vital services like SureStart disappearing, a massive 70% of cuts is estimated to directly impact women.
These cuts come alongside a concerted effort at turning back the clock on women’s rights. Already we are seeing efforts to push Abortion reforms through parliament, and tax-breaks for married couples inevitably reinforces women’s financial dependence on men.
With Tory Justice secretary Ken Clark talking about ‘real rape’ in comparison to ‘date rape,’ we need to get the message across that this isn’t true and is a completely unacceptable attitude. Rape is rape whether you’re drunk, it’s your partner or you don’t have many clothes on. When comments like this go unchallenged, it’s no wonder that shockingly high numbers of young people share Ken Clarke’s views.
With this in mind one of our members attended the first meeting and put forward a proposal to use the march to protest outside the courts, which Ken Clarke is in charge of and call on him to resign. Unfortunately this was rejected.
At the second meeting, we again put forward our proposal. Our motivation was that a movement aganist victimisation needs to be broad, but it cannot shy away from challenging those in power.
As if politicians weren’t enough you have judges who question victims about their sexual history and police who are reluctant to investigate rape allegations seriously.
Ken Clarke has massive influence on the judiciary when he says things, and we feel it is absolutely right that a movement against victim-blaming should take the lead in demanding that he be sacked.
This was agreed by the meeting, and the march route will now pass several ministry of justice buildings.
A secondary issue that was brought up at the meeting was the idea of keeping the event ‘gender neutral’. We will discuss this again at further meetings, but we feel it is wrong not to point out that women are overwhelmingly the systematic victims of sexual violence – exposing the varied forms of capitalist oppression of women is the key to building a new movement for women’s liberation.
We encourage anyone to help us build Leeds Slutwalk; the next meeting is Wednesday, 7pm at Leeds Met Student Union.
London SlutWalk demo: women united against rape
June 13, 2011 By 1 Comment
On Saturday the 11th of June, more than three thousand women and men, old and young, began to gather for the Slutwalk demonstration which would march from the top of Piccadilly to Trafalgar Sq.
The atmosphere was really lively as the sun shone down and people were asking for copies of REVOLUTION’S Slutwalk bulletin, which put forward a socialist perspective on the Slutwalk mobilisations and the struggle for women’s liberation.
Although it was predominately young women there was a fair proportion of men, and LGBT groups. As we marched towards Trafalgar Sq builders watched not daring to wolf whistle at women passing in stockings, bras and Basques, clutching banners with statements like “cleavage is not consent” and tourists on sightseeing buses took photos. Some other placards simply said ‘a dress is not a yes’ and some males stood near us had written on their chest, ‘love sex, hate rape.’
The reaction from on-lookers was positive and many showed interest as we leafleted along the edge of the crowd. There was a buzz of excitement among the protesters as we chanted ‘whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no,’ however more political chants such as ‘women of the world unite and fight’ didn’t have much resonance with the crowd. Similarly, the usual sea of Socialist Workers Party placards was present but many people had ripped the party name off them.
This is both a strength and weakness of the march. It is fantastic to see huge numbers of young women demonstrating against rape, but we need to make clear that we don’t see the issue of women’s oppression and liberation as ‘above’ or ‘before’ politics.
Once we arrived at Trafalgar Sq it became obvious just how many people had come out to support the movement, there were people in bikinis, dressed as sex workers, office workers or just in jeans and a t-shirt, all with the same united message – blame the attacker not the victim.
The rally which followed put across many powerful messages from a range of speakers. 17 year old Anastasia Richardson, Slutwalk co-organiser spoke about how we need to organise ourselves and fight back against rape whether it’s by your partner, when you’re drunk or wearing a short skirt. She spoke to us afterwards and said she believed women and men together needed to fight back against it and women couldn’t be liberated alone.
Cristel Amiss, Black Women’s Rape Action Project said women should
feel they can report rape and be protected, whether they’re sex workers, asylum seekers or mothers, without being afraid of being arrested, deported or having their children taken into care.
The variety of speakers was refreshing as ethnic minorities and sex workers were represented alongside students, and the liberal women’s rights groups. The rally gave off a really positive feel and addressed all areas of the movement from what Tory politicians have recently said to the involvement of men in women’s liberation.
REVOLUTION members distributed our bulletin at the protests in London and Manchester – Read it online below:
Slutwalk: Women fighting back against misogyny and rape
SlutWalk: Women fight back against misogyny and rape
June 10, 2011 By 1 Comment
The SlutWalk movement has struck a chord with young women across the world and has put the issue of rape and sexual assault back on the agenda with demonstrations taking place in many countries.
The phenomenon started in Toronto when a policeman instructed female students “to avoid looking like sluts” to protect their personal safety. This attitude puts the blame on the victims of rape, not the attacker. Since then, women have taken to the streets under the banner: “whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no!” SlutWalk protests are now being organised across the country as women rise up to fight back.
The comments of the Torronto policeman, along with the low conviction rate for rape serve as a shocking reminder of how far we still have to go to change attitudes towards rape.
SlutWalk is therefore a much-needed initiative to promote “the radical notion that nobody deserves to be raped”.
With nearly 10,000 showing their support on Facebook, SlutWalk has captured the imagination of a generation of young women who have been brought up trapped between supposed equality and liberation and the stigmatisation of our sexuality.
When women choose what to wear, we are not only choosing what feels comfortable or looks good, but negotiating our way through the maze of social and cultural values which our clothing embodies.
And let’s not forget the irony of a situation in which women are called sluts for wearing too little while on the other side of the Channel, women have been banned from wearing the niqab and covering up too much. These are all fronts in the struggle under capitalism for control over our bodies.
While the name SlutWalk has caused controversy (see inside), it is this in-your-face affront to conservative values that has appealed to many young women. However, the next step for the SlutWalk movement must be to broaden out. With so many cases of rape taking place within the family, any movement against sexual abuse needs to open itself up to women who have been victims of domestic abuse, who may not feel represented under the banner of SlutWalk.
These protests have the potential to be the first step towards a new women’s movement which can fight against violence, for control of our bodies and also against cuts to women’s jobs, benefits and services.
Last year saw young women take to the streets in our thousands to protest against rising tuition fees. Through the walk-outs, demonstrations and occupations of the student movement, a whole generation of young women have been politicised. Being radical and militant is not something “masculine”. Women have a proud history of struggle.
We have shown that we can be radical and fight back, and with spending cuts disproportionately affecting women, now is the time for a new women’s movement.
We need a women’s movement that can stand up for the interests of working class women whose jobs are threatened by cuts; a movement that can fight for the rights of young women to have free and easy access to abortion and contraception; a movement that fights against racism and islamophobia – we should be able to wear what we want, whether that’s the hijab or the mini-skirt!
