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Yes, Indian “communalism” risks spilling over into Britain. The May Day march on London on 1 May passed by the Indian embassy. On one side of the road were militant Sikhs demanding an independent “Khalistan”. One of their speakers was denouncing Hinduism for supporting the caste system. On the other side of the road were others waving Indian flags. The last time there was a war between India and Pakistan there were clashes between rival gangs of workers from the Indian subcontinent.
Obviously we socialists denounce nationalism as well as communalism and urge workers not to take sides in this war but to realise that there have a common interest in joining together to oppose and eventually abolish capitalism. There is not an issue at stake worth the shedding of a single drop of working class blood.
I don’t think that Janssen was accusing Bernes of adopting a position similar to ours as he goes on to say that those who hold the view he is criticising conclude that workers need leaders to tell them what the books mean. Actually, it is not clear who he is getting at since I don’t know any group that holds that position.
In any event, it is not our view that workers need to have studied piles of books to become a socialist. All someone needs to do is (of course) understand what socialism is and want it, and that capitalism cannot be reformed so as to work in the interests of the workers (which is something people could workout for themselves, though talking to others and reading a few pamphlets would help someone to come to his conclusion). No need to understand the materialist conception of history or the labour theory of value unless you want to.
Incidentally, the question of “workers councils” is dealt with briefly in this month’s Socialist Standard in a reply to a letter from someone who promotes the idea.
This is what the Times reported on 16 April under the headline “Farage woos red wall with vow to reindustrialise UK”;
“At a working men’s club in Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, the Reform leader made his most audacious attempt yet to outflank Labour to its left on the economy, praising trade unions and calling for the return of nationalised heavy industry, coal mining and oil and gas extraction.”
Reindustrialisung Britain is such a wild “vow” that it is difficult to believe that anyone will think it could happen. Even so, RefUK did win control of Durham county council but it can’t have been because voters believed that they would reopen the coal mines there. But it’s the sort of breakthrough that leftwing advocates of reviving heavy industry can only dream about.
Results from Folkestone:
Folkestone West
https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=724
Reform gain from Conservative. Turnout 38% (up from 2021). Socialist vote 55.Folkestone East https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=723
Reform gain from Labour. Turnout 32% (up from 26%). Socialist vote 38.
Incidentally, re Robbo’s point, ReformUK seem well on the way to winning control of Kent County Council.
Lambeth – Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction result;
Greens 1,774
Labour 1,459
Con 183
RefUK 135
LibDem 121
TUSC 30
Soc 16Turnout: 32.2%
Easy gain for the Greens in a ward where previously Labour had over 50% of the vote. This time the Greens got 48%. Voters punishing the Labour government but not, here, by voting ReformUK. This is Remain territory.
TUSC, despite their programme of reforms, only got twice as many votes as us with our straight socialism. For psephologists, this is par for the course on the other occasions in Lambeth when we are both on the ballot paper.
The counts for Folkestone and Stroud are taking place this morning and the result known about lunchtime.
We covered the May Day March in London today with leaflets left over from the Lambeth by-election. Met someone who had already voted for us in Folkestone and also the Trotskyist candidate who got less votes than us in Vauxhall, in the 2010 General Election. His group — Workers’ Power — is one of two Trotskyist groups which has suffered this indignity, from their point of view, despite offering a list of attractive-sounding reforms (the other is the Communist League) and us advocating socialism and nothing less.
Three of us will be off to the count at Lambeth Town Hall after voting ends at 10 o’clock.
Zelensky must have a personal as well as a political problem over VE Day celebrations as his grandfather fought in the Red
Army against the German army in Ukraine and some of his relatives were killed under German rule. On the other hand, a section of the Kiev regime is descended from those Ukrainian nationalists who fought on the German side, carried out pogroms against Jews and supplied concentration guards. They won’t want to celebrate the day of their defeat.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1k41z4g3pzo.amp
The present Labour government continues that of the first one in 1924 of bombing tribesmen in the Middle East.
Online and video report in the Brixton Buzz on tomorrow’s local council by-election in Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction:l.
Note that the Green candidate describes himself as an “ecosocialist”.
Actually, there is an article in this month’s Socialist Standard that deals with this:
Cooking the Books 1 – Guns before butter, 2 – Blowing bubbles
I would have thought that the explanation is fairly straightforward. The US has decided to cut its military spending on Europe, so from now on the European states are going to have to spend their own money on this. To get their populations to accept this “guns before butter” they have come up with scare stories about Russia preparing to conquer Europe and, to bring this home to people at a personal level, have told them what to do in that event (stocking up with food and water, etc).
Whether this pro-military spending propaganda barrage will work remains to be seen.
Some bad news for you — Russia declares a ceasefire, albeit only temporary for the moment:
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2025/4/28/russia-declares-unilateral-two-day-ceasefire-in-ukraine
Merton Stand Up To Racism (from a neighbouring borough) show that they have been leafletting door to door in parts of Herne Hill:
Actually, people living in Milton Road will have been aware that there is a by-election as that street had already been leafleted by Labour, the Greens and us. But still a contribution to the political debate sparked by the by-election.
TUSC have finally made an appearance on Saturday in Herne Herne & Loughborough Junction or, rather, just in Loughborough Junction:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1063662945798676&id=100064649413665
The photo there was taken on another day outside the ward in a different part of Lambeth. Other photos on the Facebook page of London SPEW are of a literature stall outside a mosque and a photo op outside an evangelical church, presumably indicating the groups they are targetting for votes.
Their manifesto proposes the following:
“Lambeth council should use its borrowing powers and reserves to stop all cuts and instead fund the services that people in Lambeth desperately need. Then they should demand that the Labour government picks up the tab.”
There is no chance of the Labour government doing that of course. In fact the opposite would happen. The government would send in a Commissioner to run the council and balance the budget, including cuts to services and amenities.
This is what happened the last time this was tried, in 1984 when Trotskyist Ted Knight was the Leader of Lambeth Council. He and 31 other councillors were “surcharged” (made to pick up the tab themselves), kicked off the council and banned for 5 years from being a councillor.
That this is, at least as far as SPEW’s leaders are concerned, just a traditional Trotskyist “transitional demand” is hinted at in the manifesto:
“Lambeth has lost £200 million in funding since 2010. Let’s build a mass campaign of trade unions, community campaigns and local people to win that funding back! If our councillors aren’t willing to lead that campaign, then they should step aside for those who will.”
Trotskyist textbook stuff: Raise an impossible demand; when it fails, lead in a different direction those who were duped into struggling for it. In any event, seek to be leaders.
But, as we have always advised workers, tell leaders to get lost and organise things yourselves.
Successful street stall in Herne Hill earlier today. The candidate was interviewed on video by the Brixtonbuzz, the online local news outlet; conversations with a lone member from Stand Up To Racism handing out their “Don’t Vote for Reform UK” leaflet; the Conservative candidate who was passing by; and someone who thought that all the patients in A&E departments these days don’t talk in English (and who had never heard of Reform UK). We even sold a couple of pamphlets (the two William Morris reprints) even though the pamphlets were mainly there for display and received a donation.
