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Eleanor
Marx was the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, the greatest philosophical,
political and social thinker of our times. She was born in Soho in London in 1855 and, not surprisingly, was a
precocious child mixing with adults who were the most advanced political
thinkers of their day. But her place in history isn't because of her name and who she was
related to. Her work, commitment to the cause and self sacrifice earned
her that place in her own right. From the time of her father’s death in 1883 until her own untimely
death in 1898 the workload she undertook in the labour and trade union
movement of the day was phenomenal.
Day by day the capitalist system is showing
itself for what it is. The impact of the credit crunch and the news of the
collapse of major investment banks in the US is radicalising young people. This
was evident to see at Queen Mary’s Freshers Fair last week, where the Marxist
Society intervened, attracting a fresh layer of young people looking for an
alternative.
“I like
thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had the
president of the bank over for dinner.” W.C. Fields.
Union members will be more than a little alarmed at reports
that union officials have been having secret talks with someone called Richard
Balfe, who is Tory Leader Cameron’s ‘special envoy’ to the trade unions. Those
who lived through the last Tory government and remember all too well their
vicious attacks on trade union rights as part of their plan to destroy the
union movement will be amazed, to say the least, at the fact that a) the Tories
have a trade union envoy and b) that some of our leaders are prepared to talk
to him.
On 16th July over 200 Unite activists were at a meeting in Friends'
House in Euston. Derek Simpson was there to speak about the new union.
I don't think he was expecting such a large turnout and such a vocal
audience. There were Unite members present from various sectors - NHS,
engineering, banking, construction and the public sector (who had been
on strike that day).
After a week of turmoil on financial markets, on Saturday 20
September President Bush said he was proposing to spend $700bn of taxpayers’
money to buy the rotten mortgage assets held by the banks on Wall Street. He said he was doing this to help the
average American family with their homes and jobs.
The first Northern weekend school was held on the 12th-14th September,
organised by Yorkshire supporters of Socialist Appeal. The school took
place in Saddleworth, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The theme of the school was "The Class, the Party and the Leadership". The
weekend proved tremendously successful, both in terms of political
education and bringing together socialists in the movement and young
activists.
In
response to coup plotting in both Bolivia and Venezuela, the Hands Off
Venezuela Campaign, together with several other Latin American
solidarity organisations, organised a picket outside the US Embassy in
London followed by a highly successful public meeting, where all
speakers and participants condemned the manoeuvres of US imperialism
and pledged themselves to keep up the solidarity activity.
