WW archive > Issue 552 - 11 November 2004
Letters
Disgraceful; Child victims; Free thinking; Conspiracy; Fighting as usual; Respect impact; Respect omission; Thank god; In denial; Respect Wales; Get real
Opposition splinters before arrogant SWP
The latest meeting of the Socialist Alliance executive underlines the sectarian trajectory of the SWP. Mark Fischer reports
Women's 'active role' and the veil
"Since the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979, many women have looked to islam and chosen to wear the veil. This has not stopped Iranian women playing an active role in all areas of public life," writes the SWP's Elaine Heffernan (Socialist Worker November 6). Moreover, the SWP's prostration before the largely phantom islamic wing of Respect sees it claiming that there is essentially no difference between the oppression of women in Britain and in Iran. Yet there can be no hiding the fact that in Iran women have less freedom. Indeed, sexual apartheid rules. Yassmine Mather of the Iran Bulletin and Middle East Forum puts the record straight
Haunted by the past
The SWP seems to have dropped its idiotic claim that abortion is "not an issue". With a double-page spread in last week's Socialist Worker the comrades are now trying to cover their left flank - and, says Tina Becker, to justify why at Respect conference they voted down a motion for a campaign to make a woman's right to choose a reality
See you in court?
From the picket line
Bev Laidlaw is Yorkshire and Humber regional assistant secretary for the Public and Commercial Services Union and chair of its Sheffield branch. She spoke to Peter Manson about the November 5 national civil service strike against Gordon Brown's 100,000 job cuts
Destroying Fallujah city cannot bring democracy
Reconstruction must be run by and for the people, says Paul Greenaway
Referendum debacle
Control the bureaucrats
What are the lessons of Lenin's 1917 pamphlet State and revolution? Not the need for a 'commune state', argues Mike Macnair, but the need for representatives to be made accountable