red pepper issue155 aug/sept 2007

contents

Cover by Tom Lynton www.tomlynton.com

features

regulars

GLOBALLABOUR

Low pay, no way 20A campaign in support of contract cleaners shamed Barclays Bank into announcing a living wage for all its London workers. Jane Wills on a labour movement success story

Organise locally, strike globally 23Cleaners in Houston, Texas, won union recognition and improved pay and conditions. Rodrigo Nunes talks to labour organiser Valery Alzaga

Reclaiming our past 25Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason’sLive Working or Die Fightingsets the experience of modern factory workers in the global South . He spoke to Hilary Wainwright about examining a neglected part of our heritage

Pity the poor immigrant 28Enslaved children, forced domestic workers, profiteering people-smugglers are at the extreme end of a spectrum of systematic exploitation of migrant labour. Toby Shelley reports

A new politics of space 30Through an investigation of London’s relation to the world, including its role in producing global and national inequality, Doreen Massey argues for alternative ways of being ‘local’

No law for oil 33The new Iraq oil law will fragment the country’s industry, opening it up to exploitation by multinationals and strengthening corrupt politicians. Kamil Mahdi reports

The mother of modern corporatism 36Karl Marx described how the East India Company ‘conquered India to make money out of it’. Sixty years after the end of the Raj, Nick Robins dusts off its history

Flunking the written 38The newly formed Die Linke (Left) party is creating a strongly rooted party to the left of the Social Democratic Party. Die Linke organiser Christophe Spehr reports

04Letters Agony Subcomandauntie

10Activision Around the left in 30 days: UK Guerrilla guides: Planes, trains and caravan-mobiles Natural born rebel: What if peace broke out?

13World Around the left in 30 days:World Temperature gauge: Local fighters lead climate war Russia: Digging deep in Russia’s dirt America: Another USis rising

Fresh Spice: Red Pepper old and new 06Next issue Red Pepper moves to a bigger, new-look bi-monthly format, at the same time as greatly expanding its web presence. Hilary Wainwright and Oscar Reyes review its role in providing a platform for all those whose hopes of change in 1997 have been deflated by the Blatcherism that followed but who still share a real sense of possibility for the future

review

In praise of the water carrier 41Mai Ghoussoub left many legacies after her sudden death. They include a book of autobiographical fiction and a collection of thoughts and images from young Lebanese exiles. Amanda Sebesteyen celebrates some of Ghoussoub’s many lives

The war on freedom 44Carol Allen talks to Chris Atkins , director of Taking Liberties, about the erosion of our rights under New Labour

46Book reviews Arts reviews

50Global movements: Fair food in Florida Immigrant farm workers are bringing the global justice movement to the US sunshine state. Marc Rodrigues profiles the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in its struggle against ‘sweatshops in the fields’

51Rear view Bomb After Bomb, A Violent Cartography

REMINDER TO OUR READERS

Your next Red Pepper will be the October/November issue, our first new colour bimonthly.

Thanks to all our readers who have contributed to defining the new magazine.We hope you like what you have helped us create.

Coming soon Whatever happened to the Labour left? The rise of China ... and popular uprisings Laura Flanders on the other America The biofuels myth On the web Blogs, forums, comment, news and debate on the new Red Pepper website The satire that upset the Pakistani state

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