Thousands of girls of Malala's age are rebelling against the dictatorship in Iran as I write this, The slanders against the rebels - that they are in the pay of America - are exactly the same as the slanders against Malala.
The facts belie the propaganda. Malala's story focuses on education. Her father's dream was to run a school and he made personal sacrifices to do so. When the Pakistan branch of the Taliban started burning down schools and threatening his school, he spoke out against it and Malala supported him.
The Taliban seek to keep women and girls subservient and it is for that reason that they oppose education for any female citizens. This is based on what Malala sees as a false interpretation of religion. Certainly it is more about social control than religious dogma.
Malala's enthusiasm for education is boundless. Not all students feel the same. Not all students have armed thugs trying to prevent them being educated.
The reactionary views of the Taliban thrive on poverty and ignorance and every voice raised against them gives hope for a future where girls have rights and poverty is a thing of the past.
Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan are the stars of this film.
In the role of Constable Stalker, Saoirse Ronan produces innumerable red herrings which move the plot forward. The murder victim is hit in the face with a pair of skis from the performance of "The Mousetrap" and as she says it is "all downhill from there".
I will not give any spoilers about Sam Rockwell.
Although it is a comedy, it does reference some of the serious issues of the time in which it is set.
It is set in a period of history when female officers had a struggle against the institutional sexism of the met. A struggle which is not over today.
Her very name suggests the Stalker Inquiry which was an investigation into the shootings of suspected members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1983.
Overall it is a very satisfying "whodunnit" in the Agatha Christie tradition and a very good comedy to boot.
Keir Starmer wants the Labour Conference to sing "God Save the King". It will be drowned out by the sound of Keir Hardie turning in his grave!
It has rules for fiction contributions which are here
They also recommend reading their magazine but they would say that wouldn't they.
101words.org accept stories of, you guessed it, 101 words. They are never closed for submissions.
And of course never forget #worthingflash
There are stories about the Twittens of Durrington, a surly shop assistant, a teacher who gets in a bit of a pickle, robbers, horoscopes, the future, a project to help the homeless, ghosts and a clairvoyant trickster. There is also a longer story which is a revised version of "The Mirror of Eternity" which deals with time travel.
The water companies have had decades to prepare for the drought. In fact the money which could have created the infrastructure to cope with the demand has been siphoned off to shareholders in record profits. In all over 60 billion pounds have been paid to shareholders since 1991.
Hosepipe bans are a
stupid knee-jerk response to the crisis which the water
companies caused. They are blaming and punishing the victims.
Consumers do not waste water on the same scale as water
companies. Imagine our hosepipes wasting 3,000 million litres of water!
Leakages peaked five years after the privatisation of the
water companies.
If you are finding it difficult to water the garden, you probably have a fat cat sitting on the hosepipe!
These are my notes from the conference.
The importance the union attaches to retired members is shown by the fact Kevin came to address the conference.
NEU Priority Campaigns for 2022
Cost of Living
The costs of living crisis is bearing down on those least able to cope. Relative poverty is a disgrace but we are getting stories of hungry children. It is also bearing down on support staff colleagues and pensioners.
Nobody is saying 8% is too ambitious for the pay claim now.
There will be a ballot over strike action in October.
Co-ordination of NEU with the unions for support staff will be important in any proposed strike action.
Right now there has to be a political pressure on the government for a windfall tax on the rich to help those most affected by cost of living.
We are mobilising for the TUC demonstration on 18 June.
We are not used to
organising, we have got out of the habit. We are getting back into it!
Workload
This job used to be different.
Teachers and support staff have to fight against a bureaucracy which does not trust them. The joy in teaching is something teachers have to fight for.
Recruitment is at an all-time low.
Other jobs can work from home. The government will have to pay for this lack of flexibility in teaching.
We are seeking to motivate action at school level. There have been successes in having work/life balance policies in individual schools and academy trusts .
The disgrace of the Schools Bill being put to parliament.
It should be dealing with all the problems -
mental health problems post lockdown
recruitment and retention
Schools being turned into exam factories
The central issue in the Bill is structural. They want more Academies. At the present rate it would take forty years to academise every school.
The government data is flawed. The national statistical authority has taken this on board and expressed concern to the government.
There is no evidence that multi academy trusts improve school performance.
One reason schools oppose joining is that they cannot leave.
We can put grit in the
wheels.
Legal challenges and strike action have both been effective.
A letter is going out to schools to promote this.
Kevin is the one on the right.
This book was written by Manobi Bandyopadhyay in collaboration with Mukherjee Pandey.
The introduction is uncompromising:
"To all those people who humiliated me and called me subhuman, pushing me to the brink of my life. It is because of them that I discovered my strength and fought my way back to life. I hope my book inspires those who are like me and helps them win."
When Manobi was born as a boy he was regarded as "a gift of Goddess Lakshmi". For decades all Manobi's attempts to cope with being "a girl in a boy's body" and later a "woman in a man's body" were met with humiliation and simple confusion from family and colleagues.
Doctors routinely advised Manobi that the treatment for this condition was to "be a man" and the kind of "conversion therapy" which gay people have faced in the UK and the US was recommended.
It was a struggle to find a doctor who would perform the sex-change operation which Manobi needed. Many people in the same condition can only make use of amateur surgeons and that is as dangerous as it sounds.
Manobi is the founder and editor of a magazine which still exists called Abomanob which means "subhuman", a name which reflects the kind of abuse which transgendered people have had to put up with. The magazine gives a voice to transgendered people in a society where simply to be accepted and treated with common decency is a struggle.
It is an inspiring book and it will help explain what transgendered people have to face
every day. Socialists should read this book.
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Amartya Sen explores the role of argument in a wide range of spheres in Indian life.
Respectful dialogue is a more effective way of dealing with differences than simply demonising or denouncing an opponent. He praises the idea of secularism but he contrasts the Indian view of secularism (which also exists elsewhere) which involves treating other religions with respect with the view which seeks to suppress religion. He cites the French ban on religious dress for muslim girls as an example but the world is full of them.
The author is no Socialist but it is very telling for a Socialist to read his view that the inequalities of religion, gender, sexuality and caste are all exacerbated by the inequalities of class. He cites inter alia the fact that India has had a female head of state whereas France, Japan and the USA have never done so. The position of the affluent women is fundamentally different from the position of working-class women. I first heard this line of argument from the UK Socialist Party's Peter Taaffe in 1969.
He points to India's continued status as a united country and a democracy in which power goes from one party to another without violence as two examples of the power of argument.
It is a thought-provoking work. It is also easy to read and enjoy.
