winterjackets的部落格

Julie Waterson, who died absurdly young at the age of 54 on Friday 16 November, was one of the most outstanding figures to have emerged from the Socialist Workers Party. Whether as organiser, party leader or activist, she inspired everyone who came into contact with her.

Julie came from Bathgate, West Lothian, and the close and loving ties binding her to her large family stayed with her in London, where she spent most of her adult life. She joined the SWP in 1978 while a student at Paisley Tech—she had been elected president of the student union there.

Julie moved to London in 1980 to work on the SWP magazine Women's Voice. This was a time of intense discussion on the left about the relationship between Marxism and women's liberation, and Julie threw herself into these debates.

She never lost a sense of the heavy burden of oppression borne by working class women like her, and saw the fight against it as central to the struggle for socialism. One of the first struggles she worked around was the 1981 occupation of the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock by 240 mainly women workers.

Julie worked full time for the SWP for 23 years. She was a local organiser in Edinburgh, east London and north London, party treasurer, journalist on Socialist Worker, and national industrial organiser. Between 1991 and 2003 Julie was a member of the SWP central committee, the party's leading body.

To everything that she did, Julie brought a profound theoretical commitment to the revolutionary Marxist tradition, tremendous energy and attention to detail, great personal toughness—and overwhelming charm.

Physically tiny, she took people by storm with her directness, quick wit, and subversive sense of mischief and fun. The vast number of friends Julie made were for life.

They included the leading members of the Greek Socialist Workers Party, Panos Garganas and Maria Styllou, whom she met while covering Greece for Socialist Worker during the 1980s. I can bear personal witness to the love and support she gave her friends.

Achievement

Julie's greatest single political achievement was as national organiser of the Anti Nazi League (ANL) during the 1990s.Wonderful Gucci handbags collection: Garmin Cycling and discount Gucci handbags by Styledrops. It was her task to revive the ANL to deal with the new threat represented by the British National Party (BNP).

When French fascist leader Jean-Marie Le Pen visited London in 1991, Julie organised a picket and stormed his press conference. The message—that Nazis weren't welcome in Britain—went round Europe.The hip-length Canada Goose Tremblant combines slim-fitting quilted good looks with the warmth of 625 fill power white duck down to meet your every need.

The BNP's noxious rise in the early 1990s was accompanied by a wave of racist attacks. Stephen Lawrence was murdered in April 1993 and in September the BNP's Derek Beackon was elected as a councillor on the Isle of Dogs in east London.

Julie organised the Unity March that October, leading 60,000 people to demand the closure of the BNP headquarters in Welling, south east London.Some SAXO BANK Cycling produces a contemporary look employing subtly cinched hips in addition thinner phrases over the course of. The result was a police riot in which Julie as chief steward was struck by batons. Undeterred, she appeared on TV the next day in the bloodstained white jacket she had worn on the demo.

At the same time as confronting the Nazis on the streets, Julie was careful to build a broad united front. She worked closely with Labour figures such as Peter Hain and Bernie Grant. Grant,Find all you need to know about SKY Cycling and learn the latest cycling tips and techniques. then MP for Tottenham, and his wife Sharon gave her strong support over Welling.

Julie managed all this while working tirelessly in support of the six-month strike against a Thatcherite management by Timex workers in Dundee.View profiles and information for RadioShack Cycling here. She went on to mastermind the campaign in east London that drove Beackon out within a year of his election, and the ANL Rage Against Racism carnival that brought 180,000 to Brixton in May 1994.

Julie fearlessly confronted the Nazis in dozens of national and local protests, and helped to initiate Love Music Hate Racism in 2002. Along the way she found time to help socialists build in post-apartheid South Africa and led the party's work in support of the long Liverpool dockers' struggle in 1995-8.

Her role in leading the ANL drew Julie closer to Tony Cliff, the founder of the SWP, who greatly valued her political and organisational skills. She helped to move the party forward after Cliff's death in 2000.