In this week's issue:

The Socialist 8 October 2008, issue 551

Credit crunch

Where is the bailout for us?

FTSE 100 UK stock market in record plunge

Labour bails out the bosses: Waiting for the bus outside Asda, I assess my situation with regards to fuel poverty. Asda is not my nearest supermarket but I think it's the cheapest. Sally Huggins, Waltham Forest Socialist Party, comments.

Editorial: Casino capitalism's crisis continues

Lessons of the 1990s recession in Japan

House building hits new low

Responsibility for the 'age of irresponsibility'

Tories grasp at popularity

Socialist Students

Campaign to defeat fees!

Cambridge Socialist Students protest, photo Cambridge Socialist Party

Build a mass movement for free education: SINCE THE New Labour government brought in tuition fees eleven years ago, students have been told that "debt is good." The government claimed that the university fees and loans system increased social mobility, that all students who graduate would have their debts cancelled out by increased earnin, writes Iain Dalton, Bangor Socialist Students, and Matt Dobson Socialist Students national organiser.

Students look for socialist ideas

Education

University workers fight pension attacks

Sussex University Unite members protest against attacks on their pensions, photo Peter Knight

University of Sussex management should have known better than to attack the pensions of some of the lowest paid workers on campus, writes Peter Knight.

NUT strike ballot: Action on pay can win

Socialist Party campaigns

A day in the life of a care worker

Getting up at 6am to go to work is normal for a lot of people. This is what I did yesterday, so I was in time to start my shift at 7.45am. It's now 6am the following day and I am still at work...

The sacking of Blair, London's police chief

Socialist meeting blocked by councillor

No to incinerators, give us a real say!

Keep the Metro public!

International socialist news and analysis

Mbeki dismissed by ANC as South Africa's president

THE RESIGNATION of South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki on 20 September after being 'recalled' by the executive committee of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) allied to Mbeki's rival - Jacob Zuma - has plunged the ANC into its most serious political crisis and a potential split. Weizmann Hamilton of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM, CWI in South Africa) explains the background and the likely consequences.

Socialist Party workplace news

"Telling the boss: You can't do that"

When I became a union rep a few years ago at my current train depot, it was basically because no-one else would do it, an Aslef member writes.

Fight against the Unison witch-hunt

Frustration with union leadership

Another victory in Greenwich

Workplace news in brief