Archive for December 2007

6 December 2007

System change not climate change

Climate change demo December 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

System change not climate change: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is currently taking place in Bali...

6 December 2007

Italy: transport strike

The biggest transport strike in 25 years paralysed Italy last Friday....

6 December 2007

The socialist review: 'Taking Liberties'

PAPER MASKS, scissors and some toy soldiers. These are the offensive items found by 100 police officers, after holding three busloads of anti-war protesters... By Michael Wrack, Hackney Socialist Party

6 December 2007

South African miners strike over safety

THIS YEAR over 200 miners were killed in South Africa's gold, platinum and diamond mines...

6 December 2007

Argos strike in southern Ireland

Argos strike in southern Ireland: ON 1 December workers in Argos stores across Ireland took strike action to demand a 90 cent an hour pay rise...

6 December 2007

Child poverty rises

THE LATEST report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that 200,000 more children were living in poverty in 2005-6 than the year before...

6 December 2007

Northern Ireland classroom assistants

MEMBERS OF the Nipsa union who have been on strike for 16 days fighting for a decent pay deal for Northern Ireland's classroom assistants returned to work on 4 December...

6 December 2007

Rail fares unfair

THE PRIVATISED firms in the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) are raising rail fares throughout Britain again - this time by up to 15% from 2 January...

6 December 2007

Save Cadbury jobs!

The demonstration on 8 December marks a new point in the campaign to keep the Cadbury site open in Keynsham.... By Robin Clapp, Bristol Socialist Party

6 December 2007

Socialists and the trade union leaderships

THE LETTER from Tom Lloyd in issue 511 of the socialist raised some important issues about the trade union leaders, the rank and file and the left, in respect of ensuring that unions become fighting bodies...

6 December 2007

Unison's right wing still witch-hunting

The witch-hunt against the five officers of some London Unison branches has not yet been resolved....

6 December 2007

Kosova: After the elections - before the explosion

A FINAL round of talks held in Baden, Austria last week between Serbian and Kosovan diplomats (mediated by the EU, US and Russia) to resolve the disputed province of Kosova's future, ended in failure...

6 December 2007

Keep the 'people's Post Office' public

TV ADVERTS call it the "People's Post Office" but the Post Office's top management want to wrest this public service from the people's hands and give it to the private sector.... By Rob Windsor, Coventry Socialist councillor

6 December 2007

How New Labour got hooked

Private Finance Initiative: IT IS another sign of the unhealthily close link between big business and the Labour government...

6 December 2007

Annapolis - a framework for further conflict

IT IS hard to imagine an international peace conference that could come up with less... By Judy Beishon

6 December 2007

Grayscale

PAUL GRAY, the chief civil servant at the centre of the missing child benefit computer discs, was widely praised for 'doing the honourable thing' by resigning his top post at HM Revenue and Customs....

6 December 2007

Labour's funding scandal

Brown has more in common with Margaret Thatcher than the trade unions

Editorial: THE PARTY funding scandal engulfing New Labour is only the latest in a long line of similar sleaze scandals...

6 December 2007

Manchester's striking mental health workers: Defending trade union rights

After four weeks in dispute, Manchester's striking mental health workers remain determined to win reinstatement of their union representative, Karen Reissmann... By Hugh Caffrey, Manchester Socialist Party

6 December 2007

CWU ballot result

CWU ballot result: Postal workers who have been in dispute with Royal Mail and took strike action during the summer have voted to accept the deal which the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) has negotiated.... By Jane James, Socialist Party industrial organiser

6 December 2007

Compulsory school to 18 - a rosy future for young people?

MANY YOUNG people hoping for a decent future, desperately seeking work, training and apprenticeships, might hope Gordon Brown's recent announcements will help them... By Nick Chaffey

6 December 2007

No to academy schools!

Lewisham demonstration against destructive school policies, photo Paul Mattsson

HUNDREDS OF teachers from across north-west England demonstrated in Manchester on 1 December against the government's continuing drive to impose academy (publicly funded independent) schools on local communities... By Jane Nellist, Coventry NUT

6 December 2007

Disunited Russia

UNLIKE THE referendum vote in Venezuela, the 'landslide' victory of president Putin's United Russia party in the country's general election last Sunday came as no surprise...

6 December 2007

Intelligence on Iran wrong

A declassified US intelligence report says Iran halted a programme to build nuclear weapons in 2003....

6 December 2007

Chavez referendum result a big setback

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the UK. Photo Marc Vallee

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT, Hugo Chavez, has lost the constitutional changes referendum in a "photo finish" by 51% to 49%... By Andy Bentley

6 December 2007

DWP strike: Fighting low pay

PCS members in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are being called out on strike on 6-7 December over an outrageous imposed three-year pay offer... By Jane Aitchison, PCS DWP group president, personal capacity

6 December 2007

Feature: The free market brings fire, flood and famine

Socialist planning needed: Yet the IPCC also points out that annual spending of less than 1% of world gross domestic product would be enough to stop global warming...

7 December 2007

For decent public transport!

Our Planet, not Private Profit: Public transport, such as buses and trains, has been privatised. Costs have gone up and services are worse. But public transport could play a key role...

13 December 2007

Fight to save post offices

The CWU postal strike 2007

No to cuts and privatisation: Not being able to draw your pension at your local post office is not something that will bother the likes of Alan Cook, managing director of Post Offices Limited... By Jon Dale, Mansfield and North Derbyshire Socialist Party

13 December 2007

China: Mass protests erupt in Shenyang

THOUSANDS OF people in Shenyang, capital of north-eastern China's Liaoning province, took to the streets over several days recently...

13 December 2007

Extraordinary tape destruction at CIA torture camp

LAST WEEK it was disclosed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had destroyed video tape evidence of prisoners ("detainees") being tortured at the US-run Guantanamo Bay concentration camp in Cuba... By Dave Carr

13 December 2007

Interest rate cut will bring no reprieve

Editorial: FOLLOWING THE interest rate cut there are continued fears that the current downturn in the economy could lead to a recession. 2008 could be the toughest year for the British economy for a long time.

13 December 2007

Beijing Olympics under a cloud

China: On a recent trip to India, said to have cost around £750,000 of public money, the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone offered the Bollywood film industry a cheap deal for the use of some of the Olympic buildings in East London a... By Clare Doyle

13 December 2007

End Murdoch's vendetta: No more public money for billionaire's campaign

Tommy Sheridan's sensational defamation victory over the News of the World (NotW) in July 2006 sent shock waves through Rupert Murdoch's global media empire... By Philip Stott, International Socialists, Scotland

13 December 2007

Thousands march against climate change

Climate change demo December 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

"I SAID the other day it was system change we needed," one young person told his friend as they saw our posters on the Socialist Party stall before the 8 December climate change demo... By Sarah Sachs-Eldridge

13 December 2007

Every fiddle helps

Have you seen the Activist? The e-bulletin of Socialist Party members working in retail and distribution trades. If you know anyone who would like a copy,...

13 December 2007

DWP strike: Fighting the pay cuts

PCS on strike 1 May 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) management have imposed a three-year pay 'deal' that means that 90% of Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members will have a below-inflation pay rise...

13 December 2007

Manchester: Karen Reissmann sacked - and cuts still loom

If your hospital trust is £3 million in the red while you have £160 million sitting in the bank, what do you do...

13 December 2007

Newham council sack Unison chair

Michael Gavan, Unison chair at Newham council, east London, having been suspended as reported in a previous report in the socialist, was sacked on 21 November 2007....

13 December 2007

Charity begins at the bank

BRITAIN'S HIGH street banks have been using charities, particularly children's charities, to benefit from tax breaks and maximise their profits with no obligation to give them a penny...

13 December 2007

Government's lying statistics

AROUND THE world, demonstrators in over 50 countries took to the streets on 8 December in protests coinciding with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali.... By Roger Shrives

13 December 2007

Sefton's first citizen "cheating the system"

JUST OVER two years ago, New Labour's rulers in Sefton on Merseyside victimised six Unison activists for protesting against privatising the borough's housing stock... By Merseyside Socialist Party

13 December 2007

Unite Cardiff schools campaigns

OPPOSITION FROM angry parents is hitting Cardiff's Liberal-controlled council's school closures programme... By Ross Saunders

13 December 2007

National Union of Students: Right wing force through undemocratic changes

THE NATIONAL Union of Students (NUS) held an extraordinary conference in Leicester on 4 December... By Edd Mustill and Matt Dobson

13 December 2007

Leicester students debate tuition fees

LEICESTER UNIVERSITY students union held a panel debate on the subject of tuition fees, instigated by campaigns and involvement officer Alex Smith, who also runs the union's campaign to keep the top-up fees capped at £3,000 ... By Vicky Cowell, Leicester University Socialist Students

13 December 2007

Your new police terror chief

GORDON BROWN'S government is still trying to convince every MP that a draconian 42-day maximum detention without charge period is needed for 'terror suspects'...

13 December 2007

Birmingham city council: Workers boo 'lead balloon' councillors

Birmingham city council: "WE'VE GOT a grudge with councillor Rudge," was one of the slogans displayed on placards by several hundred angry Birmingham city council workers... By Clive Walder

13 December 2007

Action can beat Cadbury closure threat

AROUND 1,000 people braved atrocious weather on 8 December to attend a protest march organised by Unite, the union, against Cadbury Schweppes management's decision to close the Keynsham site near Bristol and relocate product... By Domenico Hill, Socialist Party and Unite Rep

13 December 2007

Warning: NHS cuts seriously damage your health

NHS demonstrations November 2007., photo Paul Mattsson

AS THE year ends, the grim reality of privatisation and a market-driven NHS is clear... By Lois Austin

17 December 2007

Tommy Sheridan perjury charge

Solidarity tonight declared its 100% support for our convenor Tommy Sheridan who has been charged with perjury by Lothian and Borders Police...

18 December 2007

Defend Tommy Sheridan: End Murdoch's witch-hunt

Tommy Sheridan speaking at a Campaign for a New Workers Party meeting in Liverpool, photo Harry Smith

On Sunday 16th December Tommy Sheridan was charged by Lothian and Borders police with perjury, arising from the most expensive perjury investigation ever in Scotland...

31 December 2007

Frankenstein kills out of control monster

Saddam's execution: The rushed execution of Saddam Hussein has all the hallmarks of desperation. Bush needed some "good" news out of Iraq, particularly as any day now there will be the announcement of the 3,000th US military fatality in Iraq.