Archive for November 2005

3 November 2005

Belgium: massive resistance to pension cuts

THE BELGIAN establishment was shaken by the second trade union-organised national day of action in the course of three weeks...

3 November 2005

Constitution will not prevent Iraq decay

IN THE eyes of the occupying powers, the new Iraqi constitution was meant to be an important step in the direction of a "sovereign and free" Iraq...

3 November 2005

Bush presidency goes into freefall

IF YOU enter Google on the internet and type in the word 'failure', and then click on 'I feel lucky', the search engine comes up with the biography of George Bush...

3 November 2005

17th Century terrorism

400 years ago, on 5 November, Parliament met briefly where it was recorded that:...

3 November 2005

How the Labour Party was formed

IN THE second article of a short series on the fight for a new mass workers' party, PETER TAAFFE, general secretary of the Socialist Party, looks at the lessons workers can learn from how the Labour Party firs...

3 November 2005

USDAW presidential election

Broad Left candidate speaks to the socialist: USDAW, BRITAIN'S fifth largest union, is currently seeking nominations for the positions of President and Executive Council (EC)...

3 November 2005

Sacked for defending union rights

London bus driver: ANDY BEADLE, the TGWU shop steward for the Peckham bus garage in south London and a long-standing member of the Socialist Party was "summarily dismissed" on 28 October...

3 November 2005

No to two-tier schooling

NEW LABOUR'S proposals for education academies argue that poorer families and deprived areas will benefit...

3 November 2005

NHS - fighting cuts and sell-offs

Charing Cross hospital: PRESS REPORTS this summer said that services at Charing Cross hospital were being sold off to private health care provider BUPA...

3 November 2005

Don't let Blair wreck hospitals and schools

BLAIR'S GOVERNMENT is destroying our public services. As our reports from Yorkshire and London show our NHS and our schools are more and more...

10 November 2005

Defend trade union rights

Morrisons: MANAGERS HAVE effectively derecognised Mark Cliffe, TGWU senior steward at Morrisons' Gadbrooke Park distribution centre, Cheshire...

10 November 2005

Stop public service jobs massacre

THE LEARNING and Skills Council (LSC) is planning to slash 1,300 jobs. Of these 550 will be in Coventry...

10 November 2005

Reinstate Andy Beadle

BUS WORKERS, trade unionists and members of the public have reacted with shock, disbelief and anger at Andy Beadle’s summary dismissal as a driver at Peckham bus garage...

10 November 2005

Union delegation sees effects of Uribe’s education cuts

I WENT to Colombia in July this year with a trade union delegation to assess the political situation and discover what life is like for ordinary Colombians...

10 November 2005

Right wing Interior Minister Sarkozy insults youth on estates

On 27 October, two young people from Clichy, one 15 year old and one 17 year old, were electrocuted and died after fleeing into an electricity sub-station...

10 November 2005

Eleven days of rioting across France

Days of riots across France have profoundly shaken the French establishment and the political elite...

10 November 2005

Successful student walkouts across the country

November 2 reports from Seattle, Twin Cities, Tacoma, Boston. On November 2nd thousands of students from across the country walked out of class and onto the streets to protest Bush's war in Iraq and military recruitment in their schools.

10 November 2005

Harder times ahead?

Jane James looks at the state of Britain’s economy today...

10 November 2005

United Nations: 60 Years of Failure

HIT BY corruption scandals and accused of failing to prevent genocidal wars, the United Nations (UN) has little to celebrate on its 60th anniversary...

10 November 2005

Blair staggers on... but 'PFI' Brown is no alternative

The following article was printed before Blair's humiliating defeat in the vote to detain terrorist suspects for 90 days...

10 November 2005

Build a new workers' party

Fight Blair’s rotten policies: THE LAST week has been a nightmare for Blair. For the second time in 12 months he’s had to sack his best mate David Blunkett. Blair’s...

17 November 2005

Bush regime in crisis

THE BUSH administration is experiencing an acute political crisis only one year after the US president was comfortably re-elected...

17 November 2005

A struggle for survival

Interview with Polish worker in Britain: IN MAY 2004 ten countries joined the European Union - including Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic...

17 November 2005

Angry Commons cleaners fight back

THEY WORK at the House of Commons, but they earn only £5.20 an hour, receive no sick pay, no pension and poor holiday entitlement...

17 November 2005

PCS launches jobs campaign

OVER 100 PCS members marched through the centre of Coventry on 12 November, against government plans to cut hundreds of jobs from regional Jobcentres and 550 jobs from the offices of the Learning and Skills...

17 November 2005

SACKED for speaking out

EILEEN HUNTER, National Union of Teachers' representative at the International School and Community College in Birmingham, has been sacked for speaking out in her school...

17 November 2005

Eighth strike for £8 an hour

ON 19 and 20 November First Bus drivers will strike for the eight and ninth time in North Staffordshire...

17 November 2005

Reinstate Andy Beadle

KEEP UP the pressure in the campaign to reinstate Andy Beadle, the democratically elected Transport and General Workers rep at Peckham bus garage...

17 November 2005

We want our buses back!

SHEFFIELD PEOPLE will march this Saturday to show their anger at South Yorkshire First's latest 15-20% bus fare rise which comes into effect on that day...

17 November 2005

Selection and 'free market' threaten our schools

Education White Paper: TONY BLAIR'S first defeat in parliament over the Terrorism Bill has made many parents, school students, teachers and education workers more confident that they can defeat Labour's latest education White Paper...

17 November 2005

Northumbria socialist students rock against racism

Socialist students at Northumbria University have been campaigning against racism and prejudice through our Unite Against Racism campaign this term...

17 November 2005

Campaign for a new workers' party

THE FOLLOWING declaration for a new workers' party was launched by the Socialist Party at Socialism 2005, a weekend of discussion and debate attended by hundreds of young people, trade union and community...

17 November 2005

"Looking forward to changing the world"

A BUZZ filled the main hall at the Friends Meeting House as we began to pack in for the main Socialism 2005 rally – older members who had been part of the mass struggles of the 1970s and 80s and, in th...

17 November 2005

Socialism 2005: Building a socialist alternative

The 800 people that attended the Socialist Party’s Rally for Socialism were united by their horror at what modern capitalism means for billions of people and their desire to change the world...

17 November 2005

Time for a new workers' party

A CAMPAIGN for a new workers' party was launched at Socialism 2005....

24 November 2005

FE colleges on strike!

Huddersfield: LECTURERS AT many further education (FE) colleges in England were on strike on 16 November in a battle for a fair pay deal...

24 November 2005

Defending jobs, services and rights

OVER 90,000 PCS members in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be balloted in December...

24 November 2005

Sheffield bus protest

AROUND 300 people marched through Sheffield last Saturday, 19 November, to protest at First's bus fares rise...

24 November 2005

Venezuela: Stop the repression of trade unionists

THE FOLLOWING solidarity appeal calls for the immediate recognition of the SUPROFRAD union in the RACE pharmaceutical company plant, and for the re-admission of all those workers made redundant by management...

24 November 2005

Big gains for United Socialist Party

SRI LANKA'S presidential election was held against the backdrop of a faltering three-year ceasefire between the government and separatist Tamil Tigers (LTTE), a badly performing economy, and a population sti...

24 November 2005

Turbulent politics as Sharon divorces Likud

THE ISRAELI government is collapsing in turmoil, forcing forward the date of the next general election by eight months...

24 November 2005

Iraq - anger grows at brutal occupation

SIXTY PERCENT of Americans now think that the 'blood shed' in Iraq is not worth it...

24 November 2005

The Constant Gardener directed by Fernando Mereilles

Adapted from the novel by John Le Carré...

24 November 2005

Demo opposes deportations

AROUND 500 people joined the demonstration called in Manchester by unions and asylum support groups...

24 November 2005

On the threshold of genderquake?

30 years of the Equal Pay Act: THIRTY YEARS after the Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts, ELAINE BRUNSKILL looks at what impact they have had on working-class women's lives...

24 November 2005

Big business destroying the planet

RAPID CLIMATE change, caused by pumping 'greenhouse gases' into the atmosphere resulting in global warming, is one of the greatest threats to our environment...

24 November 2005

Campaign for a new workers' party

LAST WEEK the socialist reported on the launch of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party...

24 November 2005

Save our health service

Cardiff Royal Infirmary: NEW LABOUR Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt says she won't 'bail out' NHS hospitals that are in debt...

24 November 2005

Don't let 'fat cats' axe our NHS

THE CHIEF executive of Huddersfield's two primary care trusts recently described local midwives as a "disgrace" for daring to oppose plans to centralise consultant-led maternity services from Hudde...