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News
6.5 million working poor: Fight to end low pay
There are now 6.5 million workers in the UK who are part of the “working poor.” There are now more people who are both working and in poverty than people who are officially unemployed.
Labour leadership contest and public ownership
A debate, of sorts, is opening up on nationalisation in the Labour leadership election. Support for public ownership – or not – is an indication of which class interests a party serves – workers or bosses.
Coronavirus exposes capitalism’s weaknesses in healthcare and economy
Tragedies like the deaths from novel coronavirus, over 400 at the time of writing, are never just ‘natural disasters’. They are not isolated from society. They are impacted by capitalism and also have an effect on the system itself.
Record dissatisfaction with democracy: capitalism’s dead end
The strategists of capitalism are worried. Global levels of distrust in democracy are at an all-time high. In reality, this represents a growing dissatisfaction with capitalism itself.
Refuges turn away 64% of women – set no-cuts budgets now!
One of the most thorough reports about support services for people seeking to escape domestic abuse, researched by Women’s Aid and released om 28 January, confirmed that 64% of those who seek shelter in a refuge are turned away due to lack of funding.
Grenfell watch: Unions challenge ‘mockery of justice’
It’s one world for the super-rich and another one for us.
Rail
Nationalise the railways: For an integrated public transport system
Expensive, overcrowded and unreliable: Renationalise the railways!
How hard can it be to run a train from Carlisle to Newcastle? The collapse of the Northern Rail franchise, forcing the Tories to renationalise the service, shows privatisation has not been the way.
Cancel the franchise, not our trains
Will the North get investment and transport infrastructure?
What we think
‘Post-Brexit’ era of crisis ahead
Brexit Day has been and gone. Now Johnson is promising the “dawn of a new era”.
Workplace news
Huge victory for Bromley library workers after 241 days on indefinite strike!
Library workers in Bromley, south London have won a huge victory after eight months of continuous, indefinite strike action which began on 6 June 2019.
14 more days of university strikes over pensions, pay and conditions
The University and College Union (UCU) has announced 14 days of further strike action for universities currently in dispute over pensions, pay and conditions.
500 BBC journalists’ jobs under threat
BBC top management have announced that 500 journalists’ jobs are to go. This is a direct attack on the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). BBC journalists are the largest single group in the union.
Newham council tax workers’ pay victory
Unite members working as council tax benefit managers for Newham’s Labour council in east London have won a pay and grading claim after giving the employer notice of strike action to commence.
No to academisation of east London schools!
Brentwood Catholic Diocese in east London wants to turn all its schools into academies. Already academisation at St Angela’s in Newham has been ruled out for five years after strike action.
Ealing tax office workers strike against closure
NHS
Outrageous waiting times will put lives at risk
There has been a huge response to the announcement of the closure of the A&E at the Royal Glamorgan hospital. 200 people lobbied the Cwm Taf health board at short notice.
NHS: Save stroke beds in Coventry and Warwickshire
International
Syria: Assad regime consolidates power after brutal counterrevolution
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has succeeded, for now, in defeating the revolutionary uprising and subsequent armed rebellion that has swept over the country since the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011.
Israel/Palestine: Trump ‘peace plan’ promises further conflict
The recent ‘deal’ announced by US President Donald Trump and enthusiastically endorsed by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was billed as a ‘Middle East peace plan’. But as the Economist journal wrote: “As a blueprint for a two-state solution it was dead on arrival”.
Campaigns
Socialist Party calls anti-austerity protest on Budget Day
Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary said: “We are calling this protest to say austerity must end”.
Sadiq Khan “out-Tories” himself to defend tech firms’ tax bonanza
Selling the Socialist and campaigning around the country.
Reading Labour council: Stop privatising our leisure services
If the right-wing Labour council succeeds, a private company will be given a 25-year contract to design, build, operate and maintain Reading’s sports centres.
The rich fund the Tories and Blairites, so help fund the working-class fightback
The Socialist Party needs you to increase your subs.
Support the working-class press in 2020
Which paper details a fighting industrial strategy to beat the anti-union laws? Who explains how councils can set budgets that defy the Tory cuts? Where can you read about the practical programme needed to reconstitute a mass party for working-class political representation?
Defend and fight for warm, safe housing for Samira and everyone
Samira and her family have suffered damp and mouldy housing for ten years.
Alternative Burns Night success
Some came by word of mouth. Others saw our posters, read the article in the local paper or heard the interview on BBC Radio Cumbria.
Readers’ opinion
Liverpool council: “No more cuts” – Is Joe Anderson serious?
Joe Anderson, Liverpool’s elected mayor, has caused a publicity storm in the city by publicly announcing that he will refuse to make any more cuts at the behest of the Tory government.
Letter’s to the Socialist’s editors.