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News
Tackling climate change: Johnson emits huge quantities of hot air!
Socialist policies needed to create green jobs and net-zero carbon emissions as part of a sustainable economy.
Windrush deportations: end the hostile environment
Two years after the Windrush scandal, the Home Office has operated a charter flight to Jamaica forcibly deporting Jamaican-born British citizens. Tragically, this will tear many families apart.
Streatham attack: Johnson’s bill can’t stop terror
“It’s only February and this has already happened.” The response from Becky Smyths, a resident of Streatham where terrorist stabbings took place on 2 February.
It’s one world for the super-rich and another for us.
Will capitalism save the planet? “The reality is that the big companies rule the roost, and they’re only interested in short-term profit,” replied the Socialist Party’s Martin Powell-Davies on BBC1’s ‘The Big Questions’ on 9 February.
NHS
The working class of Rhondda Cynon Taff will be on the march on Saturday 15 February to stop the closure or partial closure of their A&E department in Royal Glamorgan Hospital. Hundreds have attended meetings and lobbies across the area.
Unnecessary surgery scandal shows need for democratic control of NHS
It is shocking that a doctor, breast surgeon Ian Paterson, subjected more than 1,000 patients, mainly women, to unnecessary and damaging operations over 14 years.
NHS debt so high it can’t be repaid – so don’t pay it!
Cuts and privatisation mean NHS trusts now have debts so high they might never be repaid, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
Callous Tory cuts to children’s speech therapy in Nottinghamshire
Tory-controlled Nottinghamshire County Council wants to cut two-thirds from the budget for early-intervention speech-therapy services.
Trade unions
Trade unions – new decade, new challenges
After the general election, the unions and their members are facing serious challenges – not least a Boris Johnson-led Tory government with a working majority.
Workplace news
Big Unison south east regional meeting votes for anti-cuts position
Over 150 delegates registered for the South East regional council meeting of local government union Unison which took place on 8 February. This was the biggest meeting for many years.
PCS union: Uniting the left around a leadership that can win for members
The 2020 national elections of the PCS, a union of civil servants and private sector workers on government contracts, are at a key stage. Branches throughout the union are meeting to agree nominations for president and national executive committee.
Westex workers win increased pay offer in 11th week of strike
The Westex carpet workers in Yorkshire are now into their 11th week of strike action. The strike is solid and no Unite the Union member has crossed the picket line.
University strikers walk out for better pay and pensions
The University and College Union (UCU) has announced 14 days of further strike action for universities currently in dispute over pensions, pay and conditions.
East London school strikes against academisation continue
When will schools in Newham see sense? We do not want academisation.
Foreign Office workers’ strike
One week into a month-long strike PCS union members working for Interserve at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London were joined by the Trade Union Congress and PCS general secretaries and Labour Party Socialist Campaign Group MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn, on their 11 February picket line to mark ‘heart unions’ week.
Solidarity with Turkish workers
Solidarity with victimised bus rep Moe
Clive Walder, a Unite rep, is a longstanding member of the Socialist Party and the National Shop Stewards Network steering committee. He was dismissed on 7 February by National Express in Birmingham.
Cuts
How to resist tory attacks on local communities
One of the reasons why Labour lost seats in the North and Midlands in the general election was because Labour councils have carried out ten years of Tory government cuts.
Cuts councillors are the real problem
The attention-seeking, right-wing Labour leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, described by the Guardian as “the leader of Labour’s 6,600-strong army of councillors”, has attacked Corbyn for being out of touch with Labour voters and disregarding local councillors’ experiences.
Council houses – not private property developers
To the big number of Londoners forced to fight to save their homes and their local environment from private property developers, London mayor Sadiq Khan’s ‘London Plan’ is notorious.
International
Sinn Fein harnesses working-class anger to top poll
The general election in Ireland saw a seismic change in the electoral landscape, with a big surge in support for Sinn Féin.
Lebanon – mass protests cut across sectarian division
Campaigns
Build independent workers’ media with May Day greetings
The working class needs its own independent media to represent its own interests. This is ever more evident in the hopeless confusion and monstrous smears from the established press. We need organised workers to support the alternative – the Socialist newspaper.
Building a working-class movement for Tamil rights
On 4 February, Tamil Solidarity called a protest outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. This protest marked a black day for Tamils.
Hackney: We don’t want homes and retail units working-class people can’t afford
Angry residents, from Hackney east London, packed into a meeting at the Dan West Trelawney estate community hall. Labour mayor Philip Glanville tried to justify the council’s decision to ask a private developer to revamp the site of the local Tesco.
Universal Credit
New BBC series – Insight or whitewash?
The BBC programme ‘Universal Credit: inside the welfare state’ is a series of three programmes on the highly criticised benefit system.
