In this week's issue:

The Socialist 21 February 2008, issue 521

No wage cuts! Fund equal pay

Birmingham council workers strike on 5 February 2008. Photo S O'Neill

"No pay cuts!" "Equal pay for women, now!" That's what Birmingham council workers will be saying as they strike for the second time on 26 February. Tens of thousands of members of GMB, Amicus, TGWU, UCATT and Unison struck on 5 February...

Demonstration

Troops out of Iraq now!

Five years since the invasion: 1,220,580 Iraqis killed since the invasion. Almost one in two households in Baghdad have lost a family member.

Socialist Party news

Stop the witch-hunt: Defend the Sheridan 7

Tommy Sheridan, photo Paul Mattsson

The ongoing police investigation into possible perjury during the Tommy Sheridan defamation case against the News of the World has become an out-and out witch-hunt against not only Tommy Sheridan but anyone who supported him during the trial... By Philip Stott, Dundee

Prison officers fight Labour's strike ban

Prison Officers Association protest outside the Royal Court of Justice, joined by Brian Caton, POA general secretary, photo Keith Dickinson

THE PRISON Officers Association (POA) special delegate conference met on 19 February in emergency session... By Bill Mullins

Battle for Shropshire schools goes on

Coventry protests at Widdecombe's attacks

Football: Top of the League for greed

Socialist Party Marxist analysis

Northern Rock - Labour's reluctant nationalisation

The Socialist Editorial The nationalisation of Northern Rock was met with howls of outrage from some of its shareholders, who screamed about 'theft' and 'immorality'. This was a major blow against the concept of an unfettered market-driven economy...

1918-2008: Clause 4 and nine decades of workers' struggles

Record fall in home ownership

Socialist Party NHS campaign

London's health care under further attack

YOU CAN see what the growing gap between the rich and poor means in life and death terms by looking at health care in London... By Chris Newby

Private clinics fail

Hospitals "stacking" patients

Fighting back and building a demo

"Not making sufficient profit"

Socialist Students

Universities in crisis: Fees favour the rich

Exeter Socialist Students organised a protest outside the office of the university vice-chancellor, photo Exeter Socialist Students

SURPRISE, SURPRISE! A new study by the Sutton Trust charity shows that the university fees system favours the rich and those who attend private school, writes Matt Dobson, Socialist Students national organiser.

Exeter students fight privatisation

Nottingham defends democracy

International socialist news and analysis

Kosovan independence - a dangerous mirage?

AS ALBANIAN Kosovans celebrated in the streets of Pristina with fireworks, angry nationalist Serbs in Belgrade pelted the US embassy with rocks... By Dave Carr

Greece: Second general strike in two months

CWI school in Latin America

Socialist Party review

Science, Marxism and the big bang

Science, Marxism and the Big Bang

Reviewed by Roy Farrar.

Science, Marxism and the Big Bang by Peter Mason is written in a style that may not be familiar to the modern reader - that is, of a polemical presentation.

In certain critical reviews this is necessary in order to follow the arguments as laid out by the authors being criticised and to more fully refute and correct them.

Socialist Party workplace news

It's official - Unison launches witch-hunt on Socialist Party

Onay Kasab, photo Paul Mattsson

In June last year, the Unison bureaucracy launched a disciplinary investigation into five union officers... By A Unison member

Socialist gains in Unison branch elections

Collection cuts and bullying equals bin strike!

Victory for council street wardens

Workplace news in brief

Rail pension dispute

178 train drivers working for London Midland and based at Bletchley are to strike on 28 and 29 February in a dispute about pension payments... By Aslef member

Union merger: OILC and RMT

Marching against single status

Solidarity with Pakistan workers