In this week's issue:

The Socialist 14 January 2009, issue Stop Israeli state terror

War and occupation

Stop the Israeli state terror

Stop the Slaughter in Gaza: London demo, photo Paul Mattsson

"Terrified, starving, traumatised, thirsty, desperate", was how the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories described the Gazan people...

100,000+ on Gaza protests

Socialist Party editorial

British economy heads deeper into crisis

The Socialist Editorial: Gordon Brown promised that New Labour would end the cycle of 'boom and bust'. He claimed that his government is a "rock of stability". Yet the government is being battered by forces of economic recession which become stronger every week...

Vote for Robbie Segal

Stop job cuts

Robbie Segal

Tens of thousands of retail workers are being laid off. These workers are facing a bleak future, writes Robbie Segal, who is standing for president of Usdaw. Voting starts 19 January.
I am standing for election to become president of Usdaw because our union needs to be a fighting union. We should be building a mass campaign against job losses but also demanding a minimum wage of £8 an hour without exemptions. The union should be taking workers' wages and conditions forward, not watching them go backwards.

Socialist Party youth and students

Fight for your future

ISR on the demonstration against war on Gaza, London, 10 Jan 2009, photo Sarah Mayo

From 'generation iPod' to generation unemployed in a matter of months - the government and media's portrayal of young people has changed dramatically as the credit crunch has unfolded, writes Ben Robinson, ISR national organiser.

Fight for free education

Building ISR and Socialist Students in 2009

Fight for your future: what ISR campaigns for

Socialist Party campaigns

The 2012 Olympics legacy

WHAT WILL be left when the Olympic games leaves town? That was the question debated by over a hundred people at Stratford Circus, east London, last week. Called by a loose coalition of interested groups...

Heathrow expansion protest

Defend threatened Saudi Arabian trade unionist

Wirral: Marching to stop the cuts

Fast News

Socialist Party feature

The NHS today - can it meet everyone's health needs?

Desperately ill patients are being denied expensive drugs that could treat their conditions. Local NHS trusts claim they don't have the money and that treating one person with a drug costing thousands...

Socialist Party workplace news

Conference: 'The crisis in working class political representation'

RMT protests against privatisation on the London underground , photo Paul Mattsson

The rail union RMT-organised conference to "discuss the crisis in working class political representation" which took place on 10 January, was initiated by a resolution passed at last year's RMT conference, writes Jane James.

GlaxoSmithKline: The fightback starts here

Tube cleaners protest against victimisation

Job cuts announced at Nissan

International socialist news and analysis

Jobs meltdown hits Ireland

"THIS IS not about a company that's in trouble. This is about greed, corporate greed. They're going to Poland because apparently they can make an extra 3%.", writes Stephen Boyd, Cork.

Debate and meeting in Dublin

Sri Lanka -: Vicious attacks on media and killing of newspaper editor

Bangladesh: Protesters denounce global mining corporation

Socialist Party review

Che

Che Guevara in military fatigues, 2 June 1959

The release of the first of Steven Soderbergh's two-part biopic on Che Guevara coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban revolution. It is attracting wide audiences of mainly young people. Given that many of those seeing the film are looking for an alternative to capitalism, Socialist Party branches are organising leafleting and book sales outside cinemas.
TONY SAUNOIS, secretary of the Committee for a Workers' International, looks at how the film deals with the important political questions raised.

Socialist Party feature

Why Manchester rejected the congestion charge

BY A four-to-one margin, Greater Manchester residents have thrown out proposals threatening to bring in a "congestion charge" in return for some limited investment in public transport, writes Hugh Caffrey, Manchester.