In this week's issue:

The Socialist 22 September 2009, issue No cuts in public services

No cuts in public services

PCS workers go on strike to protect our services, photo Peter Haddon

Not content with yearly pay-cuts, repossessing our homes, trying to rob us of our measly pensions and consigning our kids to the next 'lost generation' unemployment figures, this government of parasitic hypocrites, happy in its world of bonuses and backhanders, is now coming with a hatchet for our jobs...

Prepare political challenge to cuts agenda

Higher education - cuts cuts cuts!

Students protest against fees on the Campaign to Defeat Fees demo in February, photo Socialist Party

Fees: So Gordon Brown has finally said the word "cuts". For students and workers in higher education this is definitely old news. Over recent years, courses, contact time and facilities have been slashed -...

Universities in crisis - Join Socialist Students

Defend education - stop the £2 billion cuts in spending

Brown declares war on workers

John McInally, vice-president PCS, speaking at the Campaign for a New Workers' Party debate 2008, photo Socialist Party

GORDON BROWN'S speech to the Trades Union Congress was an open declaration of war on working-class people, writes John McInally, national vice-president, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).

TUC congress: Anger on the fringes, inaction at the top

Afghanistan: An unwinnable war

THE US and NATO's top military chief in Afghanistan has told his political bosses that western forces will fail there unless there is a change in policy...

Postal workers strike as national ballot continues

Postal workers demonstrate in London, photo by Paul Mattsson

Action by postal workers has continued in many parts of the country, against management's attempts to impose new shifts and working conditions without consultation, writes A London postal worker.

Warrington mail centre

Vestas workers determined to continue fight for jobs

Vestas wind turbine plant workers occupy and demonstrate against closure, photo Senan

Vestas wind turbine workers and their supporters rallied and took to the streets of Newport, Isle of Wight, on their day of action on 17 September...

Youth unemployment hits record level

Youht Fight For Jobs protest outside parliament , photo by S.Sachs-Eldridge

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by the government on Wednesday 16 September of 2.5 million unemployed was met by public protests organised by Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ)...

Future Jobs Fund - massaging the figures

Campaign for a Salford workers' MP

OVER 100 local residents packed into the Link community centre on Wednesday 16 September for the second meeting of the 'Hazel Must Go' campaign in Salford, writes Al McElroy, Hazel Must Go campaign and Salford Socialist Party.

Energy rip-off

Threat to Coventry homeless

Socialist Party MEP denounces "campaign of fear" on Lisbon Treaty

Speaking in the European Parliament, Irish Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins opposed the nomination of Jose Manuel Barroso for re-election as President of the EU commission and discussed the debate on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland...

Workers' fightback grows in Italy

Engineering construction: Stewards' forum recommends bosses' offer Workers should reject!

Ste Jones from Lindsey Oil Refinery construction site attended the national shop stewards forum for engineering construction on 17 September...

Portsmouth shipbuilders vote for strike

Bosses ask JCB workers for sacrifice

Battle over pensions means strike threat at Corus

Liverpool bin workers score victory

Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy

Review: Reading Arundhati Roy's collection of lectures and articles about India could make you want to weep, or to emit the 'feral howl' she herself is tempted to resort to...

The Dirty Thirty - Heroes of the Miners' Strike

The Anti-Flag album 'The People or the Gun'