In this week's issue:

The Socialist 9 December 2009, issue Bail out our jobs, not greedy bankers

Corus steel workers on the Unite jobs demonstration in Birmingham, photo Paul Mattsson

Corus steel closure: 'Bail out our jobs, not greedy bankers'

Workers in Teesside are shocked and outraged at the news that the Corus steel plant in Redcar is to close by the end of January, with the loss of 1,700 jobs, writes Ed Hamilton, Teesside Socialist Party.

Youth Fight for Jobs campaigners speak out on Corus closure

Socialist nationalisation - the only way to save manufacturing jobs and end the bank bonus scandal

Corus workers protest, photo Paul Mattsson

Editorial: The year 2009 is ending as it began. Thousands of workers are losing their jobs in factory closures while bankers rescued by government intervention and money from working class taxpayers continue to rake...

Teesside steel: No trust in big business 'solutions'

End the war in Afghanistan

Stop the War Coalition demonstration October 2009, photo Bob Severn

THE OCCUPATION of Afghanistan has lasted eight years; it has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, writes Ken Douglas.

Climate change summit: Coming up short in Copenhagen

Climate change demo December 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Paying the price of global warming: TENS OF thousands of people marched through central London to the Houses of Parliament on Saturday 5 December to demand action from the Labour government, and the world's leaders, ahead of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, writes Dave Carr.

Free the Tamil boat people

AS PART of an international day of action, Tamil Solidarity organised a protest outside the Indonesian embassy in London on Friday, writes Manny Thain.

Fight the political witch-hunt in Unison

Fast news

Youth Fight for Jobs organises demo in Barking

Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration 28 November 2009, photo Dave Carr

The London borough of Barking and Dagenham is an area particularly blighted by capitalism's failure...

New Labour gift wraps Tyne and Wear Metro

The Keep Metro Public campaign in Newcastle, photo Elaine Brunskill

On 4 December it was announced that DB Regio is the preferred bidder, over the in-house bid, to operate the Tyne and Wear Metro from April next year, writes Norman Hall, Keep Metro Public (KMP) steering committee and Socialist Party member and Stan Herschel, RMT regional organiser and Socialist Party Member.

Stoke Axiom workers escalate the action

Save jobs at Borders

Twinings workers fight job losses

Management bullying? Surely not...

Uniting to stop cuts at Sussex

Sussex university students demonstrate, photo Socialist Students

An emergency senate meeting on 3 December, called by Sussex University management to discuss savage cuts, was picketed by over 400 students, writes Sussex University Socialist Students.

Starting Socialist Students at a Coventry sixth form

No to student civic service

Northampton protest against student loan delays

The legacy of Charles Darwin

Water-colour portrait of Charles Darwin painted by George Richmond in the late 1830s, photo George Richmond

150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species: Charles Darwin's theory of 'natural selection' changed the way that we look at ourselves. It contradicted the idea of an outside 'intelligent designer', so it met a reaction from the religious establishment.
In this feature, ROY FARRAR marks this year's bicentenary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book On the Origin of Species by summarising some of Darwin's ideas and their significance.

Solidarity with striking South African miners

SOLIDARITY IS urgently needed for striking South African mineworkers at a plat-inum mine in Rustenburg whose dispute has become extremely bitter, writes Weissman Hamilton and Mametlwe Sebei, Democratic Socialist Movement, (DSM, CWI South Africa).

Scotland: The national question and the general election

English Defence League show themselves up

Battling the far right in Nottingham: Hundreds of mainly young, local people turned out in Nottingham city centre on 5 December to oppose the racist 'English Defence League' (EDL), writes Nottingham Socialist Party members.

Christmas 2009 donation appeal

The Socialist Party is appealing to all its supporters and readers of The Socialist to make a donation this Christmas to support the party's fight to build a socialist alternative, writes Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer.

A present that can last all year - a subscription to The Socialist