In this week's issue:

The Socialist 7 October 2010, issue Tories turn clock back

Tories turn clock back

National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) lobby of TUC conference 2010, photo Paul Mattsson

The Tory and Lib-Dem coalition government has struck at the very heart of the welfare state. The Conservatives' conference has issued a battle cry that will send shivers down the spines of working class working class people.

Paula Mitchell, London Socialist Party, writes.

Students must fight back

Socialist Students in Exeter did a debt-o-meter on the Campaign to Defeat Fees day of action, photo Jim THomsom

Students will this week find out what future Lord Browne has in store for them. The multi-millionaire Baron of Madingley (the beneficiary of an Oxbridge education himself) has for almost a year been heading an 'independent' review into higher education funding and student finance.

Campaigning Socialist Students win support

YFJ and PCS unite against cuts in Leeds

National Shop Stewards Network and the struggle against Con-Dem attacks

National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) lobby of TUC conference in Manchester 2010, photo Suleyman Civi

As the day nears - 20 October - when the details of the Con-Dem government's next attacks on the working class are revealed, so also does discussion within the labour movement intensify on how best to resist them...

National conference called against cuts in jobs and services

No excuses for not fighting cuts

Socialist-led Liverpool city council's struggle in 1983-87 led to mass demonstrations and thousands of new council houses built, photo Dave Sinclair

IN THE mid-1980s Liverpool Labour council, under the political influence of the Militant (forerunner of the Socialist Party) and the pressure of a mass working class movement, successfully led a campaign to secure extra resources for the city's urban renewal programme from a hostile Tory government...

Thousands tell Tories: 'No cuts'

Paying below the minimum

Bristol MPs fail to answer young workers' anger at PCS debate

Meetings and protests against the cuts

Labour councillor's contempt for care centre users

Save Buttercups nursery

Protests on October 23 to fight the government's spending review axe

News in brief

Solid strike by Tube workers

Tube strike: RMT strikers picket the London Underground, photo Paul Mattsson

Boris's bluster doesn't impress: On 3 and 4 October members of transport unions RMT and TSSA working for London Underground, went on strike to defend jobs. Socialist Party members report from the picket lines.

Time to strengthen RMT's fighting leadership

Support TSG strike

Warning: this government could seriously damage your safety

Reader's comment: Lord David Young's report on reforming health and safety laws is due to be released as The Socialist goes to press...

Spain: workers demonstrate their strength

Ten million took part in a general strike in Spain 29 September 2010 that shook Spanish capitalism , photo Sarah Wrack

On 29 September the general strike marked the entrance of the Spanish working class onto the stage of struggle with all its weight and power...

Ireland: a socialist alternative to the crisis

Portuguese workers win the promise of a general strike

Internationalism against austerity: 100,000 demonstrate in Belgium

Why you should come to Socialism 2010

Joe Higgins, the Irish Socialist Party's MEP, speaking at central SYRIZA rally in Athens, Greece

Joe Higgins, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin, Ireland, explains why Socialism 2010 is an important event for all who oppose the brutal austerity cuts...

Socialism 2010 - a weekend of discussion and debate

Chávez wins majority but right-wing gains ground

Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, on a visit to Britain, photo Paul Mattsson

ON 26 September Venezuela elected a new National Assembly (parliament). The elections, which coincided with elections to the Latin American parliament, took place in a deeply polarised political environment...

Made in Dagenham

Review: It is always a surprise when either Hollywood or Britain's film industry makes a sympathetic movie about workers who go on strike...

Nuneaton: community must organise against racism

Anti-EDL campaigners in Nuneaton, photo Bob Smith

Recently in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, there has been a flurry of activity by the racist and hooligan English Defence League (EDL), writes Tom Sidwell, secretary Nuneaton Anti-Fascist Action and Nuneaton Socialist Party.

Leicester: action needed against EDL

The English Defence League (EDL) is coming to Leicester on 9 October to attempt to stir up division in one of the most culturally and racially diverse cities in Britain, writes Steve Score, Leicester Socialist Party.

Campaign defeats BNP in Stroud