The Socialist 25 July 2012

Olympic Britain - We’re priced out

On your marks.... Get set.... Fight back!

Outsourcing fails again. For publicly owned and run services!

£13 trillion hidden from tax by super-rich

Not-guilty verdict in Ian Tomlinson case

Olympic Watch

Them & Us

Kazakhstan - Workers struggle against bloody, corrupt regime

Spain's austerity government is facing revolt from below

Miners light up Madrid and show the way to struggle!

1972: dockers face down the Tory government

Austerity Games highlights plight of young people

Save our jobs: We need a 24-hour general strike

Newcastle pride

Pre-emptive arrests: "straight out of 1984"

Kick private profiteers out of the NHS

Virgin vultures swoop on vulnerable people's services

Leicester: Not one cut in the NHS

Kirkby campaigners get support

Olympic protest as South London Healthcare trust forced into administration

Olympic victory for London bus workers

Solidarity with PCS members fighting to defend services

RMT demo in Portsmouth against Condor's 'sweatships'

Remploy strike a big success

Workplace news in brief

TV review: "What have the Olympics done for me?"

Save our server!

Summer printing schedule

Socialist Party Summer Camp

Previous issues, etc

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Olympic Watch

Slum living

One toilet between 25, one shower between 75, overcrowding and leaking roofs - these are the conditions facing the cleaners employed at the Olympic site. Most are migrant workers who have come to Britain specifically to work at the Games.

In stark contrast to the luxury of the Olympic village, they sleep in overcrowded metal cabins on a site that's been flooded so badly they have to use pallets as stepping stones. One told the Daily Mail that the site is "like a slum inside". When they arrived they were told there was no work for two weeks but that they still had to pay £18 a day 'rent'.

Many who came from poor countries with no prospect of decent work turned straight around and went home when they saw the facilities.

Custard spill 'emergency'

Olympic organisers and the police worked hard in the press to convince us that they aren't quite crazy enough to stop someone going into the Olympics based on what t-shirt they're wearing. They'd never overreact like that!

Or would they? Six people were arrested on 20 July for suspicion of criminal damage by...spilling green custard. The six were doing a protest-performance in Trafalgar Square against the corporate sponsorship of the Games. One of the sponsors is Dow Chemical, owner of Union Carbide Corporation - the company responsible for the 1984 gas disaster in Bhopal, India, which killed 25,000 people.

25 police officers swooped on the performance when the custard was spilled to highlight the lies being told about 'sustainability' by Olympic sponsors including Dow, BP and Rio Tinto.