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High Court Brexit bombshell
Bosses’ government, bosses’ EU…fight for socialism
An existential crisis threatens the Tories after the High Court ruling on Brexit. The Corbyn movement must now press the advantage.
High Court bombshell on Brexit decision
The decision of the High Court that the government must allow Parliament a say in the issue of Brexit is a bombshell with wide, and perhaps even unforeseen, effects. It could lead to a general election next year which in turn will widen even further the endemic splits within the Tory Party. As shown by the resignation of Tory MP Stephen Phillips over the government’s handling of Brexit and of Zac Goldsmith over the third runway at Heathrow, these splits are already of Grand Canyon proportions!
Socialist Party news and analysis
Stop the 54,000 yearly maternity sackings
About 54,000 women a year are pushed out of their jobs within 12 months of returning from maternity leave – that’s 11% – according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Build housing for the kids without homes this Xmas
That any children are homeless in Britain, a rich country, is a crime – yet housing charity Shelter predicts there will be 120,000 children homeless this Christmas!
Unions must act on pay restraint!
Low earners have had the “biggest pay rise in 20 years” according to Office for National Statistics figures. At least that’s the Financial Times’s take on it.
Court slams Tory air quality plans
Only socialist planning can stop toxic air: It’s supposed to be safe but it kills more people than obesity or alcohol – the air we breathe.
It’s one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us.
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Join the #Nov19 national student march: Students have suffered greatly under brutal privatisation and austerity measures.
Reading the Socialist can boost our confidence to fight back. Cover to cover, you can hear working class people in their own words. It’s an antidote to the pro-austerity ideas festering in the mainstream media and among establishment politicians.
Over a thousand march to fight museums and libraries cuts
“Don’t make a bonfire of our culture”, read the PCS banner that led the 5 November demonstration against cuts and privatisation in museums and libraries. Over a thousand people marched through central London, including culture sector workers and library campaigners and a contingent of French workers organised in the CGT trade union federation.
Library cuts: working class kids suffer most
Walsall council, in one of the poorest areas of the west Midlands, is closing 15 of its 16 libraries. Sadly, this is just one of many examples of ruthless cuts which will deny young people a future.
Momentum left meeting excludes socialists
Momentum national committee (NC) members and reps from local groups met in Birmingham on 5 November to “discuss recent events and, most importantly, consider ways to overcome the resulting differences and move forward together”.
New Socialist Party pamphlet: Fight racism, fight for socialism
The Socialist Party’s Black and Asian Group has produced a new pamphlet called ‘Fight racism, fight for socialism’. It is a collection of articles from the Socialist and looks at some of these key questions of why racism exists and how to fight it.
Far-right given short shrift in Darlington
A handful of fascists from nearby Bishop Auckland had invited Nazi groups from across the UK to march in Darlington on 5 November. They were confronted by 200 local people.
Obituary: Hilary Mooney 1945-2016
Hilary Mooney, for over 50 years first a supporter of Militant and then a member of the Socialist Party on Merseyside, has sadly passed away at the age of 71 after a lengthy period of illness that she bore with great fortitude.
Socialist Party workplace news
Action needed to defend workers at the sharp end of prisons crisis
The latest national statistics on safety in our prison system were released recently. These quarterly figures have been breaking records and setting new “unprecedented highs” systematically since 2010 – a year which ‘coincidentally’ ties in with the culling of 7,000 prison officers’ jobs.
Courts and tribunal services face huge cuts
Huge changes are afoot in the civil service that will leave jobs slashed and public services a husk of their former selves. Given that 86,000 jobs have already been axed from the civil service over the past five years, this may seem like old news but the scale and scope of the Tories’ austerity-driven changes are only now being revealed.
Newcastle council cuts: opportunity for trade union fightback
Newcastle residents and council staff have borne the brunt of Tory austerity. £200 million of central government funding has been stripped from the cash-starved council since 2010. An important refuge for women and children fleeing domestic crises is slated for closure.
Birmingham’s Labour council freezes workers’ pay
Trade unions representing Birmingham council workers have reached an “historic agreement” with the council which will mean a three-year pay freeze, instead of reduced sick pay, increased hours, a 1.35% pay cut and other cuts.
Strikers at Hackney Picturehouse picketed the launch of a new film on 4 November, A Bectu rep spoke to Clare Doyle.
International socialist news and analysis
Turkey: Erdogan tightens repressive screw
During the night of 3 November the homes of several leaders and members of parliament of the left-wing and pro-Kurdish party, HDP (People’s Democratic Party), were raided by Turkish police. The two co-chairs of the party, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, along with at least nine members of parliament, were arrested and taken into custody.
Planned for Friday 4 November, the first of three days of open strike action by Gardai (police) in the history of the Irish state was only averted at the last minute following concessions from the government. But in making such concessions other workers are now determined to win back pay that was cut following the 2008 capitalist crisis. Conor Payne from the Socialist Party (CWI Ireland) reports on the gathering political storm.
South Africa: State victimises #OutsourcingMustFall activists
Two leading activists of the #OutsourcingMustFall movement, both members of the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP, CWI South Africa), are facing legal harassment for their role in supporting the struggle for free education.
Socialist Party comments and reviews
Horror of health-wrecking toil for Polish migrants
I am working as an interpreter for the NHS. I see Poles in hospitals and clinics who have problems with health. There are thousands of cases and there is no way to describe everything that I see every day.
HyperNormalisation: Arbitrary selection of ideas to confirm feelings of powerlessness
The most recent creation of documentary-maker Adam Curtis revolves around the idea of “hypernormalisation”, which he applies to recent history.
Letters to the Socialist’s editors including Suez strife, Blake benefits and tax trouble.
