Reports and Campaigns
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Reports and campaigns:
Stop the slaughter of Tamils (57)
Workplace and TU campaigns (5185)
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Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
22 May 2013
POA conference - Prisons should not be run for profit
In May the prison officers' union POA met for their national conference in Southport. POA is increasingly at the centre of the battle against austerity
13 February 2013
Prison officers protest outside parliament
The prison officers' union held a lobby of parliament on 13 February against prison closures, overcrowding and privatisation
13 February 2013
Hospital workers fighting massive pay cuts have forced Mid Yorks hospital Trust to extend the deadline for agreeing to new contracts by three weeks so that negotiations can proceed
16 January 2013
Prison closures = more privatisation
On 10 January the closure of seven public sector prisons was announced. Bullwood Hall, Camp Hill, Canterbury, Gloucester, Kingston, Shepton Mallet and Shrewsbury are due to close by 31 March...
10 January 2013
Seven more public sector prisons to close
The decision announced today (10th January) to close seven more public sector prisons is irresponsible when the prison population remains high and overcrowding is widespread, the Public and Commercial Services union says in a press release...
Prison Officers Association National Chairman PJ McParlin addresses National Shop Stewards Network conference, 9 June 2012, photo Suzanne Beishon
29 August 2012
Prison work - £3 a day is exploitation for profit
Dozens of inmates at Prescoed prison in Monmouthshire are being bussed out to a call centre to work for just £3 a day. PJ McParlin gives the POA's response
29 August 2012
Women's prisons - Con-Dems' 'reforms' mean cuts and privatisation
The Prison Reform Trust has said that prisons in England and Wales are over capacity by 7,300 inmates. This overcrowding, says the trust, is limiting prison staff's efforts to reduce reoffending...
Joe Simpson, POA assistant general secretary, addresses Socialism 2011, photo Senan
16 May 2012
Why prison officers joined the protests
Interview: On 10 May, members of the POA prison workers' union took part in protest meetings outside prisons against pension cuts. POA assistant general secretary Joe Simpson speaks about the action.
7 September 2011
The riots, Clarke and the "broken penal system"
Glyn Travis and Joe Simpson, assistant secretaries of the prison workers’ union POA set out some of the key issues in prisons following the riots
Photo Paul Mattsson
31 August 2011
What we think: The government has resorted to the traditional Tory stance of the mailed fist in the aftermath of the riots. If it can get away with it, the ConDem government will add to the panoply of anti-democratic, semi-dictatorial measures already in place.
Joe Simpson
6 July 2011
Fighting pension cuts and the anti-union laws
Interview with Joe Simpson, POA assistant secretary. An important part of the action on 30 June was the well-attended lunchtime protest meetings held outside many prisons by the POA...
Joe Simpson, POA
31 March 2011
Prison officers fight prison privatisation: Interview with POA assistant secretary, Joe Simpson
Interview with POA assistant secretary, Joe Simpson The Con-Dems have sold Birmingham prison to private security firm G4S. This is the first existing public sector prison to be contracted out. An edited version of this article appeared in The Socialist.
7 July 2010
Interview: Ken Clarke's prison plans
Genuine reform or further hypocrisy?: On 30 June Ken Clarke, the new justice secretary, made a speech addressing the problems of a soaring prison population...
14 April 2010
20 years ago: the Strangeways prison riot
On 1 April it was 20 years since the start of the Strangeways prison 'riot'. The riot was a protest by prisoners against their appalling conditions. They initially barricaded themselves in the prison...
Brian Caton, photo Suzanne Beishon
16 September 2009
Interview with POA leader Brian Caton
Brian Caton, Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary recently decided to join the Socialist Party, after being a member of the Labour Party for many years. He spoke to Socialist Party industrial organiser Bill Mullins:
"I come from a family of nine. I was brought up in Barnsley, my Dad worked as a collier. I was always a rebel at school..."
13 September 2007
Overcrowded prisons, overworked staff
BRITAIN'S PRISON officers held their first-ever national strike, mainly on pay, in August... By Iain Dalton
1 February 2007
HOME SECRETARY John Reid is under great pressure from the media and MPs after several well-publicised crises and humiliations about his department's work in law enforcement...
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