13 articles from the Socialist, issue 429
2 March 2006
Quality education for all
Stop Blair’s divisive Education Bill: BLAIR’S GOVERNMENT has unveiled its new Education Bill – MPs will vote on it this month. Education Secretary Ruth Kelly claims this bill will give "schools the freedoms they need to raise standards"…
Birmingham: No to academies: NEW LABOUR’S Education White Paper is getting its second reading in Parliament. It is a clear sign of the government’s intent to privatise and fragment education…
Campaign for a New Workers’ Party
Why I’m going to the conference…: IT’S HARDLY surprising that Tony Blair’s government is fuelling anger amongst working-class people, not least because of its big business policies in education, the NHS, public-sector pensions and in the provision of public services. Also, millions of people have taken to the streets to protest against Blai…
Stoke councillors join the Socialist Party
Why we’re standing for socialism: We are printing the text of a letter written by two ex-Labour councillors in Stoke-on-Trent, Paul and Dave Sutton. In it they explain to their constituents their reasons for leaving New Labour and joining the Socialist Party…
In the wake of the financial and extra-curricular shennanigans of Peter Mandelson, David Blunkett, and the gongs handed out to millionaires for services rendered, now comes the creeping hint of sleaze linking David Mills, the husband of government minister Tessa Jowell, with Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s extreme right-w…
Ken Livingstone removed from office
The Standards Board for England, an unelected body set up in 2000, have removed Ken Livingstone, an elected politician, from office for a month…
THE INTERNATIONAL Socialist Resistance (ISR)/ Socialist Students conference on 4 March 2006 was a vital conference for every young person who wants to fight to change the world…
Fight for women’s REAL right to choose
‘Right’ to Education: We are constantly told by the mainstream media that girls are outperforming boys at school and that young women now have more opportunities and choice than women of previous generations…
IRAQ: Sectarian civil war looms as the occupation flounders
SECTARIAN BLOODSHED by some of the Shia and Sunni muslim militias in Iraq dramatically worsened following the destruction of the Golden Mosque in Samarra…
Swansea car workers fight plant closure
IT’S CRUNCH time for the 650 car workers in the Visteon (formerly Ford) Swansea Plant. In a clear joint strategy between Ford and Visteon, almost 230 Swansea workers are to be given the ‘opportunity’ to transfer to the Ford…
UNIVERSITY STAFF will be on strike over pay on 7 March. This follows a good turnout in the strike ballot, with big majorities supporting both strike action and ‘action short of a strike’ amongst members of AUT and NATFHE…
Sheffield workers are fighting back
"GET A job!" shouted a construction worker from his scaffolding. "That’s what we’re marching for," retorted Lindsey Baker leading the demonstration called by her civil service PCS union branch in Sheffield…
35,000 public-sector workers strike
BELOW IS a report of the first day of the current public sector strike which now involves 35,000 workers on strike in nine of the 16 federal states in Germany…