Archive for December 2011
1 December 2011
N30 - Millions strike back at Con-Dem government
N30, pic Paul Mattsson
The picket lines and strike rallies throughout the UK on Wednesday 30th November were a magnificent and massive display of workers' opposition to the government's attacks on pensions. Read on for many reports (updated on 2.12.11) and photos
1 December 2011
London NSSN meeting - 'the genie is out of the bottle'
'Standing room only' doesn't even begin to describe the London National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) meeting held on N30
4 December 2011
Labour MP condones pension cuts on Question Time
The following letter "With friends like these" has been sent to the media by member of the Socialist Party and 'Liverpool 47' Tony Mulhearn
7 December 2011
Construction workers fight a 35% cut in wages
The biggest of the 'Dirty 7' big contractors, Balfour Beatty, may have outlawed the strike by their electricians but today saw protests and walkouts all over the country. NB: Contribution from an electrician added on 9.12.11 (see end)
7 December 2011
Socialist MEP supports public sector strike
Socialist Party (Ireland) MEP Paul Murphy spoke at the European Parliament in support of the 30 November public sector strike in Britain:...
7 December 2011
"The genie is out of the bottle"
Coming straight from the fantastic 30 November public sector strike demo, the mood at the packed-out London National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) meeting was sky high after such a historic day, writes Paula Mitchell, London Socialist Party.
7 December 2011
Defend the JIB, victory to the sparks!
Electricians working for Balfour Beatty (BBES) have spoken for all electricians in the construction industry and voted overwhelmingly to strike to defend their national pay agreements - the Joint Industry Board (JIB), writes Rob Williams, Chair, National Shop Stewards Network.
7 December 2011
Reinstate Paul Kelly: Solidarity with Portsmouth RMT
On 11 November Paul Kelly, an elected transport union RMT rep at Wightlink Ferries in Portsmouth was dismissed on trumped-up charges and what many workers see as an anti-union vendetta by management...
7 December 2011
Private pensions strike: Workers at Unilever have voted overwhelmingly for strike action to defend their pensions. 85% of those voting supported a strike and 92% supported action short of a strike. The 24-hour strike on 9 December...
7 December 2011
Cameron dunce, placard on the N30 30 November public sector strike, photo by Paul Mattsson
The squeamish should look away now. With 'Murdochgate' ongoing, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has exposed further rotten sleaze at the top of government with claims from Bell Pottinger, a 'lobbying'...
7 December 2011
A Guardian/London School of Economics study has shown that Britain's summer 'riots' were fuelled by anger at injustice, the lack of money, jobs and opportunity, and how young people "felt they were treated compared with others", writes Suzanne Beishon, Youth Fight for Jobs.
7 December 2011
The day after N30, BBC's Question Time confirmed the need for a new mass party of the working class, writes Tony Mulhearn.
7 December 2011
Merry Xmas...: The total UK personal debt at the end of October 2011 stood at an incredible £1,451,000,000,000 - an average household debt of £55,808 according to the financial education charity Credit Action...
7 December 2011
Portugal: Build on the general strike action
The magnificent UK public sector workers' strike against cuts in pensions, jobs and services on 30 November was preceded by a general strike in Portugal on 24 November against austerity measures - an event barely reported in the British media...
7 December 2011
Ireland: Resist latest austerity attacks
The Fine Gael/Labour coalition government in the Irish republic announced yet another austerity package on 4 December, amounting to a €3.8 billion (£3.27 billion) cut, to deal with its financial deficit caused by the banking failure and the capitalist recession...
7 December 2011
Tamil Solidarity: Gearing up for 2012
Tamil Solidarity in Britain took the opportunity on Sunday to take stock of the campaign's progress and outline a plan for the year ahead, writes Manny Thain, Tamil Solidarity national secretary.
7 December 2011
Brazilian socialists remember Socrates
The last day of the PSoL left party's congress in São Paulo was dedicated to the memory of the great Brazilian footballer Socrates, who died from liver disease on the same day...
7 December 2011
Goodbye Barcelona: The idea of a musical commemorating the epic Spanish civil war (1936-39), and inspired by the heroism of the International Brigades may appear incongruous, writes Tony Saunois.
7 December 2011
30 November strike: a historic day!
A short summary by Socialist Party correspondents The 60,000-strong demonstration in London was fantastic, with thousands of first-time strikers. First thing in the morning PCS members outside the Department for Energy and Climate Change said that they...
7 December 2011
Building a fighting union - interview with Steve Hedley
Interview with Steve Hedley, the transport union RMT's London regional organiser, who will be standing for election as the union's assistant general secretary...
7 December 2011
Climate change and extreme weather
Flooding in the centre of Gloucester, 2007, photo Chris Moore
Scotland enjoyed its warmest November on record and the UK's autumn was the second warmest since records began in 1910, the Met Office confirmed this week, writes Pete Mason.
7 December 2011
Homes Crisis: Fund housing need - not fat cat greed!
Flooded with Debt, photo Suz www.squashdonkey.co.uk
The Con-Dems have announced a 'housing strategy' that benefits big building companies and banks, including selling off more social housing stock and underwriting banks that offer 95% 'subprime' mortgages for newly built houses, writes Paul Kershaw, Unite LE 1111 housing workers' branch.
7 December 2011
When workers planned production: the Lucas Aerospace plan
The south east region of the TUC recently showed a film about the Lucas Aerospace shop stewards' committee who, 35 years ago, produced a plan to make socially useful products instead of the weapons of mass destruction they made for their employer, writes Bill Mullins.
7 December 2011
Cuts and misery - it doesn't have to be like this
Photo Paul Mattsson
Unsurprisingly a doom-laden response has greeted Tory chancellor George Osborne's devastating attack in the autumn statement, writes Paula Mitchell, Socialist Party London secretary.
7 December 2011
Con-Dems pile on the misery - 'Enough is enough'
"We are the 99%" - that has been the rallying call of the year. Worldwide, 2011 will go down in history as a year when the working class rose up, writes Hannah Sell
7 December 2011
Eurozone crisis - capitalists have no solution
Socialist Party editorial As we go to press crisis meetings are taking place across Europe - the countdown to "save" the euro and possibly even the European Union...
8 December 2011
South Yorkshire Stagecoach bus drivers' strike
Stagecoach South Yorkshire bus drivers, members of the Unite trade union, took two more days of strike action on 2 and 3 December in pursuit of their claim for £9/hour pay parity with their Sheffield colleagues...
9 December 2011
PCS challenges 'non-negotiable' pension attacks
See PCS press release: Block on pensions talks exposes ministers' hypocrisy.
9 December 2011
Job cull at the Oasis Academy, Salford
The only thing that Santa is bringing the staff at the Oasis Academy in Salford, is P45s. Thirteen staff are to lose their jobs this Christmas
9 December 2011
Support Unilever workers' fight to defend pensions
Unilever workers are on strike today against a massive attack on their pensions by the planned closing down of their final salary pension scheme
9 December 2011
Fighting for disabled people's rights
Following The Hardest Hit campaign's dozen regional marches and rallies on 22 October, its next 'action' on Tuesday 13 December is to send a giant Christmas card to David Cameron
12 December 2011
Unilever workers strike to defend pensions
Unilever workers across the country took strike action on Friday 9th December against thousands of pounds being slashed from their pensions
12 December 2011
12 December 2011
13 December 2011
Revenue & Customs workers' lunchtime strike
As part of national industrial action on Monday 12 December, angry civil servants at HMRC Southampton held a lunchtime car park strike meeting to rally support for the continued attacks on sickness policy, writes Nick Chaffey.
14 December 2011
Tories speak for the rich - not for us
Photo Senan
David Cameron was stoutly defending the 'nation'. This is what he claimed after he was humiliatingly defeated by 26 votes to one at the 9 December EU summit and withdrew from participating in discussions over a new EU treaty. But which nation, asks Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary.
14 December 2011
Unilever’s Pot Noodle mine came to a grinding halt as the entire shop floor workforce at Unilever’s Croespenmaen factory near Crumlin in Gwent walked out on strike, photo Socialist Party Wales
Unilever: the private sector can do it too: On 9 December, workers at FTSE 100 giant, Unilever, took strike action for the first time in their history against attacks on pensions...
14 December 2011
Everyone's struggling to keep the show on the road this Christmas, aren't they? Well children of the 1% don't have to worry at all about what Father Christmas is bringing. Parents who frequent Selfridges...
14 December 2011
26 March 2011 TUC demonstration against the government's austerity programme, photo Suzanne Beishon
The government recently announced a plan to sell NHS patient information to private companies. They argue that allowing private life science companies access to this information could "potentially give...
14 December 2011
Occupy London tours Canary Wharf
Despite being one of the capital's most recognisable landmarks, Canary Wharf is not exactly on the regular tourist trail, writes Duncan Money, East London Socialist Party.
14 December 2011
All out now to stop the sites!
Construction workers’ strike on 14 December: Corus Redcar electricians, photo Elaine Brunskill
The construction workers' strike on 14 December could be the biggest strike in the construction industry for almost 40 years, writes Rob Williams, Chair, National Shop Stewards Network.
14 December 2011
The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) steering committee has agreed to campaign for 25 January to be named as the next day for co-ordinated national strike action in defence of pensions if no satisfactory movement from the government is forthcoming...
14 December 2011
Bullying has always been a problem in schools. As the commercialisation of education accelerates, however, it is often the teachers on the receiving end - from senior management, writes Manny Thain, East London Socialist Party.
14 December 2011
Public sector pensions - where now?
The high court ruled on 2 December that the government was entitled to switch the measure of inflation used for calculating pensions etc from the traditionally higher retail prices index (RPI) to the consumer prices index (CPI), writes Fran Heathcote, PCS DWP national organiser, personal capacity.
14 December 2011
PCS members working as tax officials at the HMRC joined in a three-hour lunchtime action on 12 December over the introduction of agency workers in contact centres...
14 December 2011
Bad idea: One of chancellor George Osborne's proposals in his 'autumn statement' of attacks on working people, benefit claimants, young people and pensioners, is for regional pay...
14 December 2011
Readers' comments: David Cameron recently announced plans to fast-track new drugs, making them available to patients more quickly, and before they have completed clinical trials, writes Paul Gerrard.
14 December 2011
Building bosses and their blacklist
For years, many builders suspected that contractors operated a 'blacklist' of troublemakers to ensure they did not end up with any union activists on their sites, writes Dan Gillman.
14 December 2011
"Putin is a thief", "Putin is a thief"
If, even a month ago, someone had suggested that nearly 100,000 people would flood a Moscow square chanting "Putin is a thief, writes Rob Jones, CWI, Moscow.
14 December 2011
Kazakhstan - 20 years of authoritarianism!
On 16 December 2011, the Republic of Kazakhstan celebrates 20 years as an independent state, a status it achieved as the Soviet Union collapsed, writes International day of solidarity action with workers' organisations.
14 December 2011
Why I joined the Socialist Party
I first became politically aware in 1968 at the age of 14. I had been injured playing rugby and my father gave me Alexander Cordell's Rape of the Fair Country to read to pass away the time. This injury,...
14 December 2011
Stand up to the Con-Dem government
Political answer also required
On 30 November around two million public sector workers took strike action in defence of their pensions and against cuts in public services.
However, it is also urgent that the trade union and anti-cuts movement begins to discuss making sure it has an electoral voice, otherwise we are fighting with one hand tied behind our backs.
14 December 2011
Attacks on Tupe rights hit hard
Hannah Sell's article (issue 697) mentioned the Office of Budget Responsibility raised the ending of Tupe, the provisions that protect employees' pay, conditions and pensions if their jobs are privatised...
14 December 2011
Inside Job: Capitalism is a failed system: support the socialist fightback
Inside Job: film on the global economic crisis of 2008
"The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy," wrote revolutionary leader Lenin in 1916 in Imperialism - the Highest Stage of Capitalism, writes Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer.
14 December 2011
TV review: Britain's great housing scandal exposed
Channel 4's campaigning series of programmes, The Great British Property Scandal, has struck a chord with a wide audience, writes Paul Kershaw, Unite LE 1111 housing workers' branch.
14 December 2011
Pensioners and workers - united fight needed
National Pensioners Convention on a 2007 TUC lobby of Parliament, photo Paul Mattsson
When I addressed 2,000 striking public sector workers on 30 November in Reading, I brought greetings of solidarity and unity from the Thames Valley National Pensioners Convention (NPC), writes Terry Pearce, Thames Valley National Pensioners Convention (personal capacity).
14 December 2011
Unacceptable! Draconian sentences for Dundee 'Facebook riot' teenagers
Bankers are the real looters: placard on Hackney - Tottenham demo after the riots , photo by Paul Mattsson
There is anger and disbelief in Dundee at the jailing of teenagers who were involved in joke Facebook pages 'organising riots', writes Matt Dobson, Socialist Party Scotland, Dundee.
14 December 2011
No progress at climate conference
Arctic Sea Ice loss animation demonstrates drastic climate change through global warming, photo NASA
When is an agreement not an agreement? When it's an agreement to reach an agreement in the future, writes Pete Mason, East London Socialist Party.
14 December 2011
Action by construction workers escalates in the 17th week of protests
The 'Dirty 7' construction companies have finally been dragged kicking and screaming to the negotiating table by months of rank & file protest action. Read on for reports of protests on 14 December and the latest Socialist Party leaflet
14 December 2011
A recall conference of the TUC's Public Sector Liaison Group will be convened on Monday 19th December
15 December 2011
Anti-Academy strike action in Birmingham
NUT, NASUWT and GMB members at Montgomery primary school in Birmingham took strike action on 13th December to protest against plans to turn the school into an academy, writes Nick Hart.
15 December 2011
PCS comments on Maude misleading MPs over pensions dispute
Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka comments on statements made in parliament by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude about the negotiations over public sector pensions
15 December 2011
No sell-out on pensions - Fight until we win!
Pensions strike. Pic: Senan
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, argued at the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group (PSLG) that all the trade unions should sign up to the government’s latest ‘heads of agreement’ on pensions. This was met with outrage
15 December 2011
Workers at Rugby CEMEX to strike over pensions?
The union Unite has agreed to ask workers at the building materials company CEMEX if they are prepared to be balloted for industrial action over pensions
15 December 2011
NSSN campaigns for next united action on pensions to be on 25th January
The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) steering committee has agreed to campaign for 25 January to be named as the next day for coordinated national strike action in defence of pensions
15 December 2011
Defend trade unionists fighting cuts - solidarity urgently needed
Waltham Forest council, which has made 17 rounds of cuts to jobs and services, has now told around 20 library and Waltham Forest Direct staff that they have lost their jobs
16 December 2011
ipetition launched: Strike again in January! Defend our pensions!
www.ipetitions.com/petition/pensions_strike_january/, writes The Petition:.
16 December 2011
70 Dead & 500 wounded by riot police in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan oil workers and their supporters had today planned a peaceful demonstration in Zhanaozen. The authorities, however, are inflicting brutal repression
19 December 2011
Public 'disgust and shock' at fire service cuts
It is no secret that Britain's Fire and Rescue Services are today fighting a war of survival, writes Sean Fleming, assistant secretary of Notts Fire Brigades Union
20 December 2011
PCS denounces government's "unacceptable bullying"
The Cabinet Office unilaterally announced yesterday that the PCS civil servants union would no longer be invited to negotiations over pensions, writes See:.
20 December 2011
TUC lobby demands no retreat on pensions
30 November strike
Hundreds of rank and file union members lobbied the TUC's Public Services Liaison Group, angry at the prospect of their leadership agreeing to a rotten deal, writes Rob Williams, NSSN
20 December 2011
DEFEND PENSIONS - ESCALATE ACTION - NAME DAY FOR NATIONAL STRIKE
The PCS Left Unity national committee has called an organising conference on Saturday 7th January in London. Speakers include: Mark Serwotka, John McDonnell MP, Mark Campbell, Kevin Courtney and Roger Bannister
21 December 2011
Defend public sector pensions - "action must be escalated"
Marching on the 30 November public sector strike, photo Paul Mattsson
The current battle over pensions is a defining one for our movement. Over two million workers from 24 unions took action together on 30th November in the biggest show of strength in living memory, writes John McInally, national vice-president, PCS (personal capacity)
21 December 2011
Why you should reject the pensions 'deal' - the facts for workers across the public sector
The TUC leaders propose that we throw away our advantage and accept a rotten deal on pensions
29 December 2011
Defend pensions - Escalate action
PCS Left Unity National Committee's invitation to the 7th January organising conference in London, with updated list of speakers:
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