Archive for December 2014

3 December 2014

Them & Us

Home care crisis: A new report by former care minister Paul Burstow has slammed the home care system in England as putting people at risk because of underfunding and the exploitation of care workers

3 December 2014

World health crises show: Capitalism kills!

Ebola: Doctor and Socialist Party member Jon Dale updates on the latest situation in the Ebola crisis

3 December 2014

Lambeth College strike dates named

A walkout at Lambeth College is due to take place on 4 December following an 83% 'yes' vote for restarting action. UCU members are in dispute over new contracts

3 December 2014

Trelleborg engineering pay victory

Unite members at Trelleborg engineering in Leicester have won a two-year pay deal following two strikes

3 December 2014

Reports from the NSSN bulletin

Firefighters block Tory minister: Over 200 firefighters and supporters blockaded the entrance to West Norwood fire-station, south London, on 25 November to prevent the entry of Tory fire minister Penny Mordaunt

3 December 2014

Stop academies in Lewisham

Local teachers and other supporters recently established the Stop Academies in Lewisham campaign (SAiL)

3 December 2014

Tower Hamlets: Government attacks local democracy

Tower Hamlets hit the news when Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles threatened to send in government commissioners. How can councils fight the cuts and is the use of commissioners a threat to councils who do fight?

3 December 2014

NHS: the money's running out

Tories' £2bn funding lie: The money is running out - at Medway Foundation Trust in Kent, maybe as early as January.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's additional "winter pressures" payments won't even touch the sides. Nor will Chancellor George Osborne's £2 billion nationally - much of it is already in the NHS budget anyway!

3 December 2014

The bitter pill of cuts

Austerity is failing, photo Paul Mattsson

With angry voters to face, Tory hopes that Chancellor George Osborne could deliver significant budget tax cuts as pre-election sweeteners are off the menu

3 December 2014

Northern line RMT stoppage over sacking

2014 started with a strike on London Underground's Northern line, part of a system wide strike against ticket office closures, and it's ending with another strike on 1 December

3 December 2014

Help us fund historic election challenge

TUSC supporters in Rochester, photo SP North Kent

The Socialist Party is launching an appeal for £50,000 to help fund our candidates in the 2015 elections

3 December 2014

Neighbours defend disabled man from eviction

A local community in Newcastle came out to defend a disabled resident threatened with eviction on 27 November. His rent arrears had been under control - until compounded by the bedroom tax

3 December 2014

Sixth form students grill Grayling

During Tory Justice Minister Chris Grayling's flying visit to Greenhead College in Huddersfield on 14 November, sixth form Law and Politics students put him on the spot on a number of issues

3 December 2014

Crown drops charges against protest pensioners

A protest planned outside Sheffield Magistrates Court is now partly a celebration. Cases against pensioners George Arthur and Tony Nuttall, the "freedom riders" arrested at Sheffield railway station, have been dropped

3 December 2014

Terrorism Bill: May continues job started by Blair

The government's latest attacks on civil liberties, masked as anti-terrorism laws, are not only dangerous for trade unionists, socialists and social justice campaigners; they reinforce the very causes of 'extremist radicalisation' they aim to stop

3 December 2014

Zero-hour contracts: Demeaning rules and poverty pay

A day in the life: I worked at a bar in a major airport. It reminded me of my early school days. Collecting a green pass, the badge of responsibility at work, took about three months

3 December 2014

More socialists needed!

Can you help the Socialist Party grow by 100? To paraphrase Marx, many people become so disturbed by the effects of capitalism after reading the news that they give up reading. Groucho that is - not Karl

3 December 2014

No justice, no peace: protest stops London streets

Pulsing with outrage, arms lifted high, they chorused: "hands up - don't shoot!"

3 December 2014

EDF Energy disciplinary and pay row deepens

Unite Press Release: Over 500 EDF energy workers began voting in an industrial action ballot today (Wednesday 3 December) as a row over pay and spurious disciplinary cases deepens, following confirmation of the sacking of a driver who allegedly ate a 'Dairylea Dunker' while driving

3 December 2014

Osborne's solution deficit

£50 billion cuts still to come: Budget statements are about party politics as much as economics. Especially this one: six months before the general election. But this time there have been few 'election sweeteners', because the government’s own strategy of ‘eliminating the deficit’ is failing

3 December 2014

Sharpak packaging strike

Socialist Party members visited the picket line at Sharpak packaging in Yate, near Bristol

3 December 2014

UoM occupation assaulted but undaunted

University of Manchester students have been in occupation after a free education march and rally attended by around 100 students, where Socialist Students activist Tom Simpson spoke from the platform, writes By a Socialist Students member at UoM.

3 December 2014

Lancaster University occupied

Protest/support messages needed: The protest started in Alexandra Square with around 30 people storming the entrance of the University House, the university's admin office, in demand of free education

3 December 2014

Hull city council: a tale of two surveys

Provocative staff survey clearly designed to help slash workers' terms and conditions

3 December 2014

Angry New Era tenants take protest to Cameron

500 march from Westbrook headquarters to hand in petition

5 December 2014

New leaflet: London's bus workers have had enough

Vote 'yes' to strike for one rate for the job: See www.socialistparty.org.uk/txt/345.pdf

9 December 2014

Working class history sacrificed on the altar of austerity

The People's History Museum has launched a campaign to plug a shortfall

9 December 2014

1,000 firefighters march to defend Ricky Matthews

Striking firefighters marched on 9 December

10 December 2014

As Russell Brand prepares to take on Farage ...

Russell Brand

Many people across the UK are waiting in eager anticipation for the battle between Russell Brand and Nigel Farage on Thursday night's BBC Question Time programme

10 December 2014

Same job - we want the same pay!

London bus drivers in Unite are being balloted for strike action across the capital

10 December 2014

Save our NHS

Defend universal access: Due to a deficit in Devon NHS, some people will be denied surgery unless they quit smoking or lose weight

10 December 2014

Reject the lie that is austerity

Trade unions must now act to resist Osborne offensive: On Wednesday 3 December the Tories declared all-out war on the working class and all our futures. The Autumn Budget Statement has been described as a “Book of Doom”

10 December 2014

Campaign news in brief

Tower Hamlets: Lutfur Rahman, mayor of Tower Hamlets in east London, proposed closing four local nurseries in September

10 December 2014

Election appeal: finding cash to fight the cuts

The Con-Dem government is tearing itself apart following the chancellor's autumn statement. Osborne promises further savage cuts as his strategy to reduce the deficit lies in tatters

10 December 2014

The 1914 Christmas truce

100 year anniversary: "Here we were laughing and chatting to men who, only hours before, we were trying to kill!" These words from an astonished British soldier in World War One (WW1) sum up the incredible story of the 1914 Christmas truce

10 December 2014

Rail franchise jobs: TUPE or not TUPE?

The "Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)" or TUPE regulations are European Union regulations which offer limited protections to workers when they are transferred from one employer to another, writes An Aslef member.

10 December 2014

Students join Lambeth walkout

Striking teachers at Lambeth College were backed up by some of their students walking out on 9 December, writes Please send messages of support to Mandy Brown, UCU branch secretary, at mandybrowncow@yahoo.com.

10 December 2014

Sharpak Yate packaging strike

National Shop Stewards Network: Unite members in Sharpak entered their second week of discontinuous strike action with the third day of action taking place on 9 December, writes Tom Baldwin.

10 December 2014

Uprising against police violence in the US

"I can't breathe": Protests against police racism and violence are continuing across the US

10 December 2014

Socialist Students: fight for free education

On 6 January students from 25 universities and colleges around the country met in London for the Socialist Students national conference

10 December 2014

Quiz 2014

Questions: It's the Socialist big quiz of 2014. As a bit of fun, the editors invite readers to test their knowledge from the past 12 months' coverage in the Socialist of political events and workers' struggles

10 December 2014

Mockingjay: Part One

Film review: Leeds University Socialist Students member Mary Finch reviews the latest in the Hunger Games trilogy

10 December 2014

Tenants can resist Scrooge landlords

Housing crisis: Last month, evictions hit record-breaking levels. According to the homelessness charity Shelter, more than 1,300 people are put at risk of repossession or eviction every day

10 December 2014

Climate change: Sacrificing the future

On the same day the Met Office announced that 2014 is likely to be the hottest year on record, Tory Chancellor George Osborne's budget gave tax cuts for the fossil fuel industry

10 December 2014

Them & Us

Seasons' greetings: Christmas, we're told, is a time for giving and for families. And it appears to be Christmas all year for MPs' spouses and relatives who were paid a total £3.7 million from the public purse

10 December 2014

Broadband giants' expensive battle

Paul Callanan's article on football financing (issue 834) was illuminating. The almost complete dominance of big business (often from very shady business people) is only part of the problem

10 December 2014

Osborne's savage cuts: No return to the 1930s!

Stop the cuts!

The Tories plan to send us back to the 1930s. The Office for Budget Responsibility said public spending levels will be thrown back 80 years if Osborne's Autumn Statement plans are implemented

10 December 2014

We have a world to win!

We are the 99%, photo Paul Mattsson

Get ready for 2015 - join the socialists: When a BBC editor referenced George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier in his analysis of the Con-Dems' Autumn Budget Statement he earned the wrath of Chancellor George Osborne

10 December 2014

Europe: a new wave of workers' struggle has begun

Once again workers are in revolt against "elderly and haggard" European capitalism - as the Pope accurately described it. Six years into 'the Great Recession' austerity and mass unemployment have become permanent continent wide

11 December 2014

Put CIA torturers and paymasters in the dock

The US Senate report on the CIA's interrogation of suspected terrorists amounts to a grisly catalogue of torture. It also points the finger of guilt at the UK government's counterparts

11 December 2014

Solidarity with Irish anti-water charges movement

London Socialist Party members attended a protest at the Irish embassy in London.

12 December 2014

Leicester "Cops off Campus" demo

12 December 2014

BBC's Question Time

Fight the "pound shop" politicians: The cheers for Russell Brand taking on UKIP leader Nigel Farage were not only in the Question Time audience

12 December 2014

One-day strike of police staff

Police staff in Unite, Unison and GMB are to strike on 22 December [18.12.14: strike suspended]

15 December 2014

'Save Sedgehill': demo against forced academy

Over 400 parents, staff and students took to the streets of Catford

18 December 2014

Foyles Living Wage campaign

Campaigners are asking flagship London bookshop Foyles to pay the London Living Wage to all its staff this Christmas

20 December 2014

New Era estate victory!

Below is an extract from a message sent by Hackney & Islington Socialist Party to the New Era estate tenants in Hackney, London, on news of their victory over their profiteering, vampire landlord...

28 December 2014

Renationalise mail distribution - Save City Link jobs!

Almost 3,000 City Link workers are facing the New Year dole queue

28 December 2014

2015: Deepening crisis - build the fightback!

All the political and economic ingredients which made 2014 such a volatile year will be carried over and deepened in 2015