Archive for December 2014
3 December 2014
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
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
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
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
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
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
£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
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
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 ...
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
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
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
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
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 [email protected]
10 December 2014
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
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
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
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!
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
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
12 December 2014
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
Campaigners are asking flagship London bookshop Foyles to pay the London Living Wage to all its staff this Christmas
20 December 2014
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
26 Jan Caerphilly & RCT Socialist Party: Should Wales be independent?
27 Jan Bristol North Socialist Party: Open discussion
28 Jan West London Socialist Party: The Socialist newspaper in the age of lockdowns
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