Archive for February 2021
3 February 2021
Children in care: Privatisation is not working
Many people would think that children, who are in the care of a local authority, would be safe, well cared for and free from the risks of sexual or criminal exploitation
3 February 2021
Multimillion-pound rental firm demands thousands from homeless asylum seeker
A property firm with turnover in the millions is pursuing a campaigning asylum seeker for thousands through the courts. We say: Defend Lawanya - fight for tenants' rights!
3 February 2021
Covid outbreak at Kent asylum detention centre: Napier is not fit for purpose
The dilapidated Napier army barracks in Folkestone became the home of 400 asylum seekers five months ago
3 February 2021
Usdaw Broad Left rally brings together those campaigning for a fighting union
Members and supporters of the Usdaw Broad Left came together for a Zoom rally on 2 February in support of the Broad Left's candidates in the upcoming Usdaw shop and distribution workers' union elections for the executive committee (EC) and president
3 February 2021
3 February 2021
Launching a political alternative to cuts, poverty and job losses
TUSC conference: Councils are facing a new, Covid-driven cash crisis - a financial 'black hole' of up to £2.2 billion, along with an average 5% increase in council tax and other increased service charges.
3 February 2021
The Communist Manifesto - A guide to understanding society, and how to change it
The Communist Manifesto today: "A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism". In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels chose these famous words as the opening line of their 'Communist Manifesto'.
3 February 2021
Why I rejoined the Socialist Party
18 months ago, I left the Socialist Party following a political dispute which led to a small opposition group splitting off.
3 February 2021
New members meeting in the South West - preparing for the battles to come
The Socialist Party in the South West held a very successful online meeting with new members who joined us in the last two months
3 February 2021
Help us raise the funds to fuel the working-class fightback
Despite the restrictions placed on our campaigning activity, Socialist Party members and supporters have responded to the challenge by doing what they can to raise much needed fighting fund
3 February 2021
South Yorks TUSC ready for electoral fight
On 27 January South Yorkshire Socialist Party members attended a public meeting of South Yorkshire Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) - an anti-cuts and socialist electoral alliance involving the RMT transport union, the Socialist Party and others
3 February 2021
Save our square: we need social housing and public services
Waltham Forest Labour council in East London approved plans to build a block of unaffordable, private housing on Walthamstow town square
3 February 2021
Stop Labour council's eviction of Stratford Circus arts centre
Newham's Labour council has evicted Stratford Circus arts centre. On 30 January members of East London Socialist Party joined a protest, socially distanced and wearing masks, against the eviction of the
3 February 2021
Why I am attending the TUSC local elections online conference
I am attending the TUSC local elections conference to support the decision to once again stand candidates under the TUSC banner
3 February 2021
GameStop: Billionaires hurt at their own game
Recently, users of big online forum Reddit influenced the entire stock market, causing huge hedge funds to go into meltdown
3 February 2021
Capitalist governments turned blind eye to Holocaust: Send your news, views and criticism, in not more than 150 words, to [email protected] - or if you're not online, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT.
3 February 2021
Fifty years ago, on 4 February 1971, the flagship British engineering company Rolls-Royce collapsed into receivership placing 80,000 workers' jobs at risk
3 February 2021
The NEU's 'big announcement' - lessons need to be learned
Thousands of National Education Union (NEU) members tuned in on 26 January to listen for the surprise 'big announcement' that they had been told to expect from their union.
3 February 2021
Yorkshire aerospace workers strike against pay disparity
Despite the snowy weather, members of union Unite working on a Babcock Aerospace contract in Yorkshire providing operational and engineering service at RAF Leeming were out on the picket lines on 2 February
3 February 2021
Vote Steve Hedley for RMT general secretary
"I pledge that, when elected, to continue to put jobs, pay, conditions, safety and work-life balance at the forefront of our campaigns
3 February 2021
Workers in two separate industrial disputes affecting schools in east London will take three days of strike action in February.
3 February 2021
An article from Socialism Today, issue 245, February 2021
Jeremy Corbyn, just a year ago the left Labour leader and now suspended from sitting as a Labour MP, has launched a new Peace and Justice Project
3 February 2021
New anti-protest law: State forces want more power to crush the protests that are coming
The Tories are widening their attack on our democratic right to protest.
3 February 2021
HMRC: We demand a pay rise without cuts to terms and conditions
On 1 February, a multi-year pay offer was made to union members in HMRC.
3 February 2021
Socialist Students open letter to Rent Strike network
Building the fightback for free education
3 February 2021
Covid 'vaccine wars' underline failure of capitalist nation states to deal with the global pandemic
The European Commission was forced into a humiliating climbdown
3 February 2021
A tragically missed opportunity
Peter Taaffe reviews the book by Owen Jones: 'This Land - the Story of a Movement'
3 February 2021
Workers' rights and safety: Trade union mobilisation could force more Tory U-turns
The Tories U-turned over their proposed review of employment laws and regulations
3 February 2021
Jeremy Corbyn, just a year ago the left Labour leader and now suspended from sitting as a Labour MP, has launched a new Peace and Justice Project. Does it match up to the tasks facing the workers' movement?
10 February 2021
Big Energy piles on the misery
Energy regulator Ofgem has raised the price cap on what gas and electricity companies can charge 15 million households by between £87 and £96 a year (£1,156 or £1,138) - a 9% increase - from 1 April
10 February 2021
UK companies still operating final salary (or 'defined-benefit') pension schemes are anticipated to receive a £60 billion windfall as pension liabilities are expected to fall due to the impact of the pandemic on life expectancy
10 February 2021
Hackney schools workers to strike
Members of the Unite union and the National Education Union will be taking strike action at Colvestone and Thomas Fairchild Schools in Hackney, London on 10, 11 and 12 February over job losses and reorganisation
10 February 2021
York couriers call on council for protection from "fear of dismissal"
Key-working couriers are currently locked in a battle against York city council in a bid to protect our income - and jobs
10 February 2021
Court workers to ballot in fight for safety
A couple of months ago the chief executive of HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) put out on the internal web extracts from a poem about the NHS, which was meant to inspire us
10 February 2021
Tories admit market failure - we want our NHS back!
In the middle of the Covid pandemic, a leaked government draft white paper has revealed the Tories' plans to reorganise the NHS in England
10 February 2021
PCS: Vote for rank-and-file socialist Broad Left Network candidates
PCS union elections: PCS, the union for civil service and public sector workers, has begun the 2021 elections for its president and national executive committee (NEC)
10 February 2021
Expecting a baby should be an exciting time for parents. However, for many the past year of the Covid pandemic has dampened what should have been a joyous occasion.
10 February 2021
London fire victims lobby Tory mayoral candidate
When Tory London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey tweeted his opposition to a levy on building firms to solve the desperate problem of flammable cladding, residents in housing with unsafe cladding, and those already victims of fires, were furious and organised a virtual lobby
10 February 2021
Why you should come to Socialist Students online conference
Socialist Students in Wales initiated rent strikes in Bangor and in Swansea at the beginning of term
10 February 2021
Ex-Labour socialists preparing to stand for TUSC in Devon
An alternative to Starmer's Labour is needed now more than ever. 28 people, including current and ex-Labour members, councillors, and a former Labour parliamentary candidate attended the online launch
10 February 2021
Starmer ditches Labour movement tradition for cheap trick
Readers' opinion: Keir Starmer's 'new management' Labour has just taken a further right turn away from the traditions of the labour movement
10 February 2021
Send your news, views and criticism, in not more than 150 words, to [email protected] - or if you're not online, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
10 February 2021
Book that inspired me: God's bits of wood
This is a tremendous dramatised account of the successful five-month-long strike of railway workers on the Dakar to Niger railway between 1947 and 1948
10 February 2021
NSSN meeting: Fight together against the Tories and bosses' Covid offensive
Come to National Shop Stewards Network Zoom public meeting: 2021 has started with a bang, with teachers and school support staff in the National Education Union and Unison forcing Boris Johnson's Tory government to retreat on the reopening of schools
10 February 2021
Preparing to build a working-class force for May's local elections
Over 550 attended the online conference of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) on 7 February in preparation for the local elections in May
10 February 2021
Myanmar coup - For a workers-led struggle for democracy and socialism!
Mass protests are showing the dissatisfaction and anger
10 February 2021
Black Workers' Charter: A programme to fight racism
The demands needed to fight for the rights of black and Asian people, and for an end to racial discrimination.
10 February 2021
Why I joined the Socialist Party - a nurse
I've been a nurse in the NHS for 17 years, and have first-hand experience of privatisation, attacks on pay and working conditions, and dangerously underfunded services
10 February 2021
Why I joined the Socialist Party - a student
While a few years ago I would have thought it unimaginable, I recently joined the Socialist Party. The last 18 months have been an extremely transformative time. My world view has drastically changed
10 February 2021
Turkey: Bogaziçi university students protest appointment of government loyalist as rector
Demonstrations have been continuing at Bogziçi University since January 2021.
10 February 2021
Question mark over AstraZeneca's vaccine to protect against new Covid variant
The Johnson government's much-trumpeted Covid vaccine roll-out programme has taken a knock.
10 February 2021
Striking workers fighting to win
British Gas engineers were on the pickets again on 5 Feb
16 February 2021
Sham inquiry into 'progressive extremism'
The BLM protests and school strikes on the climate have been portrayed as some kind of 'Marxist conspiracy'.
17 February 2021
Tory consultation on home-use abortion pills
One in three women will have an abortion before the age of 45. The abortion pill is a safe and uncomplicated medical procedure carried out in the first ten weeks of pregnancy.
17 February 2021
Tory cladding money will not make us safe
Despite the horrific scenes at Grenfell almost four years ago, around 700,000 people in the UK are still living in buildings fitted with combustible cladding
17 February 2021
Cumbria mine: How can we fight for jobs and stop climate change?
The government and the Labour-led Cumbria County Council have finally had to take notice of the obvious contradiction between talking warm words about fighting climate change and opening a new coal mine.
17 February 2021
Cryptocurrency bubble: Insanity of capitalism
Low interest rates and the declining profit margins of capitalist production have pushed speculators to find new areas to invest their capital. This has created a massive bubble in cryptocurrencies.
17 February 2021
Last year was dubbed 'the year from hell' as a result of two million deaths from Covid and the pandemic's huge hit on working-class living standards and livelihoods.
17 February 2021
Hackney teaching assistants strike against cruel and unnecessary job cuts
Teaching assistants organised by general union Unite took to the streets on 10-12 February to picket against unnecessary forced redundancies.
17 February 2021
Manchester Go North West bus drivers in all-out strike over fire and rehire dispute
Bus drivers employed by Go North West in Manchester will begin an all-out continuous strike from 28 February. The company is trying to fire and rehire its workers on vastly inferior contracts.
17 February 2021
London bus drivers set to strike over pay and conditions
Some London bus drivers are also set to walk out over pay and conditions. Members of Unite based in several parts of the city will walk out from 22 February.
17 February 2021
Scaffolders on strike in Scunthorpe, photo: Alistair Tice, photo A. Tice
Around 50 scaffolders, members of Unite employed by Brand Energy at Scunthorpe steelworks, are now in their fourth week of strike action
17 February 2021
Boot private companies out of our NHS
Despite the recently leaked government draft white paper suggesting reversing "controversial privatisation policies" introduced in 2012, private healthcare operators continue to gorge on the NHS.
17 February 2021
Socialist Party Black and Asian caucus
The Socialist Party Black and Asian caucus held its first meeting of the year on Saturday 13 February
17 February 2021
Remembering Mohamud Hassan - continuing the fight against police brutality
On a freezing-cold Tuesday evening in February, over 100 people gathered outside Cardiff Bay police station
17 February 2021
Swarming the London Mayor's question time
Waltham Forest community campaign 'Save Our Square' and Socialist Party members organised what can only be described as a swarm of London Mayor Sadiq Khan's virtual Question Time on Thursday 11 February
17 February 2021
Southern new members meeting - a vivid illustration of the appetite for socialist ideas
Despite all the limitations of lockdown restrictions, local branches in the Southern and South East Region recruited well last year
17 February 2021
Doing all we can to fund the anti-cuts stand at the ballot box
Socialist Party members and supporters are doing a brilliant job raising fighting fund this quarter. This has been particularly buoyed by the donations we have received to help fund the Socialist Party's
17 February 2021
Send your news, views and criticism, in not more than 150 words, to [email protected] - or if you're not online, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
17 February 2021
The film 'Dear Comrades', produced by the Russian film-maker Andrei Konchalevsky, came out last year and won the Special Jury Prize at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
17 February 2021
Derby Toyota plant Covid crisis
Derby Socialist Party has compiled a report on the situation at the Toyota Car Plant in Burnaston, near Derby which employs around 2,500 staff.
17 February 2021
Strike back for free education
This year, students have been shafted. We've been used as scapegoats by the government, treated as the personal piggy banks of the higher education sector, and many of us have been completely isolated
17 February 2021
PCS members in the HMRC are being balloted on a divisive and retrograde pay deal. The ballot period is 11-26 February.
17 February 2021
Conference - Sunday 28 February
- discussing how a movement can be built to transform education and students' lives.
17 February 2021
SNP's independence referendum 2 'roadmap'
The SNP-led Scottish government's latest road map towards a second independence referendum (indyref2) has been unveiled
17 February 2021
Workplace safety. Something this government knows little about nor cares about. That's why there have been over 3,500 reported Covid outbreaks in workplaces since the start of the pandemic
17 February 2021
How you can amplify the Socialist's voice - Help us build subscriptions to the Socialist
We would like you to subscribe to the Socialist. And if you already subscribe, can you get your friends, family and workmates to do the same?
17 February 2021
Online workers' rally: Taking fight to the bosses
The National Shop Stewards Network held its 5th meeting during the pandemic
17 February 2021
NHS white paper: no solution to failed Tory policies
The publication of the white paper was met with headlines about the government 'taking back control' of the NHS.
20 February 2021
Latest podcast - How can we fight racism and capitalism today?
Black and Asian people have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
23 February 2021
Scunthorpe steelworks scaffolders: Fifth week of action
Back to Scunthorpe steelworks this morning to support the scaffolders in their fifth week of taking strike action to win the industry Blue Book rate for the job.
23 February 2021
An article from Socialism Today, issue 246, March 2021
After the defeat of Corbynism within the Labour Party Hannah Sell looks at the vital question of the struggle for working-class political representation, and the approach currently been taken by different elements of the workers' movement and left
23 February 2021
The struggle needs an electoral arm
Hannah Sell looks at the vital question of the struggle for working-class political representation and the approaches currently been taken.
24 February 2021
Garment workers and Covid: Dying for less than minimum wage
Garment workers have among the highest rate of coronavirus deaths for working women in the UK, the Office for National Statistics has revealed
24 February 2021
Social care: End privatisation and let workers decide how it's run
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, he promised to "fix the crisis in social care once and for all"
24 February 2021
Vaccine algorithm can't solve capitalist inequality
Eleven months after coronavirus restrictions came into force in England, another 800,000 people are being informed by the government that they need to 'shield' as they are at an increased risk of dying from the effects of the virus
24 February 2021
Hinkley Point electricians fight 'deskilling'
Rank-and-file construction electricians have launched a struggle against what they see as 'multi-skilling' by bosses at the massive Hinkley Point site in Somerset to build a nuclear power station, estimated to cost £22.5 billion.
24 February 2021
Usdaw elections - right makes gains but Broad Left builds
Usdaw held elections for union President and Executive Council with results being announced on Monday 15th February
24 February 2021
"I'm here to fight for the future education of children in Hackney"
Teaching assistants (TAs) in Hackney, east London took strike action against redundancies on 10-12 February
24 February 2021
GMB members continue fight against 'fire and rehire' in British Gas
British Gas workers were back out on strike from 19 February after their strike was suspended over the previous weekend for talks.
24 February 2021
How militant trade unionism defeated the 1971 Industrial Relations Act
Not since the 'Great Unrest' of 1911-14 and the period of strikes following World War One had there been anything like it.
24 February 2021
Liverpool Unite branch supports 'no cuts' budget strategy
On Friday 19 February, the branch meeting of Liverpool Unite union voted to refuse to endorse any of Labour's prospective Liverpool mayoral candidates
24 February 2021
Scottish TUSC election campaign launch
On Saturday 20 February, the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) launched our election manifesto for the Scottish elections in May.
24 February 2021
Coventry success building subscriptions
The latest lockdown has had an impact on raising sales and subscriptions to the Socialist across the country
24 February 2021
Save John Carroll Leisure Centre
John Carroll Leisure Centre, in the working-class Radford area of Nottingham, is threatened with closure in the latest £15.6m of cuts proposed by Nottingham Labour Council
24 February 2021
Keep the fighting fund rushing in for a TUSC stand in May
The relaunch of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition with the plan to stand widely in the forthcoming elections, has really inspired Socialist Party members and supporters
24 February 2021
The White Tiger, a film based on the bestselling novel by Aravind Adiga, depicts the story of a young man's bid to overcome caste and social oppressions to become a self-made person.
24 February 2021
Send your news, views and criticism, in not more than 150 words, to [email protected] - or if you're not online, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
24 February 2021
Tories target universities in free speech shakedown
The government recently announced plans to introduce a 'Free Speech Champion' to the board of the Office for Students to regulate the approach to free speech on England's university campuses
24 February 2021
The Tory government has opened a call for evidence regarding the availability of men's and women's toilet facilities
24 February 2021
Pride flag is about unity in struggle
'Rainbow capitalism' is the term given to the corporate bandwagon-jumping of brands using the iconic gay pride symbol - the rainbow flag - to decorate their products during 'Pride season'
24 February 2021
Nigeria: Abbey Trotsky on trial for assisting workers' struggle
Socialist Party members protested outside the Nigerian Embassy in central London on 22 February to protest against the 'show trial' of Abbey Trotsky - a leading member of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM - CWI in Nigeria) - that was taking place that day
24 February 2021
W. Sussex children's centres on the chopping block
Conservative West Sussex County Council is planning to axe 32 children's centres and twelve youth centres
24 February 2021
Socialist Students conference - postering
On Wednesday 17 February, Socialist Students organised a postering campaign through Selly Oak in Birmingham to advertise our upcoming online conference
24 February 2021
HMRC: Divisive pay deal leads to expulsions
PCS members in the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are voting on a pay deal. The deal is for a 13% pay increase over three years, but if agreed would put all staff onto a new contract
24 February 2021
London bus dispute against low pay, pay cuts and longer hours
Socialist Party members supported bus drivers' picket lines across London on 22 February. The drivers are fighting back against low pay, pay cuts, and longer hours being imposed by their employer
24 February 2021
Facebook v Australian government: nationalise the bosses' media!
In a fit of pique, tech baron Mark Zuckerberg purged all news from Australian Facebook feeds. But while Australia's right-wing Liberal government poses as defender of the little guy, this is really a battle between competing media billionaires.
24 February 2021
Tories admit guilt for asylum seeker neglect
Today I received a letter from the Home Secretary Priti Patel. The letter is a weak and pathetic attempt by the home secretary to deflect criticism away from her government's negligent policy
24 February 2021
Starmer's speech a return to New Labour
Keir Starmer's speech contained virtually no policy proposals. But it hammered home his message that the Corbyn era is over.
24 February 2021
Where's the road map to jobs and wages Boris?
Trade unions must fight for lives and livelihoods
Johnson's 'cautious' road map to reopen society from lockdown in England - after over 120,000 Covid deaths and a massive hit to incomes - won't lead to the needed restoration and improvement in living standards.
24 February 2021
For the second time in just over a month, a young man has died at the hands of south Wales police.
24 February 2021
Johnson's 'road map' for schools: Act together to protect safety
- For a phased return based on infection rates not politicians' dates.
24 Feb Cardiff West Socialist Party: Struggle in Myanmar
24 Feb Hackney & Islington Socialist Party: Engels' book 'Socialism - Utopian and Scientific''
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