Archive for January 2014
6 January 2014
Firefighters' strikes, pictures: Xmas eve and New Year's eve
7 January 2014
Two PCS strikes on both sides of New Year
PCS members at the national insurance number processing centre struck on 2 January and others struck in a police control centre on 31.12.13
7 January 2014
PCS warns: Storms show need to retain coastguards
Storms and floods in the UK show the need to retain expert coastguard resources and knowledge in our coastal communities, says the PCS
8 January 2014
8 January 2014
Is UK car building back in Top Gear?
The thoroughly reactionary but entertaining Jeremy Clarkson, on his Top Gear programme's Christmas special, tried to demonstrate that UK vehicle manufacturing was healthier than ever
8 January 2014
Another year of mass struggles beckons
Appeal of socialist change will grow: Peter Taaffe, general secretary of the Socialist Party, reviews the developments and events of 2013 in Britain and worldwide, and discusses further struggles in 2014 and the development of the workers' movement
8 January 2014
Energy Bills: Labour's 'supermarket special offer'
Labour is targeting Kingswood constituency in Bristol for the 2015 general election, using its promise to 'freeze energy bills'
8 January 2014
Class injustice at Dickensian court
Between Christmas and New Year, thousands of tenants in rent arrears were dragged into courts across the country facing possession orders
8 January 2014
Socialist Party member Seth Cruse's letter (below) appeared in the 2 January Folkestone Herald in response to a 'disagreement' between a Lib Dem councillor and the local Tory MP
8 January 2014
Why capitalism mourned Mandela
After Nelson Mandela's death, the articles in the Socialist on the fight against apartheid and on South African workers' struggles stood alone in clearly explaining the real history
8 January 2014
South Africa: Numsa's bold and historic decision to cut ties with the ANC
Delegates at the special congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) have taken the bold and historic decision to cut ties with the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC)
8 January 2014
Call charges: Families hit by electricity blackouts over the festive period had injury heaped upon misery when callers to SP Energy Networks were left on hold for over 20 minutes
8 January 2014
Unite all workers to end bosses' race to the bottom
Much of the right-wing media whipped up hostility and alarm in the run up to the 1 January end of restrictions on entry to Britain for people from Romania and Bulgaria
8 January 2014
Privatisation Act lies behind the A&E crisis
There's a crisis in A&E provision in Britain's hospitals. Government statements have blamed people being unable to get GP access,and an ageing population. But a new report has let the cat out of the bag
8 January 2014
Greedy landlords create housing hell
Fergus Wilson - one of Britain's largest private landlords - says he will not accept any more applicants who rely on housing benefit
8 January 2014
Hampshire Unison success shows potential for fightback
With ongoing attacks on jobs, pay and conditions in local government, two recent battles in Hampshire County Council show what is possible when a branch and its members are prepared to fight
8 January 2014
Every job matters on London Underground
Transport union RMT members working on London Underground (LU) are balloting for strike action in protest at the massive cuts being proposed to jobs and services
8 January 2014
Unite members working at the UPS depot in Camden, north London, won an important victory at the end of December
8 January 2014
US: Fight for $15 minimum wage heats up in Seattle
Across the US low-wage workers are rising up, protesting, and striking for a $15 an hour minimum wage
8 January 2014
Birmingham Labour 'consults' over £87 million cuts
Birmingham's Labour city council plans another £87 million of cuts in the 2014-15 financial year. As expected its 'consultation' was just an opportunity for the council leader to present a slick presentation
8 January 2014
CWU Royal Mail agreement: Defend our right to strike!
The Communication Workers Union announced before Christmas that it has reached a "landmark agreement" with Royal Mail
8 January 2014
Truth revealed about Thatcher's war against the miners
After 30 years of gathering dust in the National Archives, the declassification of secret government files has revealed how far Margaret Thatcher and the Tory government went to ensure defeat of the 1984-85 miners' strike
8 January 2014
Osborne plans more cuts: On 6 January Tory Chancellor George Osborne turned Blue Monday into Black Monday. The dreaded return to work for many was made much worse by Osborne's confirmation of plans for axing another £25 billion
9 January 2014
12 January 2014
Jimmy Parry - Liverpool 47 socialist councillor
Some 200 people attended the funeral of Jimmy Parry on 10 January, 2014. Jimmy, brother of Bob Parry MP, was a committed socialist
13 January 2014
Exploratory drillers told to "Frack Off"
Over 500 trade unionists and environmental campaigners demonstrated against fracking on Barton Moss in Salford
13 January 2014
Huge anger at inquest verdict on killing of Mark Duggan
Mark Duggan was not holding a gun and was not threatening the police, yet he was shot twice and killed [Updated 15 January 2014]
13 January 2014
The underbelly of prison privatisation
Private prisons and particularly Oakwood - run by G4S - have once again been in the news
13 January 2014
Pupils chase hated Gove around their school
Education minister Michael Gove was left cowering in a classroom in Marling school
13 January 2014
PCS protest against tax office closures
Public and Commercial Services union representatives will demonstrate outside HM Revenue and Customs' Whitehall headquarters tomorrow (14 January) ahead of a decision on tax office closures
15 January 2014
Pensioners are not economic 'joy riders'
Austerity: 'We're not being feather-bedded' I am not often driven to put pen to paper but the following headline, "Someone needs to fight the selfish, short-sighted old", on a recent Guardian article by ex-MP, ex-prisoner Chris Huhne did nothing for my blood pressure
15 January 2014
City bonuses: Finance chiefs in the Square Mile will scoop £10 billion out of a total bonus pay-out of £19 billion
15 January 2014
Gove wages war on history teachers
Education secretary Michael Gove sees the centenary of World War One as a chance to push his call for a school curriculum promoting the glories of the British Empire
15 January 2014
15 January 2014
Seattle: '15 Now' minimum wage campaign launched
On 12 January, 450 people in Seattle attended the rally to launch '15 Now', an organisation set up to carry forward the campaign to secure a $15 an hour minimum wage in the Washington state city and across the US
15 January 2014
NSSN affiliate: The Probation Officers union Napo has become the eighth national union to affiliate to the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN)
15 January 2014
More attacks on further education funding
The government has withdrawn funding for students on level three and four further education courses
15 January 2014
Help make the Socialist even more effective in 2014: In 2013 the Con-Dem government and their mouthpieces in the right-wing press stepped up their war against working class people, writes Sarah Wrack, Paper sales campaigner.
15 January 2014
"I'll be voting for the trade unionists"
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) supporters in Lewisham held a weekend of election campaigning on 11-12 January
15 January 2014
In Steve McQueen’s film, based on the story of Solomon Nothup's captivity, the barbarism of slavery is clear
15 January 2014
Officials from bakers' union BFAWU recently held a 'fast food forum' with campaigners from groups including Youth Fight for Jobs
15 January 2014
University bosses' snouts in the trough
Warwick: The vice-chancellor of Warwick University, aptly named Nigel Thrift, has been awarded a pay rise of a whopping £16,000
15 January 2014
Ariel Sharon: a brutal architect of monstrous crimes
The butcher of Sabra and Shatila has died. Ariel Sharon, once known as the "Father of Israeli settlements", died after eight years in a semi-coma, following a stroke while still prime minister in January 2006
15 January 2014
Teachers need a strategy to win
With the attacks on pay and pensions already largely in place, and attacks on conditions soon to be added, the NUT urgently needs to agree a workable strategy to put to beleaguered teachers
15 January 2014
Unison: National anti-cuts battle needed
"Will they even empty the bins?" - so read the headline in our local paper reporting on the cash crisis in Labour-led Wolverhampton council
15 January 2014
Support Glasgow care workers fighting attacks
Unison members in Glasgow city council's residential homes for older people were on strike from 13 January for 48 hours to resist cuts in pay, unacceptable changes to job roles and a move to 12 and a half hour shifts
15 January 2014
RMT v Johnson: Union prepares to defend London Underground
Protesting against the proposed London Underground ticket office closures and job cuts, photo Paul Mattsson
The RMT London tube workers have voted by 77% in favour of action against the brutal attack on jobs and terms and conditions by London Underground, TfL management and Tory Mayor Boris Johnson hoping to have his 'miners moment'
15 January 2014
Scrap the Bedroom Tax NOW: Tory welfare-slashing minister Iain Duncan Smith should resign. The millionaire architect of the hated 'bedroom tax', has illegally imposed the tax on tenants not liable to pay it
16 January 2014
Salford workers and environmentalists challenge council
200 workers, service users , carers, community activists and environmental activists lobbied their council
16 January 2014
Teachers strike against threatened redundancies
Abbey special school is not in financial difficulties, but faces losing six teachers
20 January 2014
St Helens council: Making cuts while hoarding reserves
A recent application by myself under the Freedom of Information Act to the local council here in St Helens revealed a reserve of £89 million
20 January 2014
Gateway college: NUT strikes against management "observations"
Over 30 National Union of Teachers members mounted a picket line on 16 January outside Gateway sixth form college
20 January 2014
Nationalise the banks to stop the fat-cats rip off rewards: It's a tough time for bankers. The EU has decided to cap bankers' bonuses at 100%, and so condemned those earning more than £410,000 to "only" get paid double their salary
21 January 2014
In an attempt to answer the description of Lenin by capitalist historians as a brutal dictator, some on the left turn to Lars T Lih. Peter Taaffe reviews Lih's book: "Lenin"
21 January 2014
22 January 2014
Mitie cleaning workers striking for decent pay on 21 January 2014, photo Neil Cafferky
End poverty pay scandal: The Con-Dems tell us we're in a 'recovery'. Well, it doesn't feel that way to most of us. Far from it
22 January 2014
Lincoln marches against racism and fascism
On 18 January, around 150 people marched under the banner of Lincoln Against Racism and Fascism (LARF)
22 January 2014
A protest against £2.5 million of cuts to Kent's children's centres will take place on Saturday 15 February
22 January 2014
Carlisle Socialist Party handed an anti-cuts petition to the city's council executive on 15 January
22 January 2014
Bus drivers' strike: About 60 drivers, members of Unite, at First Hampshire and Dorset were on strike for 24 hours on 20 January in a dispute which has seen their pay fall dramatically behind their regional counterparts
22 January 2014
An open letter to Tristram Hunt
You have made it clear that you will revive the idea floated during the last Labour government of regular "relicensing" of teachers
22 January 2014
Miliband's Tory policies: What exactly is the point of Labour?
Ed Miliband and his shadow cabinet are going hell for leather with speeches and newspaper columns. They want to show how fit they are for election in 2015
22 January 2014
Benefits Street: A caricature of poverty
TV review: Channel 4's recent controversial "documentary" series, Benefits Street claimed to depict life for residents of poverty stricken James Turner Street in Winson Green, Birmingham
22 January 2014
Oppose all cuts and privatisation: The National Health Service is still being privatised bit by bit but the process is speeding up rapidly
22 January 2014
Bedroom tax loophole: Can legal tactics be effective?
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that tenants who have been continuously entitled to housing benefit since at least 1 January 1996, and who have occupied the same home since that date, are exempt from the bedroom tax
22 January 2014
Fracking - profiting from environmental destruction
"We're going all out for shale" - said David Cameron at the same time as he announced bribes to councils and local planning authorities in order to spread fracking operations across the country
22 January 2014
Cost of living: 85 super-rich people in the world, in total, own as much wealth ($110 trillion) as half the world's population of 3.5 billion people
22 January 2014
Egypt referendum: no enthusiasm for new constitution
To no one's surprise, 98% of Egyptian voters said yes to the new constitution in the recent referendum
22 January 2014
"Ireland is a success story" rhetoric is based on spin
The entire 'success story' rhetoric of the Irish government, the European Commission and their hangers-on when promoting Ireland's bailout exit is based on empty spin, hyperbole and untruths
22 January 2014
Stop the student debt spiral - day of action 6 February
Part of a week of action opposing student loan privatisation: The Student Loan Company (SLC) is up for sale.
22 January 2014
Youth Fight for Jobs campaign in Croydon
Socialist Party members held a successful Youth Fight for Jobs campaign stall in Croydon, South London on Saturday 18 January
22 January 2014
Transport workers have power to defeat cuts
Almost 1,000 jobs to go, all ticket offices to be closed, workers to lose as much as £10,000, new grades on lower wages. This is what faces Londoners if the Underground workers lose the battle that looms over the city
22 January 2014
Teachers need a date for national action
Teachers are facing yet more attacks on our conditions, when our existing intolerable workload is already driving many teachers out of the profession
22 January 2014
More action needed to defend Probation Service
I recently attended a Unison seminar regarding the government's proposals around the probation service
22 January 2014
Protest against Atos 'assessments' on 19 February
Protests are planned to take place outside Atos assessment centres across the country
22 January 2014
Publicity alone can't save sacked union branch official
Polly Toynbee, well-known Guardian journalist and prominent Labour Party member, recently wrote a column highlighting the case of Charlotte Monro, chair of Whipps Cross Hospital Unison branch
22 January 2014
Robert Burns, insurrectionary poet
Every year the narrow-minded, conservative Robert Burns establishment ritually recite the same few poems and repeat ancient propaganda myths about him
22 January 2014
Capitalism is a system in crisis
This is the case for socialism: We say there is an alternative to endless misery. Today, more than ever before in human history, enormous wealth, science and technique exists which could, if properly harnessed, easily provide all of humanity
22 January 2014
Leeds' forgotten dispute: The 1913-14 Corporation Strike
During the 1911-14 Great Unrest many strikes took place in and around Leeds, including the lockout of textile workers in Aireborough
27 January 2014
Spelthorne residents demand fire cuts are stopped
There was standing room only at the packed public meeting last wednesday at Staines Community Centre
27 January 2014
TSSA votes for strikes in London tube dispute
The TSSA rail union has voted to strike in the dispute over the Mayor's plans to close all 260 Tube ticket offices and axe nearly 1,000 jobs
27 January 2014
Unite ballots Ford workers for strike action
Over 5,000 Ford workers are being balloted for strike action, over job security and pensions
28 January 2014
Floods: fully-funded environmental planning needed
Residents in Somerset still find their homes underwater four weeks after the initial floods.
28 January 2014
University workers continue strike action over pay
UCU members in Higher Education have again walked out over pay
29 January 2014
The European Union Framework for climate and energy conference recently agreed, after much wrangling, only a timid response to the threat of climate change
29 January 2014
Determined strikes can stop London Underground in its tracks
With the Olympics a fading memory, London Underground (LU) intends to implement the years of austerity that it had to forgo in order to keep tube workers onside for the games
29 January 2014
Much against my better judgement I was persuaded to attend Radio 4's Any Questions on Friday night (24 January) along with other comrades from the Socialist Party
29 January 2014
The elections for the leadership of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will start soon, with nominations closing on 6 March
29 January 2014
NUT activists meet to push for action
The Local Associations National Action Campaign (LANAC) is meeting on 1 February in Leicester. LANAC was set up in 2012 to organise and argue for a fighting programme for the National Union Of Teachers
29 January 2014
NSSN launched in south of England
Trade unionists and anti-cuts campaigners from all over the South of England gathered in Bracknell on 18 January to launch the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) in the region
29 January 2014
Ford ballot: Over 5,000 Ford workers are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over job security and pensions
29 January 2014
Not giving Atos: Atos, the private company used by the government to conduct its work capability assessments of disabled welfare claimants, is notorious for accusations of harassing claimants
29 January 2014
New mineworkers' strikes in South Africa
Workers and Socialist Party calls for democratic control of the action: The ongoing struggle of mineworkers in South Africa for a R12,500 (£900) a month minimum wage has exploded into strikes in the platinum mines once more - called by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu)
29 January 2014
Land Registry threatened with sell-off
The Land Registry has been a part of the UK civil service since 1862. However, a consultation currently underway threatens to remove the vast majority of it from the public sector
29 January 2014
Landlords, the real beneficiaries of benefits street
Channel Four's infamous Benefits Street 'documentary' has featured a squalid four-bedroom rented home that is so riddled with damp that water runs down the walls
29 January 2014
Socialist Party Northern region conference
As we waited for our room for the Socialist Party Northern region conference to be opened, we attempted to assure members that this cold and sleety weather was unusual for Gateshead
29 January 2014
Plymouth TUSC plans for 2014 elections
On Thursday 16 January Plymouth's Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) meeting of 2014 took place in preparation for the May elections where 19 seats are up for grabs
29 January 2014
Leeds Labour breaks bedroom tax promise
On 15 January, Leeds city council (LCC) sent bailiffs to a tenant who could not pay his bedroom tax
29 January 2014
A glimpse of the response to the massive cuts to council services in Wales was highlighted this week by the direct action of one Carmarthenshire resident
29 January 2014
Brighton Green referendum offers no alternative to cuts
Brighton and Hove's Green Party leader Jason Kitcat wants to follow up last year's attack on the city's bin workers' wages with further cuts in the council's 2014-15 budget
29 January 2014
Support the tube workers' strikes
No closure of ticket offices - stop job cuts - no compromise on passenger safety: The battle lines are being drawn ahead of the tube strikes which start on 4 February
29 January 2014
Councils are announcing yet more cuts as they carry through Con-Dem austerity. Getting angry is a rational response but won't alone stop them. Here we report on two groups of workers organising effective resistance...
29 January 2014
Davos: World capitalism means increased inequality
Behind the headlines and speeches trumpeting 'economic recovery', inequality is so blatant that even the capitalist leaders cannot ignore it
29 January 2014
We need councillors who stand up for us
On Thursday 22 May a little bit of history will be made. Hundreds of working class people – some of them already organised socialists, but many of them ordinary workers, trade unionists, young people, members of their local communities – will stand before the electorate and ask for votes
29 January 2014
Derbyshire: 'Old Labour' cuts hurt just as much
Derbyshire county council's recently elected Labour administration has announced £157 million of cuts over the next three years, attacking the most vulnerable in society
29 January 2014
Bakers union launches fast food rights campaign
Activists from the BFAWU union have met for their first young members' conference
30 January 2014
Kshama Sawant's response to Obama speech
Watch this video by Socialist Alternative Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant, a real fighter for the 99%, responding to Obama's state of the union speech
31 January 2014
Future Directions dispute settled
The long-running dispute by care workers at Future Directions in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, has ended in a settlement involving significant concessions from the employer, which their union Unison sees as a victory
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