Archive for January 2020

7 January 2020

India: Huge numbers protest

8 January 2020

International wave of revolt continues

As we go to press, a general strike is set to rock India on 8 January

8 January 2020

Trump attacks Iran - London protest: We need workers' action against war and austerity

Socialist Party members responded to the call to oppose Trump's drone strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the ratcheting up to war on Saturday 4 January.

8 January 2020

Northern Rail franchise in question: nationalise the railways!

The Tories' announcement that they are likely to revoke Northern Rail's franchise referred to Northern's service being "completely unacceptable." That's true.

8 January 2020

Children need intensive care? We don't care!

This is the practical attitude of this Tory government, which has overseen a project of vicious NHS cuts - to the point where hospitals in England are struggling to provide beds to young children in desperate need of intensive care.

8 January 2020

Shell pays £0 corporation tax, and plans huge hike in fossil output

Faced with increasing scrutiny worldwide, oil giant Shell has revealed it paid no UK corporation tax in 2018. This is despite Shell also earning nearly £557 million in pre-tax profits in the UK over that year, with global pre-tax profits being $35.6 billion.

8 January 2020

Defend the right to strike

The Queen's Speech announced the new Tory government's intention to add yet more anti-union laws to Britain's statute books.

8 January 2020

What next after the general election, for PCS and the left

Preparing the PCS civil servants' union to withstand the attacks of the new Tory government is urgent. Equally important is the role our union can play in ensuring the whole trade union movement responds to the coming attacks.

8 January 2020

West Midlands RMT guards jobs saved

RMT transport union members at West Midlands Trains have scored a victory over bosses in a dispute over scrapping guards on trains.

8 January 2020

The Socialist Inbox

Letters to the Socialist's editors.

8 January 2020

Suleimani's assassination - Middle East thrown into turmoil

Shockwaves went around the world at the news of Trump's decision to assassinate Suleimani

8 January 2020

Trouble ahead for Johnson: Brexit is far from 'done'

Those who wanted Johnson to end the chaos and uncertainty will be disappointed.

8 January 2020

£50,240 - a new fighting fund record

The Socialist Party has broken its record for the most money raised in a single quarter at least since the millennium

8 January 2020

Labour leadership election

Commitment to socialist policies and democratic party needed.
The nomination process for the Labour Party's leadership and deputy leadership contests has begun, with the ballot to take place from 21 February to 2 April.

8 January 2020

Tory minimum wage hike not enough

Ignoring the realities of living in austerity Britain, the Tory government has announced that the National 'Living Wage' will increase by 51p to £8.72 an hour in April. Every improvement is welcome, of course.

8 January 2020

Capitalism must go - fight for socialism

If visitors from outer space had come to earth for Christmas, they would surely ask: who the hell is in charge here?

8 January 2020

Ignore the hype - austerity goes on: organise to resist

It's not just the Socialist that is challenging Johnson's claims that he will end austerity and grow the economy. According to the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, winning the election was "the easy bit."

8 January 2020

Build union resistance to Tory attacks

Almost the first act of Boris Johnson's new government was to use the Queen's Speech to prepare new anti-trade union legislation. So much for Boris trying to portray himself as pro-worker. This will be a government of and for the rich, against the working class.

9 January 2020

Unison national executive members challenge validity of nomination for Keir Starmer for leader of the Labour Party

10 January 2020

France: Battle over pension rights continues

15 January 2020

Hackney school bus workers win pay increase following strikes

A long-running dispute between Hackney council and school bus staff has been brought to an end after workers secured increased pay and a commitment to make agency roles permanent

15 January 2020

Northern Ireland: Thousands of nurses continue to strike for better pay

Thousands of nurses and healthcare workers in Northern Ireland have been taking part in industrial action since November over pay parity and staffing

15 January 2020

London bus drivers ballot to strike

Exhausted bus drivers in London are planning to strike, demanding that Transport for London (TfL) take action "to tackle chronic levels of fatigue being experienced by bus drivers."

15 January 2020

PCS: Time to rebuild the left

A meeting called in the name of the PCS Broad Left Network takes place in Manchester on 18 January. The main business will be to agree a programme and candidates to contest the 2020 elections in the PCS

15 January 2020

Union lawyer arrested on security guards' picket line

The United Voices of the World (UVW) union, whose members are striking for 48 hours at St George's Hospital, University of London, are taking legal action after its lawyer was arrested on the picket line

15 January 2020

Socialist Party national committee meeting

The Socialist Party held a very important National Committee on 11-12 January, the first since the general election

15 January 2020

Stop gentrification in Newham: "We are here, you have consulted us and we're not going anywhere!"

Over 100 Newham, east London residents and market traders crowded into a church hall on Green Street to hear Labour Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz explain plans to 'regenerate' Queen's Market.

15 January 2020

Low Pay, Long Hours. Bosses rip us off. Organise the fightback now!

Boris Johnson has announced the minimum wage is going up. It's not by nearly enough. And at the same time, the Tories let bosses get away with paying hundreds of thousands of workers below the legal minimum!

15 January 2020

Them & Us

It's one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us.

15 January 2020

Westex Carpet strike reaches two month mark

Members of Unite the Union at the Westex Carpets factory in Cleckheaton, west Yorkshire, are about to reach the two month mark in their ongoing dispute over pay.

15 January 2020

Sustainable food production and the need for socialism

Millions of predominately young people around the world protested in 2019 at the lack of governmental action to halt global warming which is leading to catastrophic climate change.

15 January 2020

TV Review: Apocalypse Cow

Environmental journalist and campaigner George Monbiot recently narrated a thought-provoking documentary on Channel 4 - Apocalypse Cow.

15 January 2020

No free ride for the airline bosses - nationalise Flybe now!

Airline Flybe - which provides domestic flights in the UK - is in trouble.

15 January 2020

Renewed protests shake Iranian leaders

A wave of anger over what is seen as the regime's lying and incompetence - after the tragic downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet - has sparked off a third round of mass protests in Iran in just over three years.

15 January 2020

The Socialist Inbox

Letters to the Socialist's editors.

15 January 2020

Nottingham: Youth protest against Barclays £64 million fossil-fuel investments

20 young people protested outside Barclays bank in Nottingham on 11 January.

15 January 2020

Cladding scandal: Government steps up defence of landlords

The government stands accused of "systemic failure" to uphold building regulations and keep residents safe from fire.

15 January 2020

London: Protesters return to oppose Middle East war

On 11 January, Stop the War called a second demonstration in central London after the recent attacks in Iraq and Iran.

15 January 2020

Labour Party leadership contest: Fight for a mass anti-austerity, workers' party with a socialist programme

The process to elect a new leader of the Labour Party is underway and poses an essential question. What will happen to the potential, opened up by Jeremy Corbyn's unexpected leadership victory in 2015, to win a mass party in the interests of the working class?

15 January 2020

Massive Scottish independence demo marks new stage in struggle

At least 80,000 marchers packed the rain-soaked streets of Glasgow

15 January 2020

Young people who voted for Corbyn's manifesto will now ask... How can we win those ideas?

Millions of young people voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the general election.

15 January 2020

Build for strikes to save NHS

In November, none of England's 118 major A&E departments met their targets - In December the situation got worse.

15 January 2020

Reverse Unison's undemocratic nomination of Blairite Starmer

There is widespread outrage in the union following the endorsement of Starmer

22 January 2020

Protesting is not terrorism

Police issue counter-terror guidance against campaigners including Socialist Party: Trade unions should demand the government withdraws these documents and the Prevent strategy

22 January 2020

End climate change, end inequality, end capitalism!

On one side, the global rich elite wine and dine at their annual shindig in Davos. On the other, millions around the world face poverty, war and environmental destruction

22 January 2020

Capitalism fails NHS services in Liverpool: scrap PFI!

The outsourced hospital should have been open and treating patients with state-of-the-art equipment by now

22 January 2020

Them & Us

It's one world for the super-rich, and another for the rest of us. Billionaires, housing, health, Lords, and more.

22 January 2020

Eyewitness report: workers' struggle in France on the boil

After more than 45 days of strikes and 62 weeks of 'gilets jaunes' protests, French workers' appetite for struggle endures

22 January 2020

France striker speaks: real, deep anger needs union strategy

For the moment, the strike relies on the workers' determination - we need to discuss demands to generalise the strike, and a political alternative

22 January 2020

Iraq - a brutal legacy of imperialist intervention

The Iraqi people have endured horrors from iron dictatorship to brutal imperialist occupation to dysfunctional and corrupt rule by local sectarian parties

22 January 2020

India: Huge general strike but a missed opportunity

This year's planned general strike on 8 January was massive. It broke all previous records in the numbers involved in united class action in India

22 January 2020

Renewing the left in PCS

Broad Left Network is not just an electoral organisation; its goal will be to raise the confidence and consciousness of our union's reps, for a real member-led union

22 January 2020

Belfast Hovis workers' all-out strike

Hovis workers in the BFAWU and Unite trade unions have voted for an all-out strike in Belfast, Northern Ireland for better pay

22 January 2020

"If you think bus and rail services are crap, sign our petition to take them back"

Sheffield Socialist Party branch decided to start a campaign about public transport

22 January 2020

The Socialist inbox

Do you have something to say? Letters to the Socialist's editors. Labour leadership; pensions struggle; political policing; university stress

22 January 2020

Robert Burns: of the people, for the people

Burns was 'just' a poor farmer and low-paid public sector worker - we celebrate the 18th century radical democrat

22 January 2020

To win back working-class trust Labour must take the 'Liverpool road'

The Labour leadership candidates at the first hustings pursued the theme: How can Labour win the trust of the working class?

22 January 2020

Council cuts continue... So must the fightback

Boris Johnson says austerity is over. So as councils prepare to set budgets next month, everyone - Johnson, the Labour leadership candidates, trade union leaders, councillors of every shade will be asked, "what are you going to do to stop council cuts?"

22 January 2020

Royal Mail workers to reballot for strike action

The Communication Workers Union has announced that talks with Royal Mail management have broken down and the union will be reballoting our membership for industrial action

22 January 2020

Building Tamil Solidarity with youth and the unions

Tamil Solidarity AGM: It is evident that young people have begun playing leading roles in the campaign

22 January 2020

Make a stand: set legal no-cuts council budgets

Defend jobs, services and communities. Reports from Carmarthenshire, Peterborough, Swansea, Enfield

22 January 2020

A win against academisation in east London

St Angela's school in Newham won't become a privately run academy - but other Catholic schools are yet to win

23 January 2020

Unite regional committee votes to support anti-cuts Enfield councillor

Unite's London and Eastern regional committee is supporting a campaign in Enfield against cuts

27 January 2020

After the defeat

The decisive majority for Boris Johnson in December's general election represents a turning point in Britain, all the consequences of which have yet to fully work themselves out

27 January 2020

We need socialists in London's City Hall

Who will fight for anti-austerity policies in May's London elections if Sadiq Khan goes unchallenged by socialists and trade unionists?

29 January 2020

Turkey: Reinstate union members at SF Trade Leather!

29 January 2020

Fight the closure of Royal Glamorgan A&E

Health board bosses have announced the closure of the A&E at Royal Glamorgan hospital in Wales. It serves the people of Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT)

29 January 2020

Save Hampden Nursery in Camden

Public sector union Unison has protested with parents against the closure of Hampden Nursey in Camden, London. Already two other nurseries have closed in the area

29 January 2020

Unite union nominates Long-Bailey and Burgon

The Unite union executive council overwhelmingly agreed to nominate Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon as Labour Party leader and deputy leader respectively at its special meeting on Friday 24 January.

29 January 2020

Coronavirus: capitalism limits response to viral outbreaks

photo NIAID/CC

For the third time in 20 years a new virus has spread from animals to humans. It began on 29 December in Wuhan, a Chinese city of eleven million, probably crossing to humans at a live animal market.

29 January 2020

HS2 debacle: nationalise rail and construction!

Tory cabinet minister Stephen Barclay has a "gut feeling" that the 'HS2' high-speed rail link between London and the north of England will go ahead.

29 January 2020

Johnson's Huawei internet deal underlines world trade tensions

As expected, Boris Johnson has approved Chinese tech giant Huawei gaining licences to build 5G web network infrastructure in Britain.

29 January 2020

Them & Us

It's one world for the super-rich and another one for us.

29 January 2020

University and College Union: Pensions, pay and conditions dispute reach a crucial stage

As we go to press, a crucial meeting of the University and College Union (UCU) higher education committee is set to take place to decide the future strategy in the ongoing disputes over pensions, pay and conditions.

29 January 2020

PCS union elections: Nominate candidates fighting austerity and for union democracy

When I stood to be general secretary nearly 10,000 PCS union members voted for my campaign, to rebuild a fighting democratic union.

29 January 2020

Westex carpet strike

Going into their ninth week of action over pay, Westex carpet strikers had a boost when the local BBC news programme Look North filmed and interviewed the pickets.

29 January 2020

Brexit and British capitalism - why Johnson's juggernaut is set to jackknife

Boris Johnson, elated by his election victory and refreshed from his Caribbean holiday, now faces, in the words of a newspaper journalist, a long-postponed "rendezvous with reality".

29 January 2020

Cuts to women's services cost lives

In 2018, 173 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides - an increase of 32 deaths on 2017 and an average of more than three murders a week.

29 January 2020

TV review: The Trial of Christine Keeler

Benjamin Disraeli, two-time Tory prime minister in the nineteenth century, once said: "A Conservative government is an organised hypocrisy". The Christine Keeler story on BBC1 would seem to bear out that analysis.

29 January 2020

The Socialist Inbox

Letter's to the Socialist's editors

29 January 2020

Libya: Civil war and chaos follow interventions by world and regional powers

It is almost nine years since the Nato-led military intervention in Libya, and the country is still a mess, split between conflicting forces, backed by western capitalist powers, Russia, and regional powers Turkey and Saudi Arabia. An ongoing series of 'peace' summits hosted by various world powers have failed to resolve an increasingly violent civil war. In the second of our series on the Middle East, Tom Baldwin explains how imperialism brought about this chaos and why the current conflict can only be resolved by an independent revolutionary movement of workers and the poor.

29 January 2020

CWI round-up

Abbey Trotsky of the Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI, Nigeria) faces four cases against him in separate courts, writes The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) is the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party in England and Wales is affiliated. CWI members here in Britain, those in other countries are involved in workers' struggles and developing socialist ideas in order to fundamentally change society.

29 January 2020

Trump's trashing of the environment - Dump the capitalist profit system!

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, US president Donald Trump attacked those calling for meaningful action to halt catastrophic, capitalist-induced climate change as "prophets of doom".

29 January 2020

End health and wealth divide - Fight for our NHS

Take a ride on the 83 bus across Sheffield and it takes ten years off your life! That's how long life expectancy falls travelling just ten miles from the wealthier parts of the city to the poorest.

29 January 2020

Protest against Modi's racist law

Tamil Solidarity called a demonstration involving various organisations to protest the racist, anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act in India.

29 January 2020

No 'blank cheque' for Labour leadership candidates

The nomination stage of the Labour leadership contest is in full swing, but without the enthusiasm within and beyond the party's rank and file that marked the surge behind Jeremy Corbyn

29 January 2020

Interview with a forestry worker

The environment is near the top of everyone's agenda currently, as it should be, due to the scale of the crisis that we face now and in the future

29 January 2020

Socialist sellers: Opposing the Tories & fighting cuts

There seemed to be a new mood among the people who stopped at our stalls in Southampton over the past week