Archive for June 2020

2 June 2020

Tories knocked back on schools opening

The government has faced parental distrust and organised trade union opposition

2 June 2020

"Test, trace, isolate, support" - the Tories' scheme fails on all counts

I checked my emails late on 27 May and was surprised to see one from the NHS. The new test and trace system was going 'live' - not 1 June as expected, but 8am the next day!

2 June 2020

Protect every job, nationalise don't subsidise

As the economic implications of Coronavirus emerge, Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak has proposed Project Birch

2 June 2020

Furlough: We are not 'all in the same boat'

The hospitality industry has been downsized. For some, the furlough scheme came too late and workers were already cut, or businesses had shut their doors for good.

3 June 2020

Schools... no going back until it's safe

In almost every primary in Newham, east London, staff voted against increased school attendance and did not go in on Monday 1 June.

3 June 2020

Reject the university employers' offer on pay, workload and casualisation

Over the last 12 months University and College Union (UCU) members have undertaken a determined struggle in the 'four fights' dispute, taking 22 days of strike action over pay, casualisation, workload and pay inequality

3 June 2020

Fight continues for safety on London buses

Transport for London (TfL) has announced that the front doors on London buses were being reopened on several routes

3 June 2020

Hospital closed following rampant spread of Covid-19

The decision by the main acute hospital in Western-super-Mare to stop admitting patients due to a dramatic spike in Covid-19 cases, clearly illustrates the dangers of easing lockdown.

3 June 2020

Coordinated union struggle needed to save jobs and nationalise JCB

Digger company JCB has recently announced redundancies and proposed other changes to our terms and conditions that it insists are necessary due to the impact of Covid-19.

3 June 2020

PCS pay claim: Vital work unrecognised

Since 2010 the pay of PCS members has been cut in real terms by over 20%. Each year the government-capped pay increases have fallen below rising prices.

3 June 2020

Council finance disaster: set emergency no-cuts budgets and fight for funds!

Local authorities in Britain are tasked with meeting local social needs arising from the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences. They have never been in a worse position to do so.

3 June 2020

Pandemic doesn't stop Socialist Party educating organisers: northern meeting

From campaigning to keep the schools closed until safety can be guaranteed, to battling job losses and demanding proper PPE for essential workers, Socialist Party members have been hard at work during this crisis in fighting for the working class!

3 June 2020

Blairite general secretary elected - Starmer's takeover of Labour Party consolidated

Former Blair aide David Evans was elected Labour Party general secretary at an NEC meeting on 26 May

3 June 2020

Socialism Today special issue: Lessons from the Corbyn experience

In his recent announcement that he was standing down as leader of Momentum, Jon Lansman claimed that "hundreds of thousands of socialists" have "transformed Labour into a people-powered mass movement", and that "the party was brought back to its roots"

3 June 2020

Fight racism and class inequality, fight capitalism!

Following the killing on 25 May of unarmed black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police, there has been on outpouring of anger against systemic racism and widening inequalities in the USA.

3 June 2020

3rd June anti-racist demonstrations across Britain

A sea of protesters, wave after wave, poured into Hyde Park

3 June 2020

Mick Cotter

It is with great sadness and regret that the Socialist Party has lost a dedicated comrade and friend of many members

3 June 2020

Battered Tories face divisions and growing anger

Just six months ago the Tories gained their biggest parliamentary majority since 1987

3 June 2020

Equity union general secretary election

Equity, the union for performing arts professionals, is about to elect a new general secretary. The direction of the union in this tempestuous time is a vital question for entertainment workers.

3 June 2020

USA - another cop killing of unarmed black man sparks widespread protests

On 25 May, police in Minneapolis choked George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who subsequently died. His death was disturbingly reminiscent of the NYPD killing of Eric Garner in 2014.

3 June 2020

Going viral: Socialist comments and letters

The Covid-19 pandemic is a world social crisis which touches every aspect of life. The iniquities and failings of the capitalist system are being exposed

3 June 2020

Football in the time of coronavirus - reclaim our game!

Football played a part in spreading the pandemic. Northern Italy was the ground zero for coronavirus in Europe, and then Spain became the second most infected country after Italy.

8 June 2020

A socialist charter for young people

9 June 2020

Coronavirus pandemic news in brief

"There is no privatisation of the NHS on my watch", said serial bullshitter health secretary Matt Hancock in January

9 June 2020

Mass protests erupt

A sea of protesters, wave after wave, poured out of the stations, their accumulated anger bursting out.

10 June 2020

France: 20,000 rally against Paris's killer gendarmes

20,000 people rallied in Paris on 2 June to demand #JusticePourAdama, to fight against racism, and in solidarity with the movement in the United States.

10 June 2020

"We're going to fight racism and capitalism with socialism"

My name's Deji. I'm a member of the Socialist Party. And I'm here for the same reason as all of you lot.

10 June 2020

Oppose the Welsh government's reckless return to school plan

The Welsh government has announced a return to school for all students in Wales on 29 June. This must be opposed by all unions in Wales. No teacher, teaching assistant or school worker must be forced back

10 June 2020

Test-and-trace fiasco - the ringing of the cash till

Serco has been awarded a lucrative £45.8 million (possibly up to £90 million) test-and-trace contract with the National Health Service (NHS).

10 June 2020

Black and white youth rise up against racism - US protester speaks to the Socialist

At this stage, violence almost exclusively stems from the police. Despite these attacks, the movement has won incredible victories from the capitalist class in a couple of weeks that were almost unimaginable

10 June 2020

Capitalism = racism: "You fight capitalism with socialism"

The current Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is the biggest wave of protests against racism since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s

10 June 2020

Homerton Hospital - withdraw private contract

Homerton Hospital in north London has awarded its contract for cleaning, catering, portering and security back to private contractor ISS for another five years

10 June 2020

As a health worker, I had to march against racism

Like all health workers, coronavirus has dominated my life. We've been concerned to see people returning to crowded workplaces, beaches and beauty spots.

10 June 2020

Domestic violence murder

Another woman's life lost to domestic violence in Doncaster.

10 June 2020

Why we joined the Socialist Party

I come from a single-parent household where my mum worked two jobs to scrape by. I was a latchkey kid and I barely saw her.

10 June 2020

Roosevelt's New Deal programme - reforms to save capitalism

The present coronavirus crisis is tipping the USA into an economic depression which threatens the worst eco-nomic deprivation for Americans since the 1930s

10 June 2020

BAME coronavirus deaths - an indictment of capitalist inequality

Public Health England has recently published its long-awaited report into why death rates from Covid-19 are highest among BAME people

10 June 2020

Workers' union and campaign group fights Derby Rolls-Royce job cuts

Rolls-Royce announced the figures for proposed redundancies at 11 sites in the aerospace division on 3 June

10 June 2020

Socialists call for trade unions to join the fight

We raised a motion urging the union to state support for "the demonstrations that are being called across the UK, with suitable social distancing and other protective measures, including in Cardiff at the weekend, Belfast on Monday, and Glasgow and London on Wednesday

10 June 2020

Fight racism and class inequality. "Seize the time!"

Anti-racist protests are sweeping across the country and the world. A diverse and powerful movement, it feels stronger and more radical than we have seen for years.

10 June 2020

Black Lives Matter protests sweep country: How can the movement win?

Mass, united, working-class action and organisation, around a programme of anti-racism and anti-capitalism, to fight for socialism, is necessary.

10 June 2020

Readers' opinion: Things will never be the same

Do you have something to say? Send your news, views and criticism in no more than 150 words to editors@socialistparty.org.uk or Socialist Inbox, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT.

10 June 2020

Donate so we can raise our socialist message

We've printed tens of thousands of leaflets explaining our socialist response to the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police

10 June 2020

Debenhams: Workers made to pay for Covid-19 crisis

As a warning of the coming recession we are now entering, Debenhams went into administration in April last year, with 22 stores closing, and all but 39 of the remaining stores having rent reductions

10 June 2020

Non-essential retail to open - organising at work is essential

Johnson announced a wider opening of non-essential retail on 15 June.

10 June 2020

Tories backtrack in England - Stand firm for school safety

The NEU estimates that 44% of schools did not open further on 1 June

17 June 2020

Battle with BT management needed to win real pay rise

The telecoms executive of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), is recommending a pay increase of 1.5% for 2020

17 June 2020

Debenham's protests: Workers must not pay price of Covid-19

Supporters of the National Shop Stewards Network held protests outside Debenhams stores in Leeds, London, Plymouth and Southampton against the company's savage cuts to jobs and stores, as part of a day of action called by members of the retail workers union, Usdaw.

17 June 2020

Cumbria: Teachers, parents and socialists fight reckless school reopening

Socialist Party members in Cumbria have been active as teachers and parents in the campaign against the reckless attempt to prematurely reopen schools without safety guarantees

17 June 2020

Parents' protests against Welsh schools reopening

The quiet of a Swansea Covid-19 city centre was broken by the beeping and blaring of car horns.

17 June 2020

Youth without a future: fight for jobs and homes - fight for socialism!

Millions of working-class and young people are being made to shoulder the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic and a new economic crisis with their jobs, pay and futures

17 June 2020

Capitalism = inequality. Fight for socialism!

So Boris Johnson is going to set up yet another inquiry into racism and inequality. That's the last thing we need! It will end up in the bin along with all the others that have gone before it.

17 June 2020

Film: Da 5 Bloods - entertaining but politically constrained

Spike Lee's new film 'Da 5 Bloods', featuring four black American army veterans of the Vietnam War who meet up again in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City, has been released on Netflix just as racism and the class system that ferments it are in the forefront of the minds of millions of people

17 June 2020

Two-metre rule under 'review' - Another case of profit before safety

The Tories all sat in their posh homes behind computers now want to put our lives at risk through the relaxation of the two-metre rule

17 June 2020

The Socialist inbox

These young black footballers telling their truths - of mums struggling to make ends meet; of estates that feel like open prisons and the police beating you back in; of hunger, real hunger through the summer holidays, and a desperation to escape the cycle of poverty and deprivation.

17 June 2020

Scotland and coronavirus - a catalogue of government failure

The devastating impact of coronavirus in Scotland was underlined on 11 June when National Records of Scotland reported that 4,000 people had so far died from confirmed or suspected Covid-19.

17 June 2020

Why we joined the Socialist Party

I grew up in a stereotypical working-class background, where we didn't have the privilege to spend money frivolously, and usually judged each month by the pay cheque.

17 June 2020

Reform or revolt? How was the slave trade abolished?

The slave trade between the west coast of Africa and the Americas over a period of 300 to 400 years was probably one of the most barbaric periods of exploitation in history

17 June 2020

Three years on: No justice for Grenfell, no peace from BLM

Three years ago 72 people died in Grenfell Tower, in the richest borough of London, due to profit-over-safety seeking companies

17 June 2020

20 days. One town. Four domestic violence murders.

"We want deeds not words"

17 June 2020

Resist relaxation of Sunday trading laws

Since rumours emerged in the media about the government considering a one-year relaxation of Sunday trading regulations, the leadership of retail workers' union Usdaw has finally started moving into action

17 June 2020

Tears and anger over the treatment of the Windrush generation

'Sitting in Limbo' is a powerful and moving real-life drama. It shows the trauma of Anthony Bryan, a member of the Windrush generation, as he struggles against removal from Britain

17 June 2020

Fight for a socialist future!

More than £500 has been donated to the Socialist Party during Black Lives Matter protests around the country in the last few days

17 June 2020

Oppose racist symbols and the racist system

Cheers filled the air as the statue of slave-trader Colston in Bristol was pulled down

17 June 2020

Tories retreat on free school meals - the more we protest the more we can win

17 June 2020

Contact tracing fiasco: You can't believe a word the government tells us

17 June 2020

More youth protests take aim at capitalism

Tens of thousands joined a second week of Black Lives Matter protests across Britain.

17 June 2020

Which way forward for Black Lives Matter protests?

Boris Johnson's announcement of yet another review will give no confidence to protesters that their struggle is no longer needed.

18 June 2020

Ken Douglas

The Socialist Party collectively is grieving deeply the loss to cancer of our much-loved national treasurer, Ken Douglas

24 June 2020

Fully fund schools - stand firm on safety

Under pressure from their own failures to make sure schools are in a position to safely open more widely, the Tories have committed to providing £1 billion for schools next year

24 June 2020

Reading workers' movement responds to knife attack

A horrific knife attack took place in Forbury Gardens in Reading on 20 June, killing three people, reportedly LGBT+, and injuring others

24 June 2020

Call for an increase in PIP due to Covid-19

Disability Campaigners in Chesterfield have launched a campaign following our members' experiences on public transport (or lack of availability), and the increased costs this means if people travel at all

24 June 2020

Towards an anti-racist school curriculum

The Black Lives Matter movement has quite correctly posed the question of black history in our schools and public life

24 June 2020

Tories sinking in Wales but no enthusiasm for Welsh Labour

Mark Drakeford's Welsh Labour government has made much of the "four nations approach" to tackling the Covid-19 crisis, claiming to plot a different course to the Tory Westminster government

24 June 2020

South Africa: Building jobs and living wage campaign

On 17 June, hundreds of workers marched in Johannesburg, South Africa, demanding permanent jobs and a monthly living wage of R12,500 (£580).

24 June 2020

Fight back to stop Tories scrapping protections for children in care

The Tories have been using Covid-19 to attack safeguarding procedures in our frontline services

24 June 2020

News in brief

Cladding off now; failure app; Labour untogether; shopping scandal

24 June 2020

Them & us

It's one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us: update on the lockdown economy

24 June 2020

Over 30% of children living in poverty

Even before the pandemic, austerity policies had pushed an increasing number of families into poverty

24 June 2020

International aid: Johnson's pie in the sky

Boris Johnson has announced the merging of the Department for International Development into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

24 June 2020

Young people fighting back: Jobs and homes, not racism

What is the Socialist Party fighting for to improve things for young people?

24 June 2020

Workers need a 'new deal' - at least £12 an hour now!

The shop workers' union, Usdaw, recently launched its 'New Deal for Workers' campaign

24 June 2020

It's time to join the Socialist Party

New members explain why they have: Everyone I know has been hit by capitalist failures; we can only do so much alone

24 June 2020

A timely read about a pandemic that overwhelms society

Fiction: The Scarlet Plague: It's timely to read Jack London's short story about a virulent pandemic that sends human civilisation into the abyss

24 June 2020

The Socialist inbox

Do you have something to say? Letters to the Socialist's editors

24 June 2020

Fighting fund: help us smash our target!

Without money we could not put out socialist ideas on the recent mass protests

24 June 2020

Renationalisation of the probation service

The renationalisation of our probation service is a victory, but just the start of what's needed

24 June 2020

P&O: defend every job - nationalise the ferries

P&O Ferries wants to cut 734 jobs in Dover and 122 jobs in Hull after a severe downturn in demand

24 June 2020

Lifting the lockdown: workers must not pay the price

Who pulled society through the lockdown? The working class. Who suffered most from the lockdown? The working class. Who will pay the price as the lockdown eases? ...

24 June 2020

Lessons from the Black Panthers

The Black Panther Party marked the high point of the Civil Rights movement - what are the lessons for today?

24 June 2020

Selling the Socialist: we're back!

The Socialist newspaper was sold (with social distancing) in the past week...

24 June 2020

Victory for Royal Glamorgan A&E!

A 24-hour A&E department is to be retained at Royal Glamorgan Hospital

24 June 2020

Act now to cancel Covid crisis rents and debt

Private sector rents in England hit a record high as the country headed into lockdown

24 June 2020

Black Lives Matter protests: week three

Some of the local protests up and down the country.

24 June 2020

NSSN conference - 4th July

The National Shop Stewards Network Conference is always a vital forum for trade unionists

26 June 2020

Memorial funds for Ken Douglas and Mick Cotter

30 June 2020

A new movement for system change

Assessing the new upsurge in the #Black Lives Matter movement, Hannah Sell argues that fighting racism does mean a fight to replace capitalism with a new society, socialism.