Archive for September 2011
2 September 2011
'Oppose physical force in schools' say YFJ and YFE
"This is apparently in response to the riots; but how will introducing the threat of violence into the classroom cut across the root causes of the riots?..."
2 September 2011
Scottish local government Unison calls for one-day strike on pensions
Scottish local government Unison conference has this afternoon supported a motion calling for a ballot and a one-day strike in the autumn on pensions...
3 September 2011
Tower Hamlets demonstration against the EDL
The English Defence League plans to march through Tower Hamlets on 3rd September - sowing racial division, writes Saturday 3rd September 2011.
5 September 2011
EDL kept out of Tower Hamlets by thousands protesting
The racist and divisive EDL rallied at Aldgate behind lines of police that separated them from anti-racist campaigners on Whitechapel Road
5 September 2011
Consequences of 9/11: a world turned upside down
9/11 attack
Ten years after the twin towers came crashing down in New York, Peter Taaffe assesses the changed world situation. In the aftermath of that terrorist attack, US imperialism unleashed mass slaughter in Afghanistan and Iraq.
6 September 2011
Health and Social Care Bill is "end of NHS"
"Any MP who votes for the Health and Social Care Bill next week is voting for the end of the NHS" said Christina McAnea, UNISON Head of Health on 4 September...
6 September 2011
PCS leader urges workers to join Sunday's NSSN lobby of the TUC
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka will be among the speakers at a rally organised by the National Shop Stewards Network on Sunday 11th September, calling on the TUC to lead the resistance to cuts by organising coordinated public sector action this autumn
7 September 2011
Mobilise the power of the working class
Mobilise the power of the working class
The trade union fightback against the Con-Dems' austerity agenda is underway. Half a million demonstrated in London in March; in June 750,000 civil servants, teachers and lecturers took coordinated strike...
7 September 2011
The British Medical Association (BMA) doctors' organisation has called for the government's destructive Health and Social Care Bill to be withdrawn or 'significantly amended'...
7 September 2011
Libya after Gaddafi - Independent workers' action needed
Almost every day there are warning signs of the dark shadows that Nato's intervention has thrown over the Libyan revolution, writes Robert Bechert, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
7 September 2011
Indian high commission protest over Tamil death sentences
'End the death penalty in India', was the slogan chanted by over 700 people outside the Indian high commission on 30 August, writes Manny Thain, Tamil Solidarity national secretary.
7 September 2011
Socialist Party contests Coventry ward: Ed Miliband plans to re-write the Labour Party's 93 year old founding principles and aims, suggesting that Tony Blair didn't go far enough 17 years ago when he attacked the party's 'clause IV', which had committed Labour to a programme of mass nationalisation, writes Lenny Shail.
7 September 2011
Reject health bill attacks on abortion
The last couple of weeks has seen to-ing and fro-ing from all wings of the political establishment over Nadine Dorries and Frank Field's amendment to the Health and Social Care bill, writes Sarah Wrack.
7 September 2011
Picket lines at police stations
Picket lines outside police stations - not a common sight! But police support staff in Nottinghamshire, members of Unison, recently held two one-day strikes protesting about redundancies...
7 September 2011
NSSN lobby of the TUC: On 11 September the National Shop Stewards Network is organising a lobby of the TUC, demanding they call a one-day public sector general strike...
7 September 2011
Since 31 August residents of 52 "unauthorised" plots at Dale Farm Travellers' site in Essex are under threat of forcible eviction, which Basildon council say will take place after 19 September, writes Dave Murray, Basildon Socialist Party.
7 September 2011
One in a million...fighting back!
I am one in a million, a million unemployed young people in the country at the moment. What does one million mean? A million is not a statistic - it is a million individual tragedies, writes Scott Jones.
7 September 2011
The number of NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) youth in the UK has risen to 18.4%. One year ago NEET figures were at 16.3%. It is no coincidence that the figure has risen sharply and steeply...
7 September 2011
The recent Socialist feature (issue 683) showed how the Con-Dems' attacks on benefits hit young people...
7 September 2011
Edinburgh University is the third university in Scotland to announce how much it will charge students from outside Scotland (Scottish students will continue to not pay fees) and has made itself the most expensive place in the UK to get a degree...
7 September 2011
New pamphlet - The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Socialist Party
Email info@socialistpartyscotland.org.uk to place your order or visit www.socialistpartyscotland.org.uk...
7 September 2011
Torture Inc.: Unearthed secret correspondence in Tripoli between the Gaddafi regime and western spy networks reveal how US, British and other governments collaborated with the Libyan dictator in the 'rendition' (ie kidnapping) and torture of alleged terrorist suspects...
7 September 2011
Scotland - Unison calls for pensions strike
Unison Social care workers on strike in Scotland, photo Duncan Brown
The mood among Unison members for strike action on being forced to pay more for a worse pension was driven home at the Scottish local government Unison conference on 2 September, writes a Glasgow Unison member.
7 September 2011
The riots, Clarke and the "broken penal system"
Glyn Travis and Joe Simpson, assistant secretaries of the prison workers’ union POA set out some of the key issues in prisons following the riots
7 September 2011
Youth Fight for Jobs :: March for Jobs :: Jarrow to London :: October 2011
75 years ago 200 unemployed men from Jarrow marched from their home in the North East to London to demand jobs and an end to their poverty conditions. Youth Fight for Jobs is marching their route again
7 September 2011
On 2 September Chris Bryant (Labour MP for Rhondda) was in Tonypandy. When I saw him I thought it was a perfect opportunity to confront him about the brutal cuts in the NHS, especially in mental health...
7 September 2011
Bristol marches against home care sell-off
'Main political cliques all support privatisation': "Thank you, you are bloody marvellous," ended Bob Taylor's emotional speech at a Bristol rally on Saturday 3 September against the selling off of home care in the city
7 September 2011
Book review: 'Them and Us' by former Observer editor Will Hutton, originally published in 2010, is now available in paperback. Bob Severn reviews the book...
7 September 2011
Socialist Party member Onay Kasab has been informed by the Unison leadership that his appeal against expulsion from the union has failed...
7 September 2011
Strike together to defend pensions
Newcastle: 30 June strike
If there is one phrase that should hang around this government like a concrete necklace, it is Tory chancellor George Osborne's "We're all in this together", writes Dave Nellist, Socialist Party councillor, Coventry.
7 September 2011
Construction workers determined to protect pay, terms and conditions
For the third week running a London construction site was besieged by hundreds of electricians protesting at the 'Big 8' construction companies' plans to withdraw from the national JIB agreement
7 September 2011
Mass workers' movement - the only way to make the super-rich pay
TUC demo in March
Editorial of the Socialist, issue 684 It is a sign of the bankrupt nature of modern capitalism and its political representatives that taxation of the rich is so low some of them are asking to pay more. Warren Buffett, in an act of self-flagellation, has demanded to pay more tax.
7 September 2011
Tory bribes to promote socially divisive 'Free Schools' agenda
Protest against Academies
Students in England and Wales returned to school this week. If Tory education secretary Michael Gove could give one piece of advice to them what would it be? asks James Kerr
8 September 2011
Striking journalists suspend action for talks
NUJ members at South Yorkshire Newspapers have returned to work after 55 days on strike
9 September 2011
Moves made towards public sector strike in November
Lobby the TUC this Sunday! Discussions are taking place in a number of trade unions – including Unison – that could result in a coordinated 3-4 million strong public sector strike of against pension cuts in November
12 September 2011
Carlisle Socialist Party: Film screening of 'Land and Freedom'
All are welcome to come to this screening of Ken Loach's film on the Spanish Civil War followed by a discussion and drinks, writes Club 35, Lowther St, Carlisle.
12 September 2011
200 jobs saved by PCS campaign
More than 200 UK jobs have been saved after a campaign by the Public and Commercial Services union forced government contractor Hewlett Packard to abandon plans to offshore work to India, writes PCS press release, 10.9.11:.
13 September 2011
13 September 2011
PCS president questions Ed Miliband over pension cuts
Janice Godrich, PCS national president, has quizzed Labour leader Ed Miliband from the floor of TUC congress over his refusal to support public sector workers taking action over cuts to their pensions...
13 September 2011
Support striking hospital workers in Berlin
Charité Facility Management (CFM) workers in Germany's capital Berlin started a strike on Monday 12th September. Their main demand is to win a collective bargaining agreement...
13 September 2011
We need a programme of action to fight back!
NSSN demo
Never before has it been more necessary for the trade unions and labour movement to combat the pessimism and hopelessness which pervades the capitalist media. Peter Taaffe outlines a positive, realistic programme against the abyss of mass unemployment and poverty which the capitalist system threatens.
13 September 2011
14 September 2011
10,000 marched against job cuts at Bombardier on Saturday 23 July in the biggest demonstration in Derby for decades, backed by the RMT and other trade unions, photo Paul Mattsson
Derby Socialist Party is continuing to campaign for the nationalisation of Bombardier. We say that the government should take Britain's last remaining train manufacturer into democratic public ownership...
14 September 2011
"I'm earning less now than when I started here 11 years ago!", was the stark reality facing striking printers at Wyndeham Impact (WI), a long established magazine printers in Basingstoke, writes Nick Chaffey.
14 September 2011
No to pay cuts in Carmarthenshire
At the beginning of September, Independent/Labour-led Carmarthenshire county council chief executive, bypassing union members' elected representatives, wrote to employees making them an individual offer on Single Status [job evaluation]...
14 September 2011
Greenwich: As we reported last week, Socialist Party member Onay Kasab (Kaz) has been expelled from Unison for allegedly encouraging Greenwich branch members to leave Unison and join Unite...
14 September 2011
How can the national rights of Palestinians be achieved?
Demonstration against the murder by Israeli commandos of civilian aid volunteers on aboard a ship attempting to bring aid to Gaza , photo Senan
UN vote on 'statehood': Palestinian representatives intend to ask the United Nations this month to recognise Palestine as a state in the Gaza strip and West Bank, writes Judy Beishon.
14 September 2011
Childcare costs push parents into hardship
Tory/Lib Dem claims to support families in Britain are looking increasingly threadbare as a recent study by Save the Children and the Daycare Trust shows...
14 September 2011
After minimal amendments, and in the face of continued public opposition, Andrew Lansley's Health and Social Care Bill has passed through its third and final reading in the House of Commons...
14 September 2011
Dark days: The combined effects of the capitalist recession, wage and benefit cuts, tax increases, job losses and other government austerity measures have hammered UK living standards...
14 September 2011
Low pay and the housing crisis
When you tell someone that you're claiming benefits you can be sure that, in many cases, they will initially picture the right-wing tabloid caricature of someone sat at home all day watching TV, writes Dominic Smith, Winchester.
14 September 2011
Youth must join pensions struggle
The government and their friends in the media will always try, as they did in June, to spread division between workers and service users during strike action...
14 September 2011
EMA cuts: doors close on our future
Without EMA payments I would not be able to go to college. I go to college so I can get a good job and have a better life, writes Jordan Nichols, Southampton.
14 September 2011
Cuts hit young people hard in Hastings
Hastings is the most deprived area in the south-east. With youth unemployment at 29% and rising, prospects for young people in the town look bleak, writes James Ellis, Hastings.
14 September 2011
Hundreds march against Dale Farm evictions
Stop constant evictions: hundreds march against Dale Farm evictions of travellers, 10 September 2011, photo Paul Mattsson
"In 100 years we've never had so much support," said Grattan Puxon of the Gypsy Council, addressing the hundreds of people who marched in opposition to the evictions at Dale Farm on Saturday 10 September, writes Dave Murray, Basildon Socialist Party.
14 September 2011
May Day protest case goes to Strasbourg
A Socialist Party member's case against the police tactic of 'kettling', containing protesters inside a police cordon, was taken to the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday 14 September...
14 September 2011
Surrey County Council has threatened that another nine libraries will close if their local communities do not step forward and take them over with volunteers, writes Paul Couchman, Surrey County Unison branch secretary (personal capacity).
14 September 2011
Pampered politicians plan education massacre... STOP THEM!
Young people march for a future: Youth Fight for Jobs and Socialist Students on the 29 January London demonstration against education cuts, photo Senan
"Education is a right not a privilege" chanted students during the mass protests against fees at the end of 2010, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Students national organiser.
14 September 2011
NHS pensions - Pay more, work longer and get less!
The message that public sector workers are getting from this government is that we are not valued and that our work is not worth paying for, writes an NHS worker.
14 September 2011
Book review: Matt Dobson reviews Power and Terror: Conflict, Hegemony, and the Rule of Force, by Noam Chomsky...
14 September 2011
Nationalise the banking system!
The only effective form of regulation is for the banks to be fully nationalised under democratic and popular control and run for the benefit of ordinary people, not the super-rich, writes Ken Douglas.
14 September 2011
Austerity policies strangle growth
Pawn shops are booming, pound stores are multiplying. But spending on services and retail (apart from food) has slowed to a standstill. Socialism Today editor Lynn Walsh looks at the effects of Con-Dem cuts on the UK economy.
14 September 2011
As Murdochgate scandal goes on - release Tommy Sheridan!
News International Newspapers Ltd, photo by Paul Mattsson
What do you give a billionaire media mogul whose company is mired in scandal, illegality and corruption? Why, a 47% pay rise, that's what
14 September 2011
National Shop Stewards Network demonstration to lobby the TUC 11 September 201, photo Paul Mattsson
For a one-day public sector strike: Enough is enough; the government's cuts programme is an unfolding disaster for working people and the middle classes, writes John McInally, national vice-president PCS, personal capacity.
14 September 2011
Bristol: Labour's short-lived valour
In May Bristol's ruling Liberal Democrats announced their intention to privatise the council's home care service, writes Robin Clapp.
15 September 2011
Protesting construction workers call for national strike ballot
Another protest against the attacks on national agreements in the electrical and mechanical construction sector took place on Wednesday 14 September at the Olympic site in East London
15 September 2011
Youth workers' strike and lobby in Witney, Oxfordshire
Even in the heart of his supposedly leafy constituency, "Disco Dave" is unable to escape the outcry caused by his government's policies
15 September 2011
Activist: Paper of Socialist Party members in Usdaw
This weekend I received the latest issue of Arena, the USDAW membership magazine. The editorial by the General Secretary, John Hannett, discusses the impact of the recent riots on shop workers.
16 September 2011
Expelled from Unison for effective anti-cuts leadership
Onay Kasab addresses 200 trade unionists, community campaigners and service users marched in Greenwich borough, south London, against the local council's brutal cuts package, photo Lorraine Dardis
"The appeals committee unanimously rejected your appeal". These were the words that ended my over 20 years of membership of Unison
16 September 2011
PCS strike threat wins increased pay for Fujitsu IT workers
A major pay deal which means an 11% increase for the lowest paid has been agreed for private sector IT staff on government contracts after the threat of strike action by the Public and Commercial Services union...
16 September 2011
Kazakhstan socialists under threat of imminent arrest
Two leading socialists in Kazakhstan, CWI members Ainur Kurmanov and Esenbek Ukteshbayev, as well as other leaders of the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan (formerly 'Kazakhstan 2012'), face the threat of imminent arrest and imprisonment
16 September 2011
Remploy workers "will not go gently" - or at all!
Remploy workers won't be bullied by the 'millionaires club' in the government into giving up the fight to save supported employment in the UK, writes Les Woodward
18 September 2011
Protest at Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham
Assemble 11am at Granville street (junction with Tennant street, Birmingham to move off at 12 noon. A post march rally will be held opposite Millennium point, writes Organised by the TUC.
20 September 2011
21 September 2011
Mirror's Kevin Maguire wishes luck to Jarrow marchers
In today's Daily Mirror, Kevin Maguire's section includes the following piece that wishes the "best of luck" to the Youth Fight for Jobs Jarrow marchers...
21 September 2011
Printers in Basingstoke defy bullying management
Printworkers at Wyndeham Impact are now in their twentieth week of industrial action, writes Gavin Marsh, Southampton Socialist Party.
21 September 2011
On Sunday 18 September around 800 protesters gathered in Birmingham to 'welcome' the Liberal Democrats for their annual conference, writes Tom Creek, Birmingham Socialist Party.
21 September 2011
Wales mine deaths: Privatisation comes under the spotlight
The tragic deaths of four coalminers at the Gleision Colliery in the Swansea Valley, South Wales, has inevitably raised the issue of safety in the mining industry...
21 September 2011
Private rail companies - a licence to print money
Tory transport secretary Philip Hammond recently described Britain's railways as a "rich man's toy"...
21 September 2011
Breadline USA: 'The rich get richer, the poor get poorer'; is perhaps an overused cliché, but, nevertheless, a phrase that accurately describes social conditions in the USA today...
21 September 2011
Jobs, homes and services, not racism
On Saturday 3 September, Youth Fight For Jobs participated in the counter-demonstration against the English Defence League's (EDL) plan to intimidate the community of Tower Hamlets, writes Matt Gordon, Bristol.
21 September 2011
University - pay more, receive less
I was pained to learn that I would be saddled with £20,000 worth of debt when I leave university, when previous generations had been able to study effectively for free, writes Alex Wortley, Bristol.
21 September 2011
Youth protest movement grows in Israel
On Saturday 3 September 430,000 Israeli youth and workers marched through the major cities of Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, as part of an ongoing youth-led protest and 'tent city' movement, writes William Andrews.
21 September 2011
Poplar 1921: 'Better to break the law than break the poor'
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the struggle of councillors in Poplar, east London, against government cuts, writes Pete Dickenson.
21 September 2011
Southampton council workers vote for more action
Southampton on 13 June, photo Paul Mattsson
"The bin workers have led the way, it's time we did some of it!", was the conclusion of the 100 care workers who turned out to discuss the dispute over pay cuts and job losses at Southampton city council, writes Nick Chaffey.
21 September 2011
Fujitsu strike: Unite members working at the Fujitsu IT company sites in Manchester, Salford and Crewe struck for 24 hours on 19 September against the company's breaking of agreements on pensions, pay and redeployment...
21 September 2011
We won't pay for the bankers' crisis!
On the National Shop Stewards Network lobby of TUC congress, 11 September 2011, photo Sujeeth
Strike back on 30 November: Once again recklessness is bringing the banks into even further disrepute. UBS bank has 'lost' $2.3 billion due to the antics of 'unauthorised' trader Kweku Adoboli, writes Tony Mulhearn, Liverpool Socialist Party.
21 September 2011
West London Socialist Party: The Middle East
Come to this meeting to discuss how the working class, youth and the poor in the Middle East can take the mass movements forward, writes West London Trades Union Club, Acton High Street, London W3 6ND.
21 September 2011
Aireborough & Horsforth Socialist Party: Libya after Gaddafi
21 September 2011
Kazakhstan: Dictatorial regime threatens socialist activists
Opposition in Kazakhstan
"Kurmanov to be jailed?" is the headline emblazoned on the front page of Vzglyad, a business newspaper in Kazakhstan
21 September 2011
Floods devastate Sindh: Crisis worsens, hundreds killed
Floods in Sindh, Pakistan, have killed more than 500 people, destroyed or damaged 1.5 million houses and swamped five million acres since late last month
21 September 2011
Bus workers force management climb-down
During August, National Express West Midlands (NXWM) bosses informed drivers at its nine garages that practically all local agreements would be torn up from 25 September
21 September 2011
Recognition won back - at a price
Unison has won back recognition by Plymouth city council but only after agreeing to a cuts package which inflicts devastating losses on some workers.
21 September 2011
Protesting electricians enter Farringdon site
As part of the ongoing demonstrations by construction workers, hundreds of electricians invaded the Farringdon CrossRail site in London. NB: Manchester & Tyneside reports added on 22.9.11
21 September 2011
Gloucestershire: Rage ignites against NHS privatisation
NHS: Big Business wants a US-style private health care system, photo by Paul Mattsson
Fury is exploding in Gloucestershire as anti-cuts groups are campaigning to stop the transfer of 4,000 NHS staff out of the NHS
21 September 2011
2011 Labour Party conference - a debate: Can Labour be reclaimed?
Labour councillors' conference lobbied by hundreds of angry trade unionists, photo Suzanne Beishon
The Socialist reproduces correspondence between one of its readers, Tim Hayward, and Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary, on the nature of the Labour Party today and how socialist ideas can be advanced
21 September 2011
Don't let the Con-Dems steal our future!
Not to Cuts: for a 24 hour general strike now! - Socilaist Party and Youth Fight for Jobs on demo, photo Paul Mattsson
Support the Jarrow march: You're damned if you do and damned if you don't! Whether you go the long way round through university, piling up the debt, or are forced to take the fast track to the dole queue
21 September 2011
30 November - the fight of all our lives
Lobby of TUC, photo Sujeeth
The Financial Times, by replicating the model of government borrowing used by the Office for Budget Responsibility, suggests the structural deficit in 2011-12 is £12 billion higher than thought, a rise of 25%
21 September 2011
Save Devon youth service: "time for young people to stand up"
An interview with Christi Kelly, organiser of 'Help Save Devon Youth Service'
21 September 2011
12th hour reprieve for Dale Farm
The tense stand-off between bailiffs and Dale Farm Travellers and their supporters gave way to jubilation as the High Court granted an injunction
22 September 2011
Huddersfield Socialist Party: UK Riots - How should socialists respond?
22 September 2011
Axe-man Swinney does Con-Dems' dirty work
New article on Socialist Party Scotland website on yesterday's budget cuts by the Scottish National Party (SNP)
26 September 2011
Sunday Mirror publicises next month's Jarrow March
The Sunday Mirror on 25th September carried a feature on the Jarrow March that is starting on Saturday 1st October, organised by Youth Fight for Jobs
26 September 2011
Stroud demo against private sharks killing the NHS
500 people marched against plans by NHS Gloucestershire to transfer 4,000 staff, 9 hospitals and many services to a Social Enterprise Trust or Community Interest Company
26 September 2011
Stop council imposing £2,500 charge for the Jarrow March
South Tyneside council wants to charge young, unemployed people £2,500 to re-enact the Jarrow March 75 years on...
27 September 2011
MEP to join Jarrow march against unemployment
Paul Murphy (Socialist Party MEP for Dublin) will be joining the Jarrow march for jobs for its final leg going into London at the end of its 330 mile journey from South Tyneside
28 September 2011
Pro-business Labour offers crumbs and promises cuts
Urgent: Build a new mass workers' party: Across Britain public sector trade unionists are preparing to go on strike on 30 November, in the biggest day of strike action since 1926...
28 September 2011
My impressions of the Work Programme
A year of countless hopeful, un-replied-to applications and a few disappointing interviews. My sense of dread in the jobcentre was even greater than usual with the prospect of the Work Programme...
28 September 2011
Today we are facing the same questions concerning jobs and living standards as they did 75 years ago, writes Dylan Hussey, college student, Hertfordshire.
28 September 2011
Why are you supporting the march?
Three-quarters of a century on, the young people recreating this famous march are sending an important message that our communities must never again be abandoned to pay for an economic crisis they did not cause, writes Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS civil servants union.
28 September 2011
PFI schemes - a national scandal
March to save the NHS 17 May 2011, photo Paul Mattsson
Stop the health service cutbacks!: Tory health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has said that 60 hospitals in 22 National Health Service (NHS) Trusts are facing severe financial difficulties and are making cutbacks because of rip-off payments owed under Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts...
28 September 2011
Dale Farm - call off the evictions of residents
Basildon council's attempts to evict 86 Traveller families from Dale Farm have been thrown into confusion by decisions of the high court, writes Dave Murray, Basildon.
28 September 2011
BAE jobs massacre: BAE Systems has announced that it intends to axe 3,000 manufacturing jobs in the UK. The main brunt of the job losses will hit plants in Brough, East Yorkshire, and at Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire...
28 September 2011
Scotland: SNP do the Con-Dems' dirty work
The Scottish National Party (SNP)-led Scottish government announced a range of savage cuts in their recent spending review statement...
28 September 2011
As debt crisis deepens... Greek workers and youth in revolt
Xekinhma, Greek section of CWI, on massive general strike in Greece on 15 June 2011, photo Stephan Kimmerle
Greece has recently experienced a barrage of strikes by different sections of the working class - involving transport workers, teachers, some council workers, taxi drivers, mental health workers and others - against the Pasok government's latest austerity measures...
28 September 2011
Construction workers strike to defend agreements
Construction workers protest at the Tyne tunnel site in North Tyneside, photo Elaine Brunskill
On 26 September around 400 electricians from the West Burton power station site in Nottinghamshire walked out on strike for the day, writes Alistair Tice.
28 September 2011
Hold tight!: Transport union RMT has protested at plans to train 60 volunteer drivers to drive rural buses on the Isle of Wight...
28 September 2011
1911 - Bermondsey women's uprising
Women workers striking against povety wages at Pink's in Bermondsey in 1911, photo by TUC library collections
A century ago, women in the trade unions numbered only a few thousand. Many working class women worked in the most appalling conditions in sweatshops and were outside the trade unions' ranks...
28 September 2011
Metal thefts - The hidden crime of capitalism
16-year old Ryan Woolams was electrocuted this July trying to steal copper cable from the disused Skelton Grange power station in Leeds, writes Paul Gerrard.
28 September 2011
Socialism 2011: A weekend of discussion and debate
Capitalism in crisis: fight for socialism: In August 2009, Christine Lagarde, ex-French finance minister, and now head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), predicted "a definitive exit from the crisis in the middle of 2010." Now the IMF, which has been instrumental in conducting the austerity war against the poor, is forced to relucta, writes Cédric Gérôme.
28 September 2011
Fight fees and cuts - join Socialist Students!
Lincoln: Lincoln University Socialist Students gained hundreds of signatures on the 'No to £9k' petition during freshers week, with lots of people interested in joining the society...
28 September 2011
As part of the Con-Dem coalition's 'austerity' programme under the guise of 'modernisation', Brixham Coastguard Station - along with eight others - faces closure, writes Sean Brogan, Exeter Socialist Party.
28 September 2011
Greenwich Unite takes fight to cuts councillors
Unite union members from across Greenwich took the fight against the cuts to the south London borough's council, writes Onay Kasab.
28 September 2011
Join the Jarrow marchers on their 330 mile journey!
Rallies and protests are taking place along the route
28 September 2011
Youth demand a future in Tottenham
Bankers are the real looters - Hackney - Tottenham demo after the riots, photo Paul Mattsson
An interview with a young person in Tottenham on the 'Give Our Kids A Future' demonstration
28 September 2011
The college I attended had a well thought out policy: 'In order to save as much money as possible, we will supply the bare minimum in textbooks, paper, pens, computers and transport', writes Jack Walker, Hull.
28 September 2011
Jarrow march - council puts high price on right to protest
As the final preparations are made for the Jarrow to London March for Jobs, starting on 1 October organisers face a massive threat to the right to protest
28 September 2011
Standing up for our pension rights
The Gloucestershire Echo recently ran a feature on the pros and cons of going on strike to defend pensions, Socialist Party member Rob Bishop put the position for the strikes, against the arguments of a local Tory MP
28 September 2011
£6,000 uni fees? An offer we can refuse!
Fighting fees - student demonstration in central London, photo Rob Sutton
Students starting university this year face many obstacles to getting the most out of their time in higher education
28 September 2011
Film review: Tinker tailor soldier spy
1973: London is drab, faded by economic decline. The optimism of the post-war boom is gone. The world is split into two opposed systems, the capitalist west and the planned economies of the east
28 September 2011
A Times Educational Supplement survey received massive publicity when it showed 49% of parents supporting corporal punishment in schools, writes Derek McMillan.
28 September 2011
Jarrow marchers win full retreat from council
South Tyneside council has backed down on its demand to the Jarrow march (against umemployment) to pay over £2,500 to exercise the right to demonstrate. The Guardian has carried articles on this two days running
28 September 2011
Mass strikes can kick out Con-Dems
Get ready for 30 November: On 30 November, two to three million public sector workers will be on strike to defend their pensions. More workers will be out than on the first day of the 1926 general strike, writes Rob Williams, chair, National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN).
28 September 2011
World economy in meltdown - we won't pay for capitalist crisis
Photo Paul Mattsson
In a recent address to the Canadian parliament, David Cameron bluntly said: "Growth in Europe is stalled. Growth in America has stalled. The effects of the Japanese earthquake, high oil and food prices have created a drag on growth. We're not quite staring down the barrel, but the pattern is clear".
28 September 2011
Salford says: Save Lancaster House!
Salford City Council intends to withdraw funding for Lancaster House - a training and resettlement centre which provides temporary accommodation for 38 single men - on 30 September 2011
28 September 2011
Construction electricians invade Kings Cross station
Hundreds of construction workers held an impromptu protest and rally on the main concourse at Kings Cross train station this morning
29 September 2011
Labour Party conference - No way forward given by 'reclaim Labour' speakers
‘Vote for us and nothing will change’! was the message of Labour's Ed Balls to the working class desperate for leadership. Two Socialist Party members report on the LRC fringe meeting and on watching the conference on TV
29 September 2011
PCS gives formal backing for strike on 30 November
Formal backing for more than a quarter of a million civil and public servants to join a public sector-wide strike on 30 November has put the Public and Commercial Services union on a "war footing"...
29 September 2011
The battle for Dale Farm and Travellers' rights
The attempt by the local council to forcibly evict Travellers from their land at Dale Farm in Essex has highlighted the issue of Gypsies' and Travellers' rights in the UK
30 September 2011
Cable Street 1936 - Workers drove back the fascists
The events known as the Battle of Cable Street are presently being commemorated, to mark their 75th anniversary
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27 Jan Nottingham Socialist Party: Kill the Bills - how do we make the anti-union laws unworkable?
28 Jan Bristol North Socialist Party: Public transport congestion. Where now?
29 Jan York Socialist Party: Financing the revolutionary party
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