Can you remember how many prime ministers we’ve had this year? How about your knowledge of the new ‘winter of discontent’? In the topsy turvy world of 2022 when the World Cup takes place in the winter, how much have you been paying attention to the pages of the Socialist? Let’s find out…
1. This year has seen hundreds of thousands of workers strike across multiple sectors, workplaces and unions. One particular strike in November was the biggest ever of its kind, what was it?
2. In another historic strike, BT and Royal Mail workers, who walked out several times, coordinated and struck together for the first time, what trade union are they both in?
3. At the start of the year, who was knighted, as the Socialist put it, “for services to the rich and powerful”?
4. Workers for which company in Sheffield spoke to the Socialist about their dispute, “the longest gig economy strike”?
5. In which by-election did Socialist Party member and former Militant Labour MP Dave Nellist stand for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition on 3 March?
6. Scaffs from which town marked 100 days of strike action with a mass protest in February?
7. An article marking the fiftieth anniversary of which 1972 miners’ strike event, written by Socialist Party member and participant Bill Mullins, was carried in a February issue of the Socialist?
8. Which Premier League football club was forced to change hands because of the Ukraine war?
9. On the front page of the Socialist we called for the nationalisation of which company that faced protests following its sacking of its workers by Zoom at the drop of a hat?
10. The main left candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won how much of the vote in the first round of this year’s French presidential election?
11. After a long-running dispute, Coventry bin workers defeated the city’s strike-breaking Labour council, winning a significant pay rise and the reinstatement of victimised reps. How long were they on strike for?
12. Which big disaster film reviewed in the Socialist this year struck a chord by attacking “the billionaire-owned media and big corporations”?
13. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition stood more widely than ever before in which UK nation during the local elections in May?
14. The topplers of which statue were cleared by a jury in January?
15. A mass movement in which country sent the president fleeing while protesters swam in his swimming pool?
16. Which TV series, reviewed by Socialist Party members from that community, told the story of murdered striking Notts miner Keith Frogson?
17. The death of who triggered the current revolutionary youth movement in Iran?
18. What has “become a stage for fans, players and pundits alike to highlight the various inequalities and prejudices fostered by capitalism”?
19. Workers at which giant capitalist company walked out in “dramatic wildcat action”?
20. The Socialist Party launched a new what on 1 March?
21. NHS workers are set to strike this Christmas. Which NHS workers walked out earlier in the year and won a pay rise and an end to their outsourced service?
22. Which unlikely group of workers took historic strike action starting in the summer?
23. October marked 30 years since the launch of which organisation that played a leading role in the battles against the far-right British National Party (BNP) in the 1990s?
24. Which former Soviet leader was described in the Socialist as “the gateman for the capitalist counterrevolution in the former Soviet Union” following his death in September?
25. Which country was the “hypocritical and repressive host” of the COP27 climate conference?
26. Tory Liz Truss was prime minister for how many days?
Answers
1. 70,000 uni workers walked out in the “biggest ever university strikes” over pay, pensions and casualisation
2. The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU)
3. Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair
4. JustEat takeaway food delivery drivers who walked out against a pay cut
5. Erdington in Birmingham. Dave came third with 360 votes
6. Scaffs working for Actavo at British Steel in Scunthorpe
7. The Battle of Saltley Gate in Birmingham
8. Chelsea. Russian owner Roman Abramovich was forced to sell up because of sanctions
9. P&O ferries
10. 21%, coming within 2% of making the second round, showing the possibility of building a new mass party to fight for socialist policies
11. 27 weeks
12. Don’t Look Up
13. Wales
14. The statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, which was toppled during the Black Lives Matter protests
15. Sri Lanka
16. Sherwood, reviewed by Wendy and Stephen Minney, Nottingham Socialist Party members and striking family during the 1984-85 miners’ strike
17. Mahsa Amini
18. The football World Cup taking place in Qatar
19. Amazon workers walked out at several sites over pay
20. A new website
21. NHS workers, porters, cleaners, catering staff and security in Unite, employed across five east London hospitals in the Barts NHS Trust – the largest in the country
22. Barristers walked out over pay
23. Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE)
24. Mikhail Gorbachev
25. COP27 was held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt
26. 50, making her the shortest reigning PM in history! New monarch Charles – who has yet to be crowned – has already had two prime ministers on his watch… what will 2023 bring?
