Socialist Party, formerly Militant

SOCIALIST PARTY

Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Socialist issue 1011

26 September 2018

Militant was right - councils can fight cuts

PDF | Audio | 2018 Back issues


The Socialist issue 1011

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What we think

spotMilitant was right – councils can fight cuts

“Conference, we are in Liverpool where over 30 years ago the council stood up to Thatcher and said: better to break the law than break the poor”, said shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler at Labour Party conference

spotFight for a democratic, socialist Labour Party

Editorial of the Socialist issue 1011: As we go to press, the Labour Party conference is still taking place in Liverpool. The question is, has the conference made changes to the party that have equipped it to be fully capable of leading the fight against austerity?

spotFighting for socialism amid capitalist chaos

No-deal Brexit, establishment splits, threat of renewed downturn…: On 22 September, the Socialist Party’s national committee met to discuss the political situation in Britain, including the tasks facing the workers’ movement in this tumultuous period of capitalist crisis. Here, we carry edited extracts of the speech given by Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary, in opening the meeting.

Socialist Students

spotStudents and workers unite and fight

Socialist Students is campaigning for an autumn of resistance against Tory marketisation of our universities. For students, this has meant cuts to education services alongside rising tuition fees and massive debt.

spotFreshers fairs: socialist ideas chime with students

Socialist Students, along with Socialist Party members, have been engaging with students at this year’s freshers fairs on a wide range of issues – how to build a movement to scrap tuition fees; how to link up students and workers to bring down the Tories; as well as explaining our broader socialist ideas

News

spotPrivate firms and toothless regulator to blame for trains chaos – nationalise rail now!

Britain’s rail regulator admits it was asleep at the wheel in the run up to the May 2018 timetable change which resulted in chaos on vast swathes of Britain’s railways.

spotFight plans for A&E appointment system – fight to save our NHS

NHS England could introduce an “appointment system” in A&E departments as part of its proposed “NHS targets shake up”. This makes me very angry, but it is not with disbelief that I read this latest preposterous idea.

spotLabour civil war rages in Enfield

Following a no-confidence vote in Enfield North constituency Labour Party (CLP), right-wing MP Joan Ryan has responded with insults to members in the local press.

spotThem & Us

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

Workplace

spotWho wants driver-only operation?

Reader’s comment: If you take a cursory glance at the news these days, you will see problems on the railways – strikes, delays, timetable meltdown and so on.

spotHospitality workers coordinate historic strike

In a historic move, hospitality workers from McDonald’s, TGI Fridays and Wetherspoon are staging coordinated walkouts to highlight issues of low pay and insecure working.

spotStrike vote: college staff want a pay rise

College lecturers are being forced to the brink by unsustainable and oppressive workloads. A University and College Union (UCU) Wales survey on workload showed that members are working 50, 60 and 70-hour weeks, but only getting paid for 37. We are literally working two days for free.

spotCompulsory redundancies stopped at Leicester University

The threat of solid strike action has won a victory. The campaign by Leicester University and College Union (UCU) means the threat of compulsory redundancies is off the agenda for at least the next year.

spotSafety-critical airport workers continue strike

Safety-critical workers at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport are continuing their strike action against the real-terms pay cut their employer is trying to force on them.

spotGlasgow workers striking for equal pay

Socialist Party reports and campaigns

spotVictory for Sheffield Save Our NHS

On 20 September, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) agreed to keep the minor injuries unit, walk-in centre and eye centre in their present form for at least another two years. This was welcomed as a victory

spotResidents push back Barking estate landlords

At a recent residents’ meeting with the landlords of the Barking Riverside estate, they put a price on the major concessions we have wrung out of them in a bitter three-year campaign – £250,000.

spotBrilliant sales at Labour Party conference

Socialist Party North West region organiser Hugh Caffrey reports great sales of over 100 copies of the Socialist at, and around, Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week.

spotDirectors’ contempt for repressed workers

On 24 September members of Salford Socialist Party branch visited the headquarters of Wilkinson Star – the official UK distributor of Jasic products in the UK – to demand the directors put pressure on their counterparts in Shenzhen, China to end the repression of their employees

spotHuddersfield campaigners keep their powder dry

Hands Off HRI has called a public meeting to assess the recent announcements on the future of Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI).

International socialist news and analysis

spotTrump’s tariffs raise international tensions

US-China trade war: On 24 September, a further tranche of US tariffs on $200 billion of imported Chinese goods – nearly 6,000 products – was imposed by the Trump administration.

Opinion

spotPowerful defence of the welfare state

Non-fiction: Don’t Let My Past Be Your Future: Harry Leslie Smith, the World War Two veteran and welfare state campaigner, has crossed the supposed generational divide and issued a “call to arms” to young people to organise to change society.

spotThe Socialist inbox

Letters to the Socialist’s editors including the far-right, House of Fraser gift cards and pensions.

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