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Socialist Party news and analysis
The Queen’s Speech. A medieval pantomime of costumed caricatures like Black Rod, the royals and ‘Rouge Dragon Pursuivant’. A fitting opening for the pantomime politics of the main parties. Fitting also for the medieval savagery they have in store for the working class
‘Council of war’ needed for fight against cuts
“Don’t despair, organise!” has been the message of many union activists since the Tory victory was confirmed on 8 May
Are falling prices good for us?
Things are officially getting cheaper! Figures released last week show prices fell in the UK in April. Negative inflation hasn’t happened in over 50 years
NHS trusts heading for bankruptcy
Privatisation wrecking hospitals: The NHS funding crisis continues to deepen with NHS trusts in England reporting a £822 million deficit for 2014-15
‘Spiderman’ and political lobbying
The Guardian newspaper recently won its ten year legal battle to publish the “black spider memos” – letters written in spidery writing between Prince Charles and government ministers under Tony Blair
Plymouth: Labour and Tories form grand cuts coalition
Labour has revealed how far it’s degenerated by agreeing to share power with the Conservatives in Plymouth’s hung council
International socialist news and analysis
A new chapter in Chile’s political crisis
Chile: mass demonstrations: Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of major Chilean cities this month. Demonstrators – mostly youth, but also workers and older people – insisted the government meet students’ demands for free
Greece: subordination to or rupture with austerity?
We are now in the fourth month of the Syriza-led government’s term. The result of so-called “negotiations” with the Troika – European Union (EU), European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund
Socialist Party youth and students
Tories threaten young people’s welfare, housing and education: Sitting in my first A-level economics lesson a year before US bank Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy my teacher said to us: “before you finish this course the economy will have crashed and there will be an economic crisis”
photo Paul Mattsson
Stop the privatisation of student loans!
No one was surprised to hear of the Tories’ plans to continue with their brutal austerity programme after winning a majority
Socialist Party workplace news
Fight cuts – defend workers’ rights Within a week of the general election class battle lines were already being drawn; an anti-austerity demonstration outside Downing Street and in Cardiff, an electric mass march of youth in Bristol, and a threatened national Network Rail strike
We need coordinated union action to beat the Tories, photo Paul Mattsson
PCS conference: coordinated action can stop the Tories
Determined Dundee porters ratchet up pressure
Ninewells and Royal Victoria hospital porters are eight weeks into an all-out strike which is set to become the longest running in Dundee since the Timex lock-out of 1993
Political fund threat changes Glasgow council’s tune
After nine weeks of all out strike action, Glasgow’s Labour council still refuses to resolve a dispute over pay with seventy homelessness caseworkers
National Rail strike threat results in new offer
Bromley council battle continues
Lewisham academies: Teaching unions NUT and NASUWT in Lewisham, south London have called further two-day strike action on 3-4 June
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Toon and TUSC slam ‘cash cow’ boss
Activists and football fans came together to protest against the billionaire owner of Newcastle United and Sports Direct on 25 April
Thirty newcomers boost London post-election meeting
Thirty new faces joined a crowd of around 100 in a packed room in London to hear the Socialist Party’s response to the general election
Peterborough occupiers protest at homelessness
Protesters in Peterborough have occupied Aqua House, formerly Environment Agency offices for the city council
Socialist history
VE Day: When ‘liberation’ meant socialism
Commemorations marking the 70th anniversary ‘victory in Europe’ (VE) day recently took place in Britain (and throughout the world) with establishment dignitaries saluting veteran service men and women who liberated Europe from the clutches of fascism
French resistance fighters liberated Paris from Nazi occupation
Readers’ comments
Tories have nothing in common with blue collar workers
As a ‘blue collar factory worker’ I won’t be fooled by David Cameron’s mantra that his new cabinet stands as the “real party for working people”
Working class people’s real aspirations
The Socialist Party believes Labour lost the election fundamentally because it fails to represent working class people. But a queue of Labour Party leadership have claimed that the party didn’t appeal to the “aspirational”