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International socialist news and analysis
Brazil: Fall of Rousseff unleashes offensive against working class
The impeachment process and historic crisis of the Workers’ Party: Brazil is experiencing its deepest economic and social crisis. Alongside this, a massive political crisis has arisen.
Venezuela – on the brink of collapse?
Counter-revolution gaining ground: Venezuela is being battered by a social and economic catastrophe. Reactionary right-wing forces have capitalised on the situation as support for president Maduro’s government has crashed.
Austria – Hofer defeated, but far-right threat remains
Build a fighting left alternative: On 22 May in the run-off second round election for Austria’s presidency, Alexander Van der Bellen from the Green Party narrowly defeated Norbert Hofer, the candidate of the far-right Freedom Party. The margin was a mere 31,026 votes.
Mass protests against regime take on Kazakhstan cops
Hundreds and thousands of people – young and old – set out to join countrywide protests on 21 May against Kazakhstan’s vicious Nazarbayev regime. They were met with an enormous police operation to prevent them reaching the squares for the demonstrations. But, “the people have awoken!” as one campaigner put it.
Canada: fire devastates Fort McMurray
Capitalism equals environmental destruction: On the evening of 3 May the entire 94,000 population of Fort McMurray was ordered to leave as an out-of-control wildfire swept towards it.
Socialist Party news and analysis
Tories forced back in junior doctors’ dispute
Junior doctors are discussing the offer extracted from Jeremy Hunt. The very fact that the Tories were forced back into talks was a victory and was down to the incredible, tenacious strike action taken by 50,000 junior doctors.
‘Socialist case against the EU’ TUSC tour kicks off
We are for real internationalism. But that’s why we need a socialist Europe, not the ‘Employers’ Union’ that is the EU, with its austerity agenda. Tour locations and dates included.
It was recently revealed that the Boris Johnson administration buried a report on London’s air pollution problem. It showed that 433 primary schools in London are in places where levels of nitrogen oxides, gases that may cause acute respiratory illnesses, surpassed EU safety limits.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock receives lavish multiple pensions, while nearly a million UK pensioners languish in poverty.
What we saw: ‘I, Daniel Blake’ and Hunt/’Thick of It’ remix
Anti-cuts drama ‘I, Daniel Blake’ has won top gong at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile, another filmmaker has mashed up a Jeremy Hunt interview with political satire ‘The Tick of It’.
What we think
EU referendum can bring the Tories down
Editorial of the Socialist: Only an independent working class position can defeat the right. “As the debate on the EU referendum intensifies, so do the possibilities for a split in the Conservative Party.”
Workplace news and analysis
Link the strikes – come to the NSSN conference
Every week sees more workers taking action – whether it is against their private sector employer or increasingly against what they see is a government that is weak and divided. The question is how do we bring these struggles together, to make a breakthrough against the bosses’ offensive and the Tory cuts and their new anti-union laws?
PCS BIS staff strike against office closure
PCS members in the department of Business, Innovation and Skills took strike action to save their Sheffield office
Pennine Foods – Strikers persuade delivery lorries to turn away
Pickets sang “Where’s your veg gone, where’s your veg gone, far far away” after a driver refused to cross the picket
Train conductors strike to keep their role
A conductor provides a vital role on our railways. Passenger safety is paramount to them. The conductor ensures everyone is safely on the train. They play a vital role should the train be involved in an incident.
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles. Conductors strike, healthcare assistants strike.
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Fight to win: join the Socialists!
Where working class women and men defend their rights, it’s where you’ll find the Socialist Party. We bring solidarity and support – but the Socialist Party also aims to discuss a socialist strategy to end Tory austerity with campaigners.
We won’t move! Mass resistance can defeat the Tories’ housing act
The Tories’ Housing and Planning Bill is now an Act, to be implemented in April 2017. The Kill the Housing Bill campaign set up last autumn is now renamed Axe the Housing Act. Another national demo has been called for 18 June.
Leicester drives out Britain First
Having arrived unannounced in Leicester sometime around midday, Britain First, protected by a police cordon, were forced to abandon their stall and leave Leicester by mid-afternoon.
The far-right English Defence League (EDL) came to Coventry on 21 May. They came with the agenda of dividing communities by trying to scapegoat ethnic and religious minorities for the ills in society, trying to turn worker against worker. However this did not happen.
Campaigning for a people’s plan for Waltham Forest
“These plans are an onslaught. We all agree that we need housing – but what kind of housing? We also want an expansion in amenities, schools, health, parking, in a planned, sensible coordinated fashion. We want the cuts to stop.”
150 bikers blocked the road outside Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, revving their engines in time with the chants of a further 400 protesters on 21 May. They were there for the sixth week in a row since the trust’s announcement it would close the A&E department.
Socialist readers’ comments and obituaries
Greece crisis – please vote Leave
Featured letter – EU referendum: Last summer my mum was on holiday on a Greek island and had the misfortune to be bitten by a poisonous snake. The doctors she spoke to hadn’t been paid in six weeks. Patients relied on friends and family to wash, change and toilet them, as well as bring them water.
Letters to the editors: EU, Paul Mason and nukes, Leicester FC, board game, Michelle Bridge 1973-2016.
Obituary: Jenny O’Sullivan (1988-2016)
Jennifer O’Sullivan died unexpectedly on 15 May at the age of 28. Jenny was a former member of the Socialist Party in Dudley and east London, active in a number of our campaigns.