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Protest and strike to save our NHS

East Mids heart unit under threat: Glenfield congenital heart centre in Leicester saves children’s lives. No wonder there is so much anger at NHS England’s threat to stop children’s heart surgery there. It is the only place in the whole of the East Midlands that carries out these operations.

Health campaigners announce national NHS demo

The date is set! The national steering committee of Health Campaigns Together has called a national demo under the banner ‘It’s our NHS’ for 18 March 2017. In response to the growing crisis in the health service and shrinking budgets, campaigners have decided to put out the call.

Hundreds march and rally to defend Tyneside hospital

Up to 500 people marched and rallied to stop the threatened downgrading of South Tyneside hospital. As we marched through South Shields, bystanders clapped to show their appreciation of the campaign.

‘Jungle’ camp destruction is no solution

Defend the right to asylum: The French authorities have started the eviction and demolition of the ‘Jungle’ camp in Calais.

Welsh budget: Labour government makes Tory cuts

The Welsh government’s budget continues Welsh Labour’s policy of meekly passing on the Tories’ public service cuts. It inflicts them on some of the most deprived communities in western Europe.

Academies mired in debt and corruption

Fight for publicly run schooling: The new Tory government under Theresa May will continue converting state schools to ‘academy’ status and setting up new ‘free schools’.

Homeless sleeping rough: councils must build housing

Homeless charity St Mungo’s has released a report detailing that many of its clients had been advised by councils to sleep rough before they could access services.

Four in five self-employed workers living in poverty

Almost 80% of self-employed workers are living in poverty, according to Tax Research UK.

Readmit expelled socialists

More than 60 socialists, with over 800 years of Labour Party membership between them, have signed a letter calling for their re-admittance to the Labour Party.

Wallasey whitewash must be condemned

Continued CLP suspension requires labour movement response: Wirral Socialist Party totally condemns the continued suspension of Wallasey Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and the whitewash of a so-called investigation into alleged homophobic abuse, bullying and intimidation in Wallasey.

Battle in Leeds council over care home closure

The Green, in Seacroft, is among a number of council care homes faced with the threat of closure as a result of Leeds City Council’s programme of cuts. The Green provides vital specialist support to sufferers of dementia.

Jarrow March: an inspiring show of solidarity between workers and youth

Five years on from the March for Jobs: Eighty years ago, 200 unemployed workers from Jarrow in the north east of England set off from home, marching 300 miles to London to deliver a petition. In 2011, to mark its 75th anniversary, Youth Fight for Jobs followed in the footsteps of this Jarrow Crusade.

Teaching assistant pledges ongoing fight against pay cuts

Durham City Council is proposing to sack 2,700 teaching assistants and then rehire them on 23% less pay. At an event in Durham City centre, which was to raise awareness of the attack on them, teaching assistant Lisa Turnbull talked to the Socialist.

A day in the life of a midwife

“Midwives really are expected to look after 15 women plus their babies”: The Royal College of Midwives recently published a survey that highlighted why a growing number of midwives were choosing to leave the profession.

Striking Sheffield bin workers picket scabs

About 50 bin workers and supporters protested on 22 October against management’s use of scab drivers and loaders to undermine the GMB union’s industrial action.

Crossrail sparks get organised

Hundreds of construction electricians crowded into the main conference room at Unite’s national headquarters on 19 October to hammer out an action plan on the massive Crossrail project – the biggest publicly-financed scheme in Western Europe.

Unison higher education seminar points no way forward over pay

The Unison higher education sector seminar took place in Brighton 20-22 October. The key issue for union members was the decision by the service group executive (SGE), by the narrowest of margins, not to call strike action over the 2016 pay claim, despite the fact that 55% of those voting were in favour.

Housing campaigners meet to plan resistance to the Housing Act

The new housing act will destroy social housing and smash up working class communities while doing nothing to help the desperate housing crisis if fully implemented. Over two hundred people attended the Axe the Housing Act ‘summit’ on 22 October to discuss how to fight back.

Why I joined the Socialist Party: “I really can’t wait for Socialism 2016”

I’m a new Socialist Party member, joining in July of this year, but I started attending Worcestershire Socialist Party weekly branch meetings in May.

“We are all Daniel Blake!”

The new Ken Loach film “I, Daniel Blake” premiered at a cinema at Leicester Square, London, on 18 October. The film is about the hard life the main character, Daniel Blake, faces when he needs to access the benefit system after his health deteriorates.

US presidential election: The disastrous failure of ‘lesser evilism’

According to one opinion poll, 25% of young Americans would prefer a meteor to destroy Earth than see Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the White House! As Patrick Ayers and Ty Moore of Socialist Alternative (US co-thinkers of the Socialist Party) argue, if ever there was a case for a new political party to represent the 99% then this presidential election is it.

Ireland: Jobstown protester found guilty

Attack on democratic rights must be resisted: In an outrageous decision, a 17 year-old student who took part in a peaceful anti-water charges sit-down protest in November 2014 has been found guilty of falsely imprisoning the then Tanaiste (deputy prime minister) and leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton.

Book review: Fighting racism in football

Non-fiction: Pitch Black: Raph Parkinson’s letter in the Socialist issue 920 on racism in football highlights an issue which has sadly been long present in the game. A recent book by Emy Onuora – ‘Pitch Black: the story of black British footballers’ – looks at the history of racism in football, and the effect this has had on the footballers themselves.

TV: No Place to Call Home

“We’re all three pay cheques away from being homeless”: “We can’t facilitate” the “wellbeing of the most vulnerable,” says Barking and Dagenham council leader Daren Rodwell. This was a frank admission to ‘No Place to Call Home’, the BBC’s distressing account of homelessness in the east London borough.

Socialist inbox

Letters to the Socialist’s editors including the Ched Evans case, Marmite brexit, NHS ‘savings’ and homelessness.