Disgracefully the chief executive of the Health Federation, Mike Farrar, has declared that the public must accept 'the closure of many hospital units and live healthier lives if they want the NHS to survive'!
But the 2013 'State of the Nation' poll found huge support for the NHS and 72% agreed that: "we must do everything we can to maintain it". Never before has this support been so needed. The Con-Dems' attacks so far include 5,000 nurses' jobs axed, a 4% cut in the money hospitals will receive for treatment in 2013 and plans for hospital closures.
But both health workers and the public reject this. The strike by Unison members in the Mid-Yorkshire Hospital Trust against 'down-banding' pay cuts is an inspiring example. Branch secretary Adrian O'Malley pointed out that: "workers will support action to defend the NHS when a lead is given. We've recruited 200 new union members which shows what can be done".
A massive campaign in Lewisham, south London, is fighting threats to the local hospital. After a very successful protest march in November, another demonstration is planned for 26 January.
Health axe-man Matthew Kershaw recommended to Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt that the South London Healthcare NHS Trust should be broken up. Some services, he said, would carry on under new administration, others would perish. He asked Hunt to order the closure of Lewisham hospital's A&E department, used by 125,000 people a year.
Kershaw added an extra insult in his report by insisting that Lewisham's maternity unit should become a midwife-led 'birthing unit' ie one with no obstetricians or paediatricians. This is fine if there are likely to be no complications in labour. But more than half of the 4,400 pregnant women who use Lewisham hospital are classed as at 'high risk' of complications.
And as with the A&E closure, neighbouring hospitals will come under increasing pressure. Both Kings College and Queen Elizabeth hospitals have recently been diverting ambulances carrying women on the verge of giving birth because local cutbacks mean they cannot cope.
The cuts measures would lose the hospital £195 million by 2015-16. All in order to safeguard the huge investments and profits of the private PFI firms whose greed caused the Trust's bankruptcy in the first place.
With a battle bus touring the region, door-to-door leafleting and leaflets aimed at fans of local football teams, the community campaign has done good work.
Staff at Lewisham hospital and other units facing attacks want to get involved - even when their own union leaderships try to hold them back.
Socialist Party members are encouraging nurses and other NHS workers to press hard within their union branches for a workplace ballot for industrial action. Health workers would be widely supported if they went on strike to save our local hospital and the beleaguered NHS.
The coalition government's austerity programme is being increasingly exposed as a disaster for all but the business and banking elite.
Tory strategists now assume theirs will be a one-term government. That is one reason for their scorched earth policy.
They know that if Labour is elected, its embrace of austerity policies will mean a 'safe pair of hands'.
The civil service is again in the firing line. A leaked letter from the Cabinet Office says: "If the reforms are implemented, the Civil Service of the future will be smaller, flatter, more unified, more digital, more accountable for delivery, more capable, better managed, and ultimately - more fun to work for".
This management-speak gibberish cannot conceal the real intention - to cherry-pick what services can be squeezed for profit and discard the rest.
Everything will be up for attack according to ministers, including annual and flexi leave, sick pay, mobility, probation, discipline and grievance procedures, as well as travel and expenses and trade union facilities.
Ministers, such as multi-millionaire Francis Maude, recognise that PCS's unwavering policy of 'No Cuts No Privatisation' has been at the heart of organised resistance to their austerity policies.
PCS never accepted the 'need' for austerity and its campaign for an alternative based on tax justice, investment and job creation, derided as deficit denial, exposes the insanity of the market.
That is why the left-led PCS leadership is seen as public enemy No 1 by the government.
The Tories are wrong if they think cutting trade union facilities to below the statutory minimum will mean activists and members will let them destroy jobs, living standards and services. These attacks will breed a new, more determined generation of trade union activists.
These attacks, including attacks on the health service and other areas of the public sector, are only possible because of the abject crisis of leadership in the labour and trade union movement.
Ex-TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has retired. He's off to enjoy his huge pension and pay-off while the millions of members he once sold out have had their pension rights stolen.
After being pressured, not least by PCS, into 'leading' the magnificent two-million strong public sector strike on 30 November last year Barber, in virtual open collusion with Tory minister, Francis Maude, tried to strangle the fight-back by 'selling' the so-called Heads of Agreement. This was instead of organising further action.
At the TUC in September 2012, unions voted for joint coordinated action and also to discuss the "practicalities" of calling a general strike.
Yet Barber, perhaps with an eye to future ennoblement, on the morning of the debate told the media a general strike wouldn't happen.
PCS has always argued, most recently by president Janice Godrich at the TUC general council before Christmas, the most effective way to defeat the government's austerity policies is by joint coordinated action.
PCS will do everything in its power to build the widest possible coalition across public and private sector unions to oppose the austerity programme, including recently writing to all unions.
We are flexible about plans to coordinate industrial action. But we cannot wait while these attacks on terms and conditions go ahead.
PCS will not stand back and allow the government to steal members' rights and continue yet another year of pay cuts.
Some members are now facing a fourth year of pay freezes and living standards have fallen by an average of £1,200.
If this is not challenged then the government will think it can make it the norm for the next decade or more. This issue is the best opportunity to build coordinated action across the public sector.
PCS would far rather negotiate but will ballot members in February if the government refuses our request for talks.
The ballot will cover jobs, pensions, privatisation and all the issues covered by the previous national ballot.
But it will also focus sharply on the assault on terms and conditions and pay. The ballot would be for discontinuous strike action and discontinuous action short of a strike. If the Tories think PCS are contemplating "protest" action they can think again.
They should understand now we will respond by organising the most effective programme of disruptive action the civil service has ever seen.
A vital part of PCS's response will be ongoing and developing disputes in the departmental groups. These will be coordinated by the national union.
Major concessions, including increased staffing, have already been won by the union. PCS members in the Home Office, Driving Standards Agency and HMRC have all won concessions.
DWP members have also taken action and won significant gains in the contact centre dispute and the long-running Merseyside dispute.
DWP members have voted by 2:1 in opposition to compulsory redundancy notices being issued.
Members in other public sector unions whose members also face attacks, will wonder why their leaders are not organising action.
TUC unions have been asked to set out their views on the "practicalities" of a general strike, from the motion moved by the prison officer's union POA and passed by TUC Congress. The responses of some 'leaders' are entirely predictable - they won't be supporting a general strike anytime soon, how could they ever explain that to Ed Miliband and Ed Balls?
Every union in the TUC has a current or potential dispute with their employer on jobs, pay or other issues such as privatisation. All that is required is for the TUC to call these unions together and name the day.
Whatever the leadership of the TUC decides at its next meeting, the demand for a general strike will not go away.
Most serious trade union activists and members now know a 24-hour general strike is the most effective way to start to take on this government.
Trade union leaders who are serious about organising action in a "coalition of the willing" should discuss coordinating their ballots - as was done for the N30 pension strike last year.
Attacks are increasing. But the resistance against austerity is also. The cowardly role of right-wing trade union leaders will be sharply exposed.
PCS's fighting, campaigning leadership, along with its battle-hardened activists and members, will face the government attacks by fighting back. Campaigning works and action gets results.
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Education minister Michael Gove has declared that he is on a 'war footing' to drive through his attack on teachers' pay. We mustn't let him succeed.
Too many teachers already struggle to cope with relentless workload. Stress levels, resignations and demoralisation are rising.
If Gove gets away with his plans, teaching will become a truly horrendous profession for too many.
But Gove's plans can - and must - be beaten. If we organise effectively, and put in place a firm programme of national strike action, then we can force this government to retreat.
This is no time for teaching unions to hesitate or retreat. We mustn't repeat the delays of last year, when further pensions action was postponed - giving Gove the chance to step up his attacks. If unions give a clear lead, teachers will respond to their call to action.
In a National Union of Teachers (NUT) survey of its members, 84% said they were in favour of striking with the other main teaching union NASUWT, while 79% said they would be prepared to take to the picket line alone.
In December the NUT executive put off the decision on calling action until the next executive on 24 January.
But pressure has been building for national strike action at least to start on a date later this term.
There is now some chance that the NUT could call national strike action on 13 March, a day that coincides with a European TUC day of action. There is no definite majority yet on the executive to go ahead for action on that day - so there is lots of lobbying to do!
NUT reps briefings have been called in London, Cardiff and Liverpool on 19 January, as well as a regional council in Yorkshire.
Because of that, the meeting of the Local Associations National Action Network (LANAC) steering committee has been postponed.
LANAC was formed last year by a number of NUT associations to campaign for the union to organise action.
LANAC has said it will do everything it can to mobilise for the reps' briefings and organise to make sure that reps and associations are lobbying their executive members to call for action.
The NASUWT has regrettably made clear that they are not in favour of taking strike action this academic year.
The debate is, therefore, about whether the NUT takes action independently this term - or not. It is our job to go out and explain the seriousness of Gove's attacks, and turn the undoubted anger in schools into action.
The coalition government has confirmed its intention to introduce a new flat rate state pension from 2017.
From that year the basic state pension and the second state pension (formerly the state earnings-related pension) will be amalgamated.
It is claimed that the new flat-rate pension will be worth £144 a week at current prices.
The changes are being presented as a step forward for working women, whose pension entitlement under the present system is often reduced by time spent at home looking after children.
But the 2011 census showed that nowadays the proportion of mothers in employment is less than 1% different to that for non-mothers who go out to work.
The National Pensioners' Convention has cut through the government hype. In their analysis, "the current rules allow men and women to pay 30 years' worth of National Insurance contributions in order to get a full basic and second state pension of around £150 a week. The White Paper calls for them to pay for 35 years and get £144 a week."
Even according to the Daily Telegraph, "most workers will find they have to pay more National Insurance contributions and for longer before receiving any benefit under changes long trumpeted by the government as the greatest reform of state pensions in a century'.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that while some groups such as the self-employed will benefit in the short term, "the main effect in the long run will be to reduce pensions for the vast majority of people."
They also dispute the claim that low-paid workers will benefit. In 2017-18, most low earners (who haven't yet worked 30 years) would under the current system accrue £5.05 of additional weekly state pension rights for 'contributing' for one extra year.
In the proposed new system, these same people would accrue £4.11 of additional weekly state pension". As the IFS put it: "the key point is that £4.11 is less than £5.05."
So it's no surprise that the government is delaying the introduction of these long-promised plans until after the next general election.
Recently some commentators have expressed the view that this government is clamping down on benefits, public sector workers, etc, but somehow 'looking after the pensioners'. After these proposals that particular myth can be laid to rest.
Before the last election, David Cameron promised that he and the Tories would "protect the NHS". If it wasn't clear that this was a blatant lie two years ago, then the reality of what is happening to hospitals across the country has made it clear enough for all to see, with creeping privatisation, job cuts and pension cuts.
Cleaners and catering staff at the Royal Sussex County hospital in Brighton are feeling first hand the effects of Cameron's broken promise. Farmed out to private contractor Sodexo in December 2012, the company gave its new workforce an early Christmas present by announcing 96 redundancies less than two weeks into the contract!
On top of this, some of the workers who had their contracts transferred to Sodexo haven't received a full pay check since the move. Disgracefully, some of them have gone without pay completely over Christmas.
This is the brutal reality of NHS privatisation, and of the mantra of the Con-Dems and big business - putting profit before the interests of patients and workers.
The GMB union that organises amongst the workforce has taken action over this, bringing Sodexo into dispute and balloting the affected workers for strike action over the redundancies.
In the past week there has also been two solidarity demonstrations called by the GMB and local NHS campaigns.
One, a morning picket of the hospital, saw around 25 trade unionists, health workers and anti-cuts campaigners gather outside the hospital, while a lunchtime demo later in the week saw over 50 people gather with banners outside the hospital.
Labour Party supporters attended both these events, including former city councillor Simon Burgess. While all support for the campaign is welcome, it should be made clear that the last Labour government ramped up the scale of privatisation within the health service, paving the way for companies like Sodexo to take up contracts.
Not surprisingly Burgess, when interviewed, condemned Sodexo's treatment of the workforce but made no mention of taking the workers back in-house.
This should be the demand of any campaign aiming to defend local NHS services. Job cuts and unpaid wages are the direct result of NHS privatisation by this, and the last government.
It is clear that health workers need their own political voice that stands for their interests, and against all cuts and privatisation. Any campaign opposed to NHS privatisation needs to recognise this otherwise we will be fighting an endless battle against whatever party is in power.
At the second demo it was announced that Sodexo had agreed to meet with the GMB and would work towards paying back any unpaid wages.
However the redundancies are still going ahead and the results of the strike ballot should be known soon.
The actions of Sodexo show the true face of the government's NHS plans. What is needed is a united campaign of NHS workers, focused on the strength of the unions, but drawing in the mass support of the wider anti-cuts movement to fight on the slogans of: Kick out private contractors, reverse all cuts and renationalise all sectors of the NHS.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 10 January 2013 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
It may be freezing in Brixton Hill ward but our fighting message has been warmly received on the doorsteps and streets.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) campaign for the 17 January byelection has challenged the bankruptcy of the three main political parties. Lambeth Labour's 'cooperative' council has bent over backwards in cooperating with the Con-Dems' cuts!
There have been £30 million of cuts since 2010 with a further £89 million to cut by 2016. Child poverty, overcrowding and unemployment are endemic in the south London borough, but Labour cuts the youth service, gets rid of its housing stock and makes redundancies.
Labour no longer fights for working class communities. TUSC is building a serious, fighting alternative to all the careerists and suits that use the working class as a stepping stone to better things.
TUSC has exposed the scandal of 670 Lambeth families facing eviction due to housing benefit cuts, the 13% of households that are overcrowded and the decimation of a much needed youth service.
From the top of Brixton Hill you can see the City of London and Canary Wharf offices of the big businesses stashing £800 billion away as they can't find any profitable outlet for it.
Working class people made that money and we now have to build a movement and political representation that will get that money back and to reclaim our future.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) was set up in 2010 to enable trade unionists, anti-cuts campaigners and socialists to stand candidates against all the main parties.
It is supported by the RMT, leading members of trade unions such as the FBU, PCS, POA and NUT, and socialists including the Socialist Party.
Anti-cuts TUSC candidates (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) are contesting two byelections this month on the Wirral, Merseyside.
Two young workers, Greg North in Heswall and Mark Halligan in 'Leasowe and Moreton East', have pledged to fight local service closures and oppose the council's £109 million cuts plan.
Tory-Liberal cuts have been adopted wholesale by the Labour council, elected in May with strong support from the Unison union.
Since the election, Labour has begun a public smear campaign against Wirral council employees, while threatening massive job losses, cuts to redundancy terms, and other attacks. Services on the Wirral will be devastated and council tax benefit will be slashed.
Having agreed £109 million of cuts by 2016, the council intends to make £39 million of those in the next 14 months, and stash a total of over £20 million away in the bank in reserves!
The local authority unions have organised several hundreds-strong protests and mass meetings and are considering the question of industrial action.
Socialist Party members are urging Unison and Unite to lead from the front with industrial action in the fight to defend jobs, terms and conditions, and the services which their members provide.
TUSC candidates are standing in these early elections to provide an anti-cuts alternative. Mark Halligan is highlighting the threat to Leasowe and Moreton East children's centre, Greg North is emphasising opposition to closure of Heswall's day centre for people with learning and/or physical disabilities.
Both candidates will, if elected, use their council position to fight the local closures. Both will argue for an alternative council strategy using reserves and borrowing to safeguard services while mobilising a massive fight against the Tory-Liberal government. Both will demand that Labour councillors discard the axe and back this approach.
"I was born and have lived all my life on the Wirral. I work at a major factory within the Leasowe and Moreton East Ward.
"The election of the Con-Dem government made me realise I could no longer sit back and accept the endless cuts, so I joined the Socialist Party and became active in TUSC".
"After attending university, I returned to the Wirral to find job opportunities rare, and have worked since then as a taxi driver.
"I have a real understanding of the difficulties facing people, young people particularly, in finding meaningful employment with decent pay.
"I am disgusted at Labour making Tory cuts. On the council I will demand our day centre is saved and help staff and the community fight to save it.
"I will oppose Labour's cuts budget. I will argue that we should be demanding back the £109 million in funding which the Tory government have stolen from the Wirral".
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 7 January 2013 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
It is little over a month since Tory Chancellor George Osborne stood at the dispatch box to deliver his autumn budget statement.
He prefaced that vicious onslaught on the poorest - both in and out of work - with a claim that then, at best, looked foolish, and now looks ridiculous: "the British economy is healing".
Even in that speech he had to admit that the government's targets on deficit reduction would not be met and that cuts would continue until 2018.
But he claimed that measures taken by the Con-Dems, chiefly brutal austerity, meant the economy is "on track".
Hardly a day passes, however, without a slew of evidence in the news to the contrary. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research predicted the economy shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of 2012.
That followed 'growth' of 0.9% in 2011. Predictions for a triple-dip recession abound.
In September Prime Minister David Cameron called for a "radical pro-growth agenda" and promised government support to building projects.
But the latest Office for National Statistics figures for construction output in November showed that there was a 3.4% decline month on month and a 9.8% decline from the same period a year ago.
The Construction Products Association revised its forecast for 2013 construction output to a 2% decline.
The ONS also reported a slump in manufacturing and production. Manufacturing, which makes up 10% of the economy, contracted by 0.3% in November.
And now all three major credit ratings agencies have given official warnings that Britain can expect to be stripped of its AAA rating. Maintaining this was one of Osborne's main priorities.
The retail sector is shedding high street brands. Comet's announced closure in December was followed by Jessops and now HMV. This equates to an estimated 11,000 jobs.
The Wall Street Journal, commenting on Britain, reported that retail bosses expect more of the same in 2013. "Constrained shoppers remain under pressure from rising inflation and are searching out bargains and saving up for special occasions, which will make the already competitive landscape even more cut-throat, putting sales and profits under increasing pressure."
This is just a small sample of the figures which show that, as the Socialist has explained, British capitalism is in a blind alley.
The best it can hope for is to keep 'bumping along the bottom' as it has since the autumn of 2010.
And all the Con-Dems' measures, far from being a 'healing salve', massively exacerbate the situation.
What the WSJ calls "constrained shoppers" are working class and middle class people who face attacks on their living standards on all fronts - public sector pay freezes, in reality pay cuts, job cuts, low pay, benefit cuts and an insecure future.
Independent journalist Charlie Cooper had a taste of what some of the cuts have meant when he spent a week living on £175.
According to the Resolution Foundation, that is the average income of someone at the 'bottom end' of the UK's "low-to-middle income bracket", which comprises eleven million UK adults.
He found the experience left him "tired, irritable and, yes, hungry". It also gave him some insight into the poverty that exists in Britain and the precarious and depressing situation faced by those suffering it.
Cooper went to a food bank: "One woman who visited yesterday has two-month old twins. She was referred to the food bank by the children's centre she attends. When she arrived for the first time, she wasn't even wearing any shoes."
So while the Tories try to paint those suffering at the hands of their cold cruel cuts as 'skivers' and 'shirkers' the reality is that:
a) With 486,000 vacancies and more than two and a half million unemployed, including 900,000 who have been unemployed for more than a year, there are obviously fewer jobs than there are people searching for them;
b) There is a huge and growing problem of underemployment - 1.4 million work part-time because they can't find full-time jobs, and many full-time workers want more hours to achieve a living wage;
And c) those who have a job work some of the longest hours in Europe and contribute nearly two billion hours of unpaid overtime, the equivalent of a million full-time jobs according to the TUC.
It is unsurprising that, given these figures, the New Economic Foundation think tank has suggested that we all work fewer hours to create more jobs.
This idea, sharing out the work, has long been part of the Socialist Party's programme - with one important proviso - no loss of pay.
How would they pay for it? George Monbiot points out that there is no shortage of cash out there: "in 2012, the world's 100 richest people became $241 billion richer.
"They are now worth $1.9 trillion: just a little less than the entire output of the United Kingdom."
In Britain it's estimated that there is £800 billion sitting in the bank vaults of the big corporations as they see no easy profit in spending it. A one-off 50% levy on that idle wealth would go some way to covering the bill.
A government determined to act on behalf of ordinary people, ie not the super-rich, banksters and speculators as this lot does, could utilise such a policy immediately.
And it would make a huge impact towards easing the suffering of unemployment, borne particularly by young people.
It would also put money in 'constrained shoppers' pockets leading to greater spending and tax income.
Building a mass movement and a new mass workers' party that emblazons these policies on its banner, combined with a programme of nationalising utilities, banks and the commanding heights of the economy under democratic control and management of the working class, as well as expanding public services to meet all our needs, would be a good start to fighting for an alternative to blind-alley capitalism - a socialist society.
Turmoil over the issue of the flying of the union flag has now continued across Northern Ireland for six weeks.
The protests, involving the blocking of roads, petrol bombs and frequent rioting, began on 3 December when Belfast City Council voted to fly the flag over City Hall on 17 "designated days" rather than 365 days a year.
On some nights as many as 80 roads have been blocked. The police have used water cannon and fired potentially lethal plastic bullets and over 100 protesters have been arrested.
The worst violence has occurred in East Belfast where the local Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) appears to be acting independently of the central UVF leadership.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP - the largest unionist party) leader, and First Minister, Peter Robinson has stated that the protesters now only represent a "thin layer of unionism".
Robinson's party played an important role in kicking off the trouble when it and the second largest unionist party, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), together circulated 40,000 leaflets on the flag issue in the run-up to the City council vote.
This was despite the DUP and UUP on Lisburn City council quietly agreeing to the same arrangement for flying the union flag.
Now the leaders of the main unionist parties are trying to regain control of the situation. They are desperate to simultaneously play the card of sectarian division in order to maintain their vote, but also wish to play the role of responsible bourgeois politicians seeking to provide stability and social peace.
While the total numbers involved are relatively small there is no doubt that the issue has acted as a lightning rod for widespread dissatisfaction with the peace process which has built up over time in the Protestant community.
There is a sense that "everything is going in one direction", that is, Protestants are losing out to Catholics.
Progressive Unionist Party (the PUP is linked to the UVF) leader Billy Hutchinson has argued "Sinn Féin [the largest nationalist party] are acting outside the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement".
This is the reason that the PUP have given for reversing their previous conciliatory approach on the flags issue.
Extreme right winger Jim Allister of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) has condemned Sinn Féin's "aggressive cultural war".
Allister's party is small but this assertion rings true for many more Protestants than those who are prepared to directly support him.
At the same time many Catholics continue to believe that they are subject to sectarian discrimination.
They hold that they are dealt with more harshly by the police. They know that they are more likely to be poor and unemployed than Protestants.
The real problem is that the peace process, established by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, has failed to deliver for working class or young people whatever their background.
Under the structures established by the Good Friday Agreement it is assumed that everyone belongs to one or other of two mutually exclusive communities.
While all sections of the Protestant community have been affected by the flag issue it finds its sharpest expression in the most deprived working class areas.
The rioting and the road blocks are in part a distorted form of class anger directed at the unionist political establishment represented in the Assembly and on the Executive.
Under capitalism, all that is possible is a sharing out of political power and a sharing out of poverty and unemployment.
While the protests have been mainly organised through social media, a leadership has emerged over the past weeks and is attempting to assert itself.
On 3 January the "Ulster Peoples Forum" (UPF) was launched to represent this new layer. Willie Frazer was elected as its spokesman.
The UPF has adopted two key demands: "A return to direct rule because of the failing of our political representatives" and "the Union Flag to be flown from every council building across Northern Ireland".
Such strident demands are designed to put pressure on the mainstream unionist parties (the DUP and UUP) and to carve out a base for Frazer and his allies.
The UPF has counter-posed itself to the "Unionist Forum" convened by the DUP and UUP and which also involves the PUP and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA)-linked Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG).
The Unionist Forum is a transparent attempt by the DUP and UUP to gain control of what is a confused and fluid situation.
Many unionist politicians have argued that the mobilisation of sufficient numbers of Protestant voters will reverse the flag decision.
Some have taken this argument further and raised the question of unionist unity or a single unionist party. Such unity may amount to little more than the DUP swallowing the UUP almost whole.
The UVF-linked PUP has had a very high profile throughout the protests and could gain electorally as a result. It has reported an influx of new members.
The PUP is strident on sectarian issues and is shortly to announce a programme of "cultural counter-attack" and "re-Britification".
Simultaneously it constantly raises issues of class, pointing out that all working class people are suffering.
The Alliance party, the target of loyalist wrath after it used its casting vote in Belfast council to limit the flying of the union flag, had made marginal gains in recent elections.
However its victory in the East Belfast Westminster seat at the last general election was in large part accidental.
Thousands of Protestant working class voters lined up behind the Alliance Party in order to deliver a bloody nose to Peter Robinson who was mired in a corruption scandal at the time.
While most of the rioting has involved Protestant youths battling with the police there has been a number of clashes between Catholics and Protestants especially at the Short Strand/Lower Newtownards Road interface area.
Dissident republican paramilitaries have consciously intervened to stoke the fires of sectarian division "offering" to "defend" the Short Strand.
The SDLP and Sinn Féin encourage Catholics to view this issue as a simple one of "democracy", often employing strident and sectarian language.
In their view Belfast is now a majority Catholic or nationalist city and consequently the union flag should come down.
This reflects the argument that demographic change is inexorably moving in one direction. At a certain time a tipping point will be reached and the majority of the population of Northern Ireland will be Catholic. Sinn Féin essentially holds that Protestants should "accept reality" and "move on".
This line of argument displays a profound amnesia. For three generations Catholics in Northern Ireland refused to recognise the "democracy" of Northern Ireland.
In their view they had been coerced into an artificial statelet and they would not bow down and accept this situation.
They were perfectly justified in this stance. Why now do nationalist and republican politicians assume that Protestants must accept the formal democracy of losing their majority position in the North, despite their fears of what a capitalist united Ireland would mean for them?
The picture is in many ways bleak but this can change, and change quickly. The trade unions are best placed to bring together workers in the workplaces and communities to discuss contentious issues, as well as burning class questions, and where possible initiate cross community, anti-sectarian committees that can counter sectarianism, including sectarian attacks on either community, and offer a class alternative.
Against the current background of conflict sectarian politicians continue to impose cuts on all workers. Northern Ireland will be hit harder than anywhere else by cuts in welfare payments.
The abolition of the public sector body which is responsible for housing, the Housing Executive, was announced by DUP minister Nelson McCausland, on 9 January.
The Assembly continues its deliberations over the future of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) but clearly intends to make sharp cuts in this vital student allowance.
Large-scale working class opposition to the cuts has already been expressed on the streets and in the workplaces in 2010 and 2011. But since 30 November 2011 there has been a lull in the class struggle.
There is no doubt that the vast majority of workers and young people are opposed to the violence. There is a widespread sense of unease that Northern Ireland is being dragged back to its more violent past.
In each community there are many who are consciously anti-sectarian and who see clearly the role of the sectarian politicians.
The majority of both Catholics and Protestants however are divided on the issue of the union flag.
So far there has not been an opportunity for the working class as a whole to give voice to its opposition to the violence.
There has been two "peace" demonstrations in Belfast city centre each drawing crowds of about 1,000. The organisers have insisted that the protests are non-political.
Such an approach will not succeed in mobilising working class people from either community. The issues are very much political.
Twenty years ago the Socialist Party pioneered an approach on the issue of contentious parades which focused on recognising the rights of each community, but also on the over-arching right of the working class as a whole not to be dragged into conflict. A similar approach should be taken now.
However, if a political alternative is not built, then reactionary, sectarian groups can develop further and gain support.
A new mass party of the working class, which actively combats sectarianism, is urgently needed.
On 10 January the closure of seven public sector prisons was announced. Bullwood Hall, Camp Hill, Canterbury, Gloucester, Kingston, Shepton Mallet and Shrewsbury are due to close by 31 March.
This comes after the announcement in November of the privatisation of four more prisons. John Hancock from the executive of the prison officers' union POA spoke to the Socialist.
"To say that these prisons have got to close by 31 March isn't realistic. The staff are very upset and feel let down. But I believe it's privatisation by the back door.
The inmates from the prisons that they are closing are going to have to go somewhere else. Which means overcrowding the rest of the public prisons.
Then if those public prisons get a bad name, the Tories can say "private good, public bad - let's make more private prisons."
I think it's all being driven by privatisation by greedy politicians and their cronies.
It makes a mockery of rehabilitation. The best way of rehabilitating someone in our opinion is to have them in local prisons with staff who know the area. They can then help with things like housing, drug programmes, etc.
If they're in a big prison miles from anywhere they haven't got visits. And when they finish their sentence the staff have to say: "Just go back to where you've come from mate".
Local prisons like Shepton Mallet and Gloucester employ quite a lot of people. Shepton Mallet has 300 staff, 120 of whom are prison officers.
Closure will affect the local economy. There won't be compulsory redundancies among the prison officers but the civilian staff may not be protected. And there's no guarantee about further prison closures.
The POA will put as much pressure as we can on the government to reverse this decision. We fought the Maghaberry prison closure in Northern Ireland and that was reversed. But united action against austerity from all the trade unions is even more important.
And that's why we need to promote the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). I think standing as TUSC candidates could be one way we could get involved in the fight against cuts and privatisation."
"This act of vandalism destroys 105 years of work. I joined the Probation Service to help reduce crime and protect victims; breaking it up will increase risk, increase cost and ultimately increase crime".
Chas Berry, vice chair of the Probation Officers' union Napo in Kent was responding to the announcement that justice secretary Chris Grayling wants to privatise most work carried out by Napo members and transfer it to the private sector.
"No one is saying we couldn't do more to reduce re-offending, but Grayling's plans will transfer this complex task to multi-national corporations such as G4S, Serco and Sodexo whose main interest is making money.
G4S had to be bailed out at the Olympics but still took the money and they are about to be given another large pay cheque".
Staff at HMP Canterbury were also stunned to learn that the prison is to be one of seven to close across the country.
Kent Federation of Trades Union Councils, said it would offer whatever practical support it could to oppose these plans and help organise those fighting the government's austerity agenda.
Federation secretary Dave Semple said: "My own union, PCS, has members in the prisons and elsewhere in the criminal justice system.
"We are all facing similar attacks on our jobs and our conditions of service and we need to stand together against this attempt to dismantle our public services.
"The prison officers' union (POA) has called upon the TUC to organise coordinated strike action to defeat these attacks and it's about time we made this a reality."
Up to now, academy chains have not been allowed to declare a profit directly out of the school budget.
A recent article in the Independent reports that education minister Michael Gove wants to take the next step and allow for-profit schools.
The proponents of the plan argue, "For-profit state schools are an example of applying Conservative means - faith in markets and competition - to deliver progressive ends - better free education for children with parents who lack the resources to give their children the best education" and proposes "mixed-age classrooms, where children are taught by ability rather than age".
This is nothing to do with improving education; it's about profiteering at our expense and handing over public services to big business.
Of course, if you can also select the pupils that will cost you less to educate, then profit margins can be increased too.
70% of MPs believe they are underpaid. Already paid around £65,000 a year, Tory MPs are feeling most aggrieved, wanting a £31,000 increase.
For the millions of public sector workers employed by the government to provide vital services, and for those who have to rely on already measly benefits to get by, MPs feel a 1% increase is the absolute limit.
Apparently the reason they need such a wage hike is that the 'costs of the job' are not covered by the new expenses rules. So they want to be compensated for the, albeit limited, crack-down on expenses? Don't think so mates!
Goldman Sachs is thinking about delaying its next round of bankers' bonuses.
Why? Poor performance? Threat of triple dip recession? Fund public services instead?
Of course not. If the bonuses aren't paid until after 6 April, the poor bankers can take advantage of the 5% cut in top-earner income tax.
In the US, Goldman Sachs paid bonuses early on 31 December - hours before taxes on earnings over $400,000 were increased.
Every penny counts, eh?
A new report 'Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not' produced by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has found that between 30-50% of all food produced each year is wasted - between 1.2 and two billion tonnes.
The authors cite a number of reasons including inadequate investment in third world and developing nations in harvesting, transport and storage, but by far the largest identified is supermarkets rejecting crops of fruit and vegetables because they do not meet purely cosmetic standards for size and appearance. 30% of the UK's vegetable crop is not harvested for this reason.
This is at the same time that just shy of one billion people around the world are going hungry and the report expects the world population to grow by a further three billion by 2075. Time for a socialist plan of production and distribution.
A chain reaction re-shuffle following the resignation of Lord Strathclyde means a new junior education minister has been appointed.
And it sounds like John Nash will be among friends in the Tory Party establishment. He is a former chair of the British Venture Capital Association and has donated around £300,000 to the Conservative party in the last 30 years.
He clearly shares the Tories outlook for education too - Nash founded a charity which sponsors two academies in London.
In 2011 24% of people in Britain felt they were working class, now it's nearly 60%. No wonder really when a university education, home ownership and 9-5 job - all the things used to trick us into thinking we'd escaped to the middle class - are all out of reach for an increasing number of us. We're all plebs now!
NHS workers are being threatened with the break-up of the national pay and conditions agreement, Agenda for Change.
If this goes through, workers will face serious cuts in their pay and conditions. It is clearly an attempt to make more of the NHS ripe for privatisation, by allowing the big health firms to boost their profits by paying poor wages.
Any concessions on these proposals will just mean the employers coming back for more. But Unison's leaders are arguing that accepting some cuts will stop some health trusts opting out of the agreement.
This is a divisive and dangerous strategy. Unite and GMB, with fewer NHS members have come out against the proposals.
Unison is consulting health workers on this, finishing on 24 January. It is important to reject these proposals and demand nationally led industrial action against them.
The Fire Brigades Union has organised a demonstration against proposals by the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to close 12 fire stations, remove 18 fire engines and slash around 400 firefighter jobs. These cuts will obviously increase response times and jeopardise public safety.
The stations earmarked for closure are: Belsize, Bow, Clapham, Clerkenwell, Downham, Kingsland, Knightsbridge, New Cross, Silvertown, Southwark, Westminster and Woolwich.
The demonstration is on 21 January at 12 noon, outside the London Fire Brigade headquarters, 169 Union Street, London, SE1 0LL
Similar savage cuts to fire cover are also being proposed in the Plymouth area, where the chair of the firefighters' union FBU has said: "I'm not going to rule out strike action."
Home Secretary Theresa May has confirmed that the starting salary for new police officers in England and Wales will be cut by £4,000 to £19,000.
May is saying this will "modernise" pay and conditions and "increase local flexibility".
Many other public sector workers will recognise this type of 'modernisation' and 'flexibility'.
In 2007, London Underground (LU) inherited a contract with the Trainpeople agency from Silverlink. In breach of agreements with unions, these workers worked for five years in LU uniform while Trainpeople paid them as little as £6.75 an hour.
The Trainpeople staff joined RMT and organised for equal rights with permanent staff as stipulated in the 2010 Agency Worker Regulations.
Then, without warning, LU terminated its contract with the Trainpeople Agency a year early.
Now the RMT is campaigning for LU to reverse this injustice and employ the agency staff.
There have been protests all over London and the RMT is balloting all Trainpeople staff working for LU for strike action.
See www.shopstewards.net for more information.
They are a rip-off and a disgrace, what used to be a public service has been turned into a money-making racket for a gang of spivs and speculators from the private Train Operating Companies.
The taxpayer subsidy has tripled and more than a billion pounds a year is being robbed out of the railways in private profit. There is only one solution, full and total renationalisation.
It would turn our railways into a criminals' paradise and would compromise public and staff safety throughout the network.
Throwing the guards off the trains and axing station staff would be a disaster waiting to happen. McNulty, set up under a Labour government, is about cutting costs while ring-fencing profits.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that it's a reckless gamble that ignores the real reason why our railways cost more - fat dividends for rail company shareholders.
We now have nearly 70% public backing for full renationalisation since the West Coast Mainline fiasco.
It could be done easily, as each franchise comes up you take it back in house, just like what happened on East Coast.
You also stop the corporate welfare of bunging the train operators public subsidy when they fail to hit their profit targets. They would soon chuck the keys back.
Labour's position on the railways has been a disgrace and of course John Prescott played a major role in keeping the train companies on the gravy train when Labour was in office.
They are terrified of big business, but of course we support those pushing for them to side with the British people rather than the rip-off merchants on this issue.
You have to have one organisation, publicly owned and publicly accountable. That is the bottom line. Once you end the current fragmentation and profiteering, costs will fall and money sucked out of the system can be reinvested in infrastructure, fleet, operations and safe staffing levels.
It's dead simple. British Rail achieved just that and of course the world has moved on since it was smashed up but the principle remains the same. Frankly, if the EU don't like it then that's tough luck.
There is hardly any group of workers that hasn't taken a battering under this government. It's pure common sense to link the struggles rather than fighting our own corners.
It would scare the life out of the bunch of chancers who have seized power without any democratic mandate to sack workers, drive down wages and smash up public services.
Because it does what it says on the tin without any of the baggage and big-business agenda of the main political parties. Who else you gonna vote for?
Researchers Dr Ian Taylor and Dr Lynn Sloman, funded by the railway trade unions, interviewed a cross-section of people involved in the industry to produce Rebuilding Rail for the Transport for Quality of Life group.
The participants include such diverse views as those of Lord (Andrew) Adonis a former (unelected) Labour Transport Secretary, and Bob Crow and others from the RMT union, and leading figures from the Aslef union.
Any attempt to map out a future for the rail industry is to be welcomed but a comprehensive plan should involve the experience, expertise and proposals of the workforce themselves and the travelling public.
The authors claim that the current franchising system has failed all the major tests - failing society as a whole, the economy and the environment.
They say that £1 billion could be saved annually for the benefit of wider society, by removing the profit motive.
The cost of running the railway has increased since privatisation when Tory propaganda said costs would fall.
Fares have risen 50% in ten years, and are up to ten times higher than in other parts of Europe. A rail season ticket is a major item of expenditure.
Freight charges have played a part in discouraging more freight on rail. A senior accounting lecturer at the University of Essex, John Stittle, offers the following view: "The state is putting an awful lot in. If British Rail had the same funds now we would have a gold-plated state railway."
Clearly some increase in costs resulted from more services being run and catch-up expenditure on infrastructure which was neglected.
Even so, privatisation has seen virtually no increase in electrification which benefits reliability and the environment.
Costs, which the authors say would be cut out by public ownership, include Network Rail debt interest which would be less expensive to the government, fragmentation costs, profits for contractors at various levels, and rewards for investors.
Removing these costs could lead to an 18% reduction across all fares, rather than the 6% increase introduced this month.
It is estimated that 5% of Train Operating Companies' costs are caused by their interface with Network Rail, and that between 300 and 500 rail workers are engaged in delay attribution (identifying reasons for delays). The industry guide to delay attribution runs to 90 pages.
When maintenance work was brought back in-house by Network Rail, the savings were £264 million a year.
Renewals and enhancements to infrastructure are still outsourced with profits estimated at £200 million a year.
The small number of companies which own trains and lease them to the Train Operating Companies are hugely profitable, one estimate is that profits before tax and interest are 41% of income.
But the case against privatisation is not solely based on avoidable costs. There is effectively no competition in the privatised railway. There is hardly ever a real choice because one franchise has an effective monopoly.
Overcrowding is now a major concern for travellers with implications for safety. The rush hour becomes crush hour and the festive season a battle to find a seat.
Ticket purchasing can be very complex and the lack of cooperation between service providers means passengers can be stranded.
There is increasing pressure from firms to cut ticket office and station staff - more potential travellers are discouraged and turn to the car.
The promised electrification between Manchester and Liverpool will use quarter-century old trains, such is the lack of a viable UKbased train building capacity.
Section six of Rebuilding Rail is a discussion on the objections which supporters of privatisation make to proposals to remove the profit motive and franchise system. These include objections that privatisation means innovation, investment and efficiency, the cost of buying assets back, and the restrictions imposed by European Union law on public ownership.
While these issues can't be ignored, the main problem to be solved is to develop a movement with the political will to overcome these and other obstacles in the way of returning the rail industry to public ownership, and to introducing for the first time measures to ensure democratic control.
In the part of Rebuilding Rail dealing with "The Solution", the authors list many aims for the rail industry with which socialists would agree and have been campaigning for.
They point out that "the purpose of the railway system is primarily to provide a public service not private profit".
Public ownership is therefore the solution - including train operating, infrastructure, rolling stock, etc.
There needs to be a structure to provide integration, expanding capacity, more freight on rail and rail industry manufacturing.
Some other points have not kept pace with reality, eg "devolution to regions and counties" at a time when county councils are withdrawing from doing anything themselves and becoming commissioning bodies handing contracts to private firms.
Interesting figures are given relating to train and rail manufacturing and comparisons of the UK with other European countries, Japan and New Zealand, in terms of public/private ownership, and the rail share of the freight market.
The authors show that "a unified public sector train operator" along with direct public ownership of Network Rail, control of buying and building trains and increased use of freight on rail are necessary and beneficial.
Even so it is clear that every problem would not be solved overnight. The skills shortage in building trains, long-term plans for training enough drivers and guards, improving communications systems would need planning and investment over a period.
But bringing the rail industry into democratic public ownership is not in the end a legal or technical issue, the impression given by some of the arguments in this report. The real problem is political will.
Rail unions, passengers and the wider working class all support renationalisation. We need to build a mass workers' party that, unlike the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour, will carry out this measure.
British Coal and British Rail (Transfer Proposals) Act passed, allowing the break-up of British Rail
Railways Act to split British Rail into over 100 companies
Break-up and selling off of British Rail starts, including Railtack taking over the infrastructure
Railtrack privatised
New Labour government elected. Instead of reversing privatisation as promised, completes remaining privatisations
Southall rail crash. Train with faulty Automated Warning System passes two cautionary signals and a red signal to collide with freight train. Seven people killed
Paddington rail crash after train passes red signal. 31 people killed and 521 injured
Hatfield rail crash. Four killed after train goes over broken rail at 115 mph. Cracked rail was known about before the accident
Railtrack pays £137 million dividend to shareholders, paid for by subsidy from government
Railtrack goes into administration with £580 million cost of railway repairs
'Not for dividend' Network Rail takes over railway infrastructure
Labour conference backs Aslef union motion by two to one to renationalise train operating companies. Labour transport secretary Alistair Darling overrules policy
Grayrigg derailment, Cumbria. One killed and 88 injured after West Coast Main Line train goes over faulty points
East Coast Main Line renationalised following failure under private hands, leading to improved punctuality and customer satisfaction
Sir Roy McNulty's 'Rail Value for Money' report calls for drastic cuts while keeping same privatised rail structure
FirstGroup deal to take over West Coast Main Line franchise scrapped due to errors in bidding process, at a predicted state cost of £100 million. Virgin franchise extended for two years
Using electric trains is far more efficient and potentially far better for the environment.
Britain's first electric line was the City and South London railway in 1890, London's first deep tube, now part of London Underground's Northern Line.
Most of the Southern Railway network was electrified between 1923 and 1939. Yet today there are still large parts of the railway yet to be made electric.
A socialist plan for the rails would include electrifying the remaining lines. Of course, this needs to be linked to a socialist plan for renationalised utilities that would replace polluting energy such as coal and gas with renewable sources.
Train Operating Companies (TOCs) 'predict' their revenue - if a TOC takes less than 98% of that forecast, it gets bailed out by the taxpayer for 50% or 80% (depending on the size of the shortfall) of the missing takings.
In October, it was announced that the annual 'revenue support' totalled £451 million, a big chunk of the railways' annual £4 billion government subsidy (double the subsidy for British Rail).
British Rail wasn't perfect - though far better than the mess that exists today. When it was first formed, in 1948, many of the same bosses stayed in place. Regions competed with each other.
The Socialist Party calls for the railways to be renationalised under democratic working class control and management, using the experience and expertise of rail workers and passengers, to run trains as a public service and not a big business cash cow.
Well-rested Tory Business Minister, Matthew Hancock, who overslept and missed a TV debate with Youth Fight for Jobs supporter, Ian Pattison, has lied about how late he actually was. Hancock's "30 second" gaffe is more like Hancock's half hour.
Ian said: "I arrived at the ITV's breakfast show Daybreak, at 6am, while the Minister was still asleep in bed.
"Matthew Hancock has tried to claim he was only 30 seconds late, but this is not the case. As Daybreak presenter, Matt Barbet, has said, the Tory MP was much later than that.
"If the minister was a jobseeker, he could lose his benefits for up to three months for such an offcnce.
"Hancock's Traineeship scheme is the latest gimmick coming out of the Tories to disguise the fact they have failed to tackle the staggering problems of unemployment affecting young people.
"Hancock and his government are trying to shift the blame for youth unemployment away from them and their failed system, and onto the unemployed.
"Young people are not lazy. In fact, it is the Tories' cuts agenda that is worsening the economic crisis, slashing jobs in the public and private sector.
Research has revealed that it is harder to get an apprenticeship than get into Oxbridge. Hancock claims his Traineeships are a stepping stone to apprenticeships, but the whole point of an apprenticeship is to provide people with the training they need for a job. Hancock's scheme doesn't create any new jobs, or even promise any apprenticeships.
"Youth Fight for Jobs would still like to put the campaign's views on his traineeship scheme to the minister.
We'd like to challenge him to a debate on the scheme and the rest of his government's policies on youth unemployment; any time, any place, one that Matthew Hancock can wake up for. Hopefully he will turn up on time!"
See www.youthfightforjobs.com for the rest of the YFJ programme and how to get involved in the campaign
Today I was being taught the new 'conditionalities' of signing on. One of which was a commitment to remove 'scientific journalism' from one of my job goals if I remain unsuccessful two weeks from now.
I broke down in tears. I cried for ten minutes. My support worker was sympathetic. She asked why I was so upset and I told her that I started education late in life because I suffered domestic violence and it knocked the confidence out of me.
I then worked and studied for seven years to get GCSEs, A-levels and finally a BSc in neuroscience.
I explained that I did all of this and sacrificed so much time and even relationships so that I could earn more and have a job that was meaningful.
I would have liked to go on and read graduate medicine but £9,000 a year is too steep. I'm 30, black, living with my mother and unemployed in spite of six months of searching.
To be penalised any more for a lack of work for which I've spent seven years training fills me with despair. I feel powerless and aimless and muted.
I can't keep hoping someone else will speak or act on my behalf. My predicament has led me to the Socialist Party.
19 out of 36 children's centres and nurseries to shut. 14 out of 27 community libraries to be axed. Stocksbridge leisure centre to close.
Even Don Valley stadium, home to Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis, could be demolished! £10.5 million sliced from adult social care. 600 more jobs to go.
These are the headlines in Sheffield after the Labour council unveiled what the local paper called the "Deepest Council Cuts Ever".
In the new year, Labour council leader Julie Dore, along with Liverpool and Newcastle Labour councils, wrote to the Tory government warning that its savage cuts to local government funding would lead to "rising crime, increasing community tension and more problems on our streets ...
"We urge them to stop ... before the forces of social unrest start to smoulder". Yet they make these cuts!
Councillor Dore has also said that "continuing government spending cuts will spell the end of the council as we know it". And still they cut!
Announcing their budget, she said: "By the end of the decade, we will have nothing left other than statutory services and waste collection".
Well, waste collection is already privatised, now highways and street lighting have been sold off. And still they cut!
£50 million is to be slashed from the budget for 2013-14, on top of the £140 million already cut over the last two years.
Most of those "savings" came from voluntary redundancies and management and administration costs. But the council admits that this year two thirds will come from cuts in services and increased charges and fees.
So our Labour councillors wring their hands whilst spinelessly carrying out these Tory cuts which they admit will devastate the city.
Well the Labour group may have no backbone but local people are beginning to fight back.
The staff and parents from the children's centres threatened with closure are waging an inspiring campaign to save the Early Years service. 250 protested at the Town Hall in December and hundreds more will demonstrate on Saturday 19th January.
Daily petitioning has already secured the 5,000 signatures necessary to force a full council debate on 6th February.
This campaign has clearly got the council rattled. Last week, one Labour councillor started ranting and raving at a Socialist Party member who was helping campaigners petition outside the Town Hall.
How much more rattled will the council be if the trade unions ballot their members for strike action and the local community campaigns consider occupations of the centres to keep them open?
The Socialist Party is also proposing that the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) along with anti-cuts campaigns should stand candidates across the city in 2014 to challenge all the councillors that meekly carry out the Tory cuts. Now is the time to make a stand, or to use Julie Dore's own words "We'll have nothing left"!
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 14 January 2013 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
Workers at the Honda car plant in Swindon were shocked when the company announced 800 job losses on 10 January. This figure was widely reported in all the news channels and newspapers.
But I spoke to a worker at Honda who told me that the number of jobs due to be cut is in fact 1,100, divided equally between production line workers, administration staff, and workers on temporary contracts. This amounts to almost a third of the workforce.
Only last September the company announced that they were investing an extra £267 million in the Swindon plant and planning to increase the production of the new Civic from 183,000 a year in 2012 to 250,000 within three years.
A company spokesperson was quoted then as saying: "Sales in the UK are up 10%, so we are in a strong position. Europe is not quite so good, but is holding up".
In reality there has been a dramatic drop in sales of vehicles in Europe due to the recession, down from 17 million to 12 million.
In Southern Europe, where Honda have concentrated their efforts, the decline has been even more drastic.
The Unite union branch is meeting shortly to draw up a campaign against the job cuts. Stewards have already informed management that if the threatened redundancies aren't lifted, the workforce will be balloted for industrial action. In the meantime, 'normal' relations are suspended.
The National Shop Stewards Network and the Socialist Party have already given full support to the workforce in any action they decide to take to defend all jobs at Honda.
Rage, disbelief and above all a deep sense of solidarity were on display at a protest outside the Indian embassy on 7 January. Socialist Party members joined 500 women and men to support India's growing anti-rape movement.
Disgust at the horrific gang rape which sparked the movement was matched by an understanding of the endemic nature of this crime in Indian society. Placard slogans included 'don't blame the victims'.
Protesters were clearly looking for answers as to how we can campaign to stop rape and violence against women. Socialist Party members were proud to be able to point out the work of our sister party in India, New Socialist Alternative (www.socialism.in).
We raised the need to view rape within the context of the widespread sexism within societies based on class oppression, and to link it to the struggle against austerity and capitalism.
We also raised the need to fight sexism in Britain. The Socialist Students campaign Rape is No Joke, which takes up the issue of 'rape jokes' in comedy, drew widespread support with many signing up to get involved.
As the movement continues in India, young women and men across the world are drawing inspiration from this struggle as well as gaining confidence to fight sexism and oppression in all its forms.
The connection between the British Museum and the ideas of scientific socialism as formulated by Karl Marx lies in his use of the British Library's considerable facilities - which used to be on the same site as the museum itself - to write such epochal works as Capital. The British Library has been at its new, separate site since 1998.
This small but interesting exhibition indicates, in a sense, a return of Marx's ideas, in his analysis of the workings of capitalism to the place where they were first formulated. This of course is not the intention of the exhibition organisers. But it cannot be entirely accidental that squeezed between exhibits showing the influence of Greece on Rome - and the achievements of the Etruscans - this exhibition is put on at this time.
It indicates a renewed interest in discovering the historical roots of the present financial crisis. It is clearly connected to the present devastating crisis of world capitalism. Moreover, it shows clearly that there is nothing new in the present situation.
The world has seen it all before but not on the scale that we witness today. The tulip mania in the Netherlands of 1637 - described as "the first speculative boom" - ended in tears and anticipated what has been repeated many times since.
This was followed by another 'disaster' in 1697 involving land in Panama which left "Scotland financially ruined". Marx drew on such experiences to explain the credit system which firstly expands capitalism beyond its 'limits' but which then generates financial bubbles accompanied by "the pleasant company of swindlers": reckless financial gamblers.
This was followed by the famous "South Sea Bubble" also described as the first major speculative boom. This in turn generated popular satires - beautifully illustrated here - such as "The Bubble Melody" and the "South Sea Ballad". The 19th century also saw the 'railway mania' with massive debts piled up, which resulted in an economic crash.
Even a Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Aislabie - the equivalent of George Osborne today - was involved in speculation and ended up in prison. There is a tremendous cartoon showing the Bank of England - "the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street" - lecturing naughty boys, obviously meant to represent the capitalists and the bankers, who behind their backs hold playing cards.
Little has changed today it seems; the governor of the Bank of England, with Ed Miliband in the supporting cast, admonishes the banks and the capitalists for not behaving more 'responsibly'. In vain!
The exhibition closes with badges, symbols and photographs of the 'Occupy' movement in London. While providing no answers, this exhibition nevertheless is very useful as well as entertaining in a sometimes vivid form. It also shows that capitalism and speculation go together like peaches and cream. It should teach those who visit it that we need a more rational system than archaic capitalism.
"McCullin" - released on 1 January - is a 90 minute documentary film about one of the world's greatest living photographers, Don McCullin.
The fundamental empathy for, and dignity, he gives to his photographic subjects - mostly the victims of poverty, war and starvation - is explored in depth in this profoundly moving film.
These are images that the rich and powerful most definitely do not want you to see, since they expose crimes committed in the name of greed, exploitation, imperialism and bigotry.
Following his retrospective exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in 2011-12, this film is as much about the man and his view of the world as his photographs.
If you saw the 2011 exhibition or read the accompanying book, 'Shaped by War', the film adds much more to our understanding of McCullin and his work.
In many respects it is confessional, and is striking in its integrity. He describes how he often felt guilty, sometimes even ashamed that he had taken particular photographs of death and starvation.
However, he never became hardened to the events he witnessed, always respecting those he photographed.
On one occasion in South Vietnam, McCullin and a group of journalists witness an execution in the street.
He is shocked and disgusted by the journalists' awful, inhuman reaction and refuses to photograph the dreadful event.
There are many other occasions when McCullin puts his camera aside, not infrequently risking his own life to assist victims other journalists would photograph.
Don McCullin is now 77. Since the 1980s he has only occasionally visited war zones, increasingly photographing landscapes near his Somerset home.
This is evidently a necessary therapy for the dreadful things he has witnessed but these images have a haunted beauty, shot as they are in black and white like most of his other photographs.
Although too late to be included in the film, McCullin went to Aleppo in 2012 to photograph civilian victims of the Syrian civil war, many of them children.
I was privileged to interview Don McCullin in 2011 for The Socialist. I came away convinced that he had something to say that was profoundly important for socialists and to all those who believe it's worth fighting for a better world.
This film confirms that view beyond doubt. It might not be shown in many of the big cinemas, so take the first chance you have to see it.
The film trailer is at: http://www.curzoncinemas.com/films/details/1465/mccullin/
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 4 January 2013 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
If I'm opening the pub, I start at 9am. A managerial staff member should arrive at 8am to let us in but usually me and another kitchen worker wait for ten minutes.
So, management is over an hour late. We moan and I get the latest news of run-ins with them from the kitchen's point of view. We get little chance to talk during the day.
I open the pub. Despite having over an hour's worth of work and only 50 minutes to do it in, I am left alone downstairs. This is all the staff we'll have until 3 or 4 o'clock.
I have had one customer grab my bum, one grab my arm and scream in my face, both these customers were made to leave.
But customers who whistle at me to serve them, are rude or shout are not asked to leave. The old manager wanted to make more money and would never refuse someone a drink.
I signed a risk assessment that says a person cannot be left alone in the pub during the day but managers often do leave, so I may serve around 30 people drinks and food on my own.
Last week the pub was especially busy so we did our evening jobs after closing. Management said we shouldn't be paid for extra because we "should have made time earlier".
Next day, a management sign said we had worked appallingly the night before. In future if evening jobs were not completed, we would have to stay until they were finished without pay.
We have two full-time kitchen staff and one part-time. When management refused to cover their breaks and workers couldn't get a break until their shift was nearly over, they refused to come in for three days and we had to close the kitchen.
But these are non-unionised workers on short-term, zero hour contracts and most staff haven't worked for the company a year.
They feel isolated and felt forced to take action independently. After that one member went to Citizen's Advice (CAB) for advice. A manager later told me if he went to the CAB again, she would fire him.
One kitchen worker quit, then tried to claim Jobseeker's Allowance. The duty manager filled out the form for the jobcentre and gloated he would not get Jobseeker's.
He quit because she made his and our jobs unbearable. He has a family who depended on his income. When I said it was sad as his family would struggle she laughed.
By 2pm, I still haven't had a break. The 3 o'clock staff arrive. I apologise that I haven't had time to wash up, but they understand. We have all been through it.
In my five months in the job, I've seen eight staff members come and go. But the newest member of staff (brother of the acting manager) just received a pay rise above all the rest.
Two staff members then handed in their resignations. They have both been working for the company over a year.
Nobody denies he deserved a pay rise, we all do and we all support one another. But this is obviously nepotism from a bullying manager.
Management keep putting people on shifts less than eleven hours apart, which is illegal. When staff ask for this to be changed, the manager often replies that she has to work shifts less than eleven hours apart.
But seeing as she writes the rota herself it's a bit different to us having to do it when we don't get a say!
It's class war 2013 style and we need to fight back. If you are working in a low-paid poorly organised job in London, contact [email protected]
'The old are money-grabbers who want something for nothing and fuss when they don't get it.' ... 'The young won't do a fair day's work and laze around causing trouble.' While the middle aged and "baby boomers" were 'brought up with unrealistic expectations' and 'demand more than the country can afford'.
These common typecasts probably fit a few people but most people of any age just want a reasonable life of peace and prosperity.
Such stereotyping pleases the capitalists, who want to drive a wedge between us. I think the young are having a bad time of it.
I'm now 89 and left school 75 years ago. I had to take any available job and delivered groceries on a bike for ten shillings (50 pence) a week.
Even then, it couldn't keep a growing lad. My parents still had to keep me, living hand to mouth, as my dad's job was insecure and there were brothers and sisters. When the war came I joined the RAF, where I was fed and clothed.
A youngster today has higher expectations - that's called progress. These days, someone leaving school at 16 or older, probably better educated than I was, is lucky to get a job.
This creates many problems unless he/she has well-heeled parents to support them, help them study and provide a deposit on a house.
It's a crime that young people cannot get employment, something we all need to fulfil our lives and provide for our needs.
The capitalist class wants to discipline workers by saying: "There's plenty waiting for your job if you don't behave."
A socialist's principle should be that we are all fully trained and gainfully employed for the prosperity of us all.
If any person is left on the scrapheap for any time it can become much more difficult to return to work and that's not good for them or the rest of us.
Then there's the Old Codgers, who served in the armed forces, worked in factories, farms, shipyards, coalmines or shops.
Few except the rich escaped 'their duty'. Life was hard. If the baby boomers' lives later improved it was because their parents, after a grim war, were determined that their children would have a better life.
Times improved slowly until 1979 when we were burdened with the 'Iron Lady'. We had to fight for every improvement - now we must defend them.
Since Thatcher life has become harder - especially as we were let down by Labour which always professed to support the working class, yet the leadership always fails to defend us.
Now we face an extension of the working age despite a desperate shortage of jobs and a million young people facing a lousy start in life.
In future people will be getting older, more infirm and worn out and slaving until they drop, while the young are out of work and kicking their heels.
We should make sure that everyone who is fit and able to work has a decent, fairly paid job. Those too old or disabled should be provided for and cared for with dignity.
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What the Socialist Party stands for
The Socialist Party fights for socialism – a democratic society run for the needs of all and not the profits of a few. We also oppose every cut, fighting in our day-to-day campaigning for every possible improvement for working class people.
The organised working class has the potential power to stop the cuts and transform society.
As capitalism dominates the globe, the struggle for genuine socialism must be international.
The Socialist Party is part of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), a socialist international that organises in many countries.
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http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/15998