The medical director of NHS England, Bruce Keogh, has said the NHS should be run like Dixons or PC World with a "more for less" mentality - he must mean more profits, less healthcare, poor service and closures (all Dixons shops closed in 2006!).
But already, a study has shown that the lack of adequate staffing means that nurses 'ration' the care they give to patients because of pressures on their time. Areas most likely to be cut back on are talking to patients, adequate monitoring, recording details of care, and pain management. Unsurprisingly, the problem was shown to be worst in the hospitals with fewer staff per patients.
This blows out of the water the idea that poor care is because of uncaring nurses. Many simply do not have the time and resources to do the job they are trained for because of understaffing and cuts.
The evidence for this BMJ Quality and Safety medical journal study was gathered in 2010 - before most of the 7,000-plus nursing jobs cuts made so far under the Con-Dems! And more redundancies are on the way - 140 hospital foundation trusts plan to slash 30,000 jobs by 2016.
The government and media talk about a £30 billion NHS funding gap by 2020. But this 'shortfall' could be more than met if the government scrapped all PFI (Private Finance Initiative - 'Profit from Illness'!) in the NHS.
PFI is like taking out a high interest mortgage, but the lender owns the house at the end of the loan! And while everything else in the NHS gets slashed, the PFI payments stay. The total cost of all PFI (including non-NHS) has been measured at over £300 billion!
PFI was a favourite scheme of New Labour, but despite criticising PFI in opposition, the Tories' only new hospital - Alder Hey in Liverpool - has been built under the costly system.
Of course, two more easy ways of 'plugging the gap' would be to kick big business out of the NHS and make the rich and corporations pay tax!
Another money saver would be to take the drugs companies under democratic working class control and management. This would stop the pushing up of drug prices by up to 2,000%, as reported in the last issue of the Socialist.
North West TUC is organising a demo outside the Tory party conference in September.
But we can't just stop at demonstrating - the health unions, especially Unison, should be organising national strike action to stop the break-up and privatisation of the NHS.
This would be best done as a part of a 24-hour general strike by all unions in opposition to austerity.
But we also need political representation- the Tories, Lib Dems and Labour all agree that the NHS should be cut, broken up and privatised. That is why the Socialist Party is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, which stands in elections against all cuts and privatisation.
A major campaign to defend the NHS is needed in east London, as it is in many parts of the country. Privatisation and cuts threaten Barts Health Trust, which includes Whipps Cross, Barts, Newham and the Royal London hospitals, forming Britain's biggest NHS hospital trust.
Barts has announced it is losing £2 million a week and plans severe cuts at all the hospitals, especially at Whipps Cross, to avoid going into administration. The Trust is making the biggest cuts in the NHS, with £30 million cuts this year alone.
It is saddled with a massive PFI (private finance initiative) deal to rebuild the old Royal London. These cuts are due to the greed of private companies that suck the lifeblood out of the NHS.
They are also part of the Con-Dems' plans to sell off the NHS and make massive cuts to all our public services, to pay for a crisis caused by bankers and bosses.
Part of the reason for the dogged drive to privatisation of the NHS, which clearly opens the door to disaster, is in order to provide new and profitable fields of investment for big business in this time of ongoing economic crisis. Another hint is the over £10 million in donations from companies profiting from private healthcare that the Tories have received since 2001.
The cuts must be fought! Why should working people across east London - workers in and users of the NHS - pay such a terrible price for the failures and the greed of the rich and big business?
Workers at Whipps Cross hospital have a proud record of standing up and fighting and winning.
Whipps Cross Unison branch is calling a public meeting and demonstration, and wants to work with the unions across all the hospitals to build a united campaign.
The Waltham Forest Guardian reports that: "Charlotte Monro, chairperson for Unison's Waltham Forest health branch at the Leytonstone hospital, has been barred from representing members at a Barts Health Trust staff consultative group pending an investigation into her trade union activity."
It also reported a Unison spokesperson saying that "Ms Monro is the public service union's main link to the trust-wide body for the branch at Whipps Cross and barring her from attending disenfranchises members at the hospital."
Hospital workers and trade unionists who speak out to defend public services must be defended - an attack on one key figure is an attack on the whole union and the campaign.
The whole community should get behind the campaign of the workforce in the hospitals. The Unsion branch at the hospital has a very good record of resisting attacks on members and of defending workers' rights by organising determined campaigns, involving wide sections of the workforce and including strike action.
Demonstrations and other protests will all be important to bring together the community, NHS users, and the workforce to fight the latest attacks and to prepare for further threats. It is the workers in the hospital and the union branch who ultimately have the power to take decisive action, including strike action, which, with the community behind them, could beat these cuts back.
Socialist Party members, who work at Whipps Cross and are campaigning across east London, are pointing to the need to link up this struggle with all those against the cuts and to support the NSSN lobby of the TUC to call a 24-hour general strike.
Several hospital workers from the area are planning to stand as Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates in next May's local elections to provide a political voice that stands up for the NHS.
The NHS non-emergency phone line - 111 - is in crisis after NHS Direct decided to pull out of the contracts it holds (threatening the service in a quarter of areas). Why the sudden cold feet? Well, it has become 'financially unsustainable' to continue providing the service on the current contract. Which might have something to do with the fact that NHS Direct massively under-bid for the project, promising it would only cost £7 a call. The actual figure has been much higher, leaving NHS Direct in the red and the service worse than shoddy. So much for the benefits of competition.
£5 billion worth of NHS contracts are going out to tender. These include 160 large-scale contracts and seven worth over £100 million. Private sector vultures are swarming round the bidding process, in what has been described as "an arms race", recognising this huge outsourcing of public services as one of the only ways to make a profit in the current economic situation. This tendering represents a major shift in how the NHS operates and the likely devastating effects will be seen over the coming years.
One company very interested in the latest round of privatisation in the NHS is Serco. Serco already runs out-of-hours GP services in Cornwall - which suffered massive failings and a "culture of lying and cheating" within a couple of years of takeover - and community health services in Suffolk. They have a hand on every area of public services in fact - the prisons where they keep prisoners locked up all day, the tagging where they overcharge the government by millions. You'd think these success stories would be enough to put a stop to it but Serco is now going after a £1 billion contract for health services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
The A&E at Stafford hospital is to be permanently closed after years of scandal, criticism and uncertainty. Hundreds of patients are thought to have needlessly died as a result of failings at the hospital over a number of years. But is taking away emergency care from the town really the solution? Local people certainly don't seem to think so - 30,000 marched in defence of the hospital in April this year. Patients will now have to travel to Stoke or Wolverhampton in an emergency.
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Ed Miliband's decision to rush through the end of trade union bloc affiliation to the Labour Party at a special conference next spring has all the symbolism of Tony Blair's 'Clause Four moment' in 1995.
That was when Blair organised a special conference to abolish Labour's historic commitment, in Clause Four, Part 1V of the party's rules, to "the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange".
It is not only symbolism that is involved in Miliband's move, however, but the content that is also the same; to continue (in fact, to complete) the process of transforming Labour into just another capitalist party.
Clause Four summarised the collective interest of the working class in fighting for a new form of society, socialism, in opposition to the capitalist market system.
Trade union affiliation (when democratically exercised by union members) enshrined the ability of the working class through the unions to control its political representatives.
It was these characteristics that defined the Labour Party in the past as a 'capitalist workers party', with a leadership at the top which invariably reflected the policy of the capitalist class, but with a socialistic ideological basis to the party and a structure through which workers could move to challenge the leadership and threaten the capitalists' interests.
Details have yet to emerge of the proposals being considered by a review led by former Labour Party general secretary Lord Collins to go to the special conference.
But the central idea, to replace bloc affiliation in favour of trade unionists joining Labour as 'affiliated' or 'associate' individual members, would finally end the remnants of the affiliated trade unions' collective political voice within the party.
The Falkirk affair, the ostensible reason for the changes, shows how far in fact this process has already gone.
What happened in Falkirk - with Unite officials recruiting union members to become individual members of the constituency Labour Party (CLP) - actually had no connection with the union's affiliated status.
In the past trade union branches would send delegates to constituency Labour parties (CLPs), alongside ward party representatives, to select a parliamentary candidate.
This was the way, for example, that the Militant MPs Dave Nellist (now chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition - TUSC), and the late Terry Fields and Pat Wall, won their selection as Labour candidates in the 1980s.
That democratic structure, which meant that healthy mass participation Labour parties like in Liverpool and Coventry were effectively local 'parliaments of the labour movement', was overturned in 1994 by the introduction of 'one member, one vote' (OMOV) rules for selecting candidates.
Those changes, promoting passive membership over representative democracy (some OMOV selections have been decided by postal ballots, with prospective candidates having no chance to speak to members) were accurately described by John Prescott as being more important in changing Labour than the abolition of Clause Four.
In Falkirk Unite members were being recruited as individuals to take part in a future OMOV ballot with no certainty, of course, as to how they would vote.
But even that pale reflection of 'union influence' has been seized by Miliband as a chance to complete the job of effectively ending the union link.
The Socialist Party believes that the Labour Party has already been qualitatively transformed from its roots as a capitalist workers' party, which is why we argue that a new workers' party is necessary.
We support TUSC as a precursor of a new mass party that could unite together trade unionists, unorganised workers, socialists, young people, oppressed groups and community campaigners, as the only way to ensure that the working class today can achieve an independent political voice.
But social formations can retain many of their old forms - even as their new content predominates - and residues of the past position of the unions in the Labour Party still remain.
Affiliated unions have 30 votes out of 144 in Labour's National Policy Forum (NPF) for example (which will now be examined by the Collins review), and are directly represented on the national executive committee.
And while the affiliated unions' 49% share of conference votes has been reduced from the 90% share in the past, if they rejected Miliband's proposals, which they should, it is not guaranteed that he could push them through the special conference.
But unfortunately the Unite leadership in particular are not signalling opposition to Miliband's plans and in doing so are using arguments that are undermining the very idea of independent working class political representation.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, for example, has argued that he could not go "in front of TV cameras and pretend to speak on behalf of a million Unite members" since many of them do not vote Labour.
That's true, they don't; but when Len speaks he is representing Unite's democratically agreed policies against cuts and privatisation, for repeal of the anti-union laws etc.
In negotiating with employers, union representatives speak for the decision reached collectively by the union members, even though a minority may not have supported the finally agreed position. So why shouldn't the union be represented collectively in the political arena too?
Len McCluskey has also suggested that Unite could actually have more power by making its donations conditional on Labour's support for specific policies.
But how would this be different to the position of the US unions, reduced to being just another lobbying group alongside corporate donors, giving millions of dollars to buy some alleged 'friends of labour' in the Democratic Party? Or for that matter the 19th century 'Lib-Labism' of unions before the formation of the Labour Party, seeking support for particular policies and parliamentary representatives within a capitalist party?
Not the least danger of such an approach is that it reinforces the idea that the attacks of capitalism on workers' living conditions, jobs etc could be met by a few policy changes or reforms rather than an alternative programme for government - which requires an alternative party.
Ultimately the only effective control over workers' political representatives is that exercised by workers' organisations through their collective decision-making structures.
In Britain today that means the trade unions drawing the lessons of Miliband's 'Clause Four moment' and taking the necessary steps to set up a new workers' party.
Following the scandalous referral from the Labour Party, the police will not be investigating any allegations surrounding the recruitment of Labour Party members in the Falkirk constituency or the selection process for a Labour candidate.
This action by the pro-big business Labour leadership prompted the suspension of Stevie Deans, the Falkirk party chairperson, by Ineos, owner of the Grangemouth oil refinery where he works, on the grounds of 'bringing the company into disrepute'. It was withdrawn when the 450-strong Unite branch at the refinery threatened to walk out unless he was reinstated immediately!
Stevie and Unite's preferred candidate, Karie Murphy, remain suspended by New Labour. Yet a BBC investigation for 'The Report' programme suggested that Unite had done nothing wrong in Falkirk. Indeed, the only possible membership irregularities did not involve Unite members.
When the Falkirk selection process was halted by Labour's National Executive Committee, the NEC only saw extracts from the full report!
Miliband wants to force his proposals through at a special conference of Labour next spring. He clearly believes this would make him more popular.
In reality, social attitudes are far to the left of Labour on issues such as nationalisation and support for trade unions.
Since 1997, Labour has lost 4.5 million mainly working class votes at general elections. These moves could lose them more as workers turn away from a party increasingly involved with big business.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said this was a clear 'turning point' in the relationship between Labour and the unions in his speech to the special meeting of the Unite Executive with Regional Political Committee members on 24 July, which was broadcast live.
However, he did not reject the proposals outright. Although previous press reports had said he would endorse them, he offered a 'wait-and-see' approach to the Collins report.
He also called on Labour to move away from the policies of austerity. Nevertheless he seemed broadly favourable to Miliband's proposals.
This position is the worst of all worlds; if Unite is to remain affiliated to Labour and try to implement its political strategy, it and the rest of the unions need their collective voting power to assert their strength. The Miliband proposals would eliminate that collective power.
It would be far better though for Unite and the other unions to break the link with New Labour and form a new worker-based party which would reflect union policies and keep the collective strength of workers' organisations.
The resolution passed at the Unite North-West Regional Committee (below) is a welcome first step. In the closed session of the Unite EC/RPCs, support was expressed for Unite to maintain its collective strength and for a discussion throughout the union on its political strategy.
Branches and constitutional committees of the union must take this up and convince the Unite leadership to reject dilution of its power and assist with the establishment of a new mass workers' party.
This Unite region is appalled at the smear campaign being orchestrated against Unite the Union by the Labour Party for nothing more than campaigning for the union's referred candidate in Falkirk.
Our union has been more than patient with new Labour giving loyal support and considerable financial backing while they have failed to adopt policies which are demanded by Unite and are vital in offering working people an alternative to the neo-liberal policies which have destroyed our economy and social system.
Many Unite members had already come to the conclusion that reclaiming the Labour Party was impossible because there are no democratic structures which would allow it. This latest affair categorically shows that this is the case.
Instead of joining the Tories and their friends in the media in accusing our democratic union representing 1.5 million workers of scandalous behaviour in Falkirk, Ed Miliband should have focused the country's attention on the Tory's own arcane funding arrangements from individual multi-millionaires including stockbrokers and hedge fund managers who created the world's economic catastrophe.
However it is impossible for New Labour to take the moral high ground on this issue as their bureaucracy have long indulged in the practice of parachuting in MPs who have not been selected by their local constituency members and have accepted funds from dubious sources and from people who are accountable to nobody.
1. Hold an emergency meeting where they can pass a resolution to remove from the rulebook the reference to Labour Party affiliation.
2. The EC will then organise a recall rules conference to discuss the change and the political representation of the working class
3. With the support of conference Unite should then convene a meeting of trade unions and trade unionists with the aim of creating a new workers' party which would meet the union's demands for a programme of policies including scrapping the cuts, the anti-union laws and renationalising all public services.
As the Welsh government considers the results of the consultation into downgrading at least one maternity unit in south Wales the media has gone into a frenzy of congratulation over the birth of a new royal prince.
Of course it's not the fault of the baby. He is just like any other baby, totally unaware of the furore erupting around him. It will not be for a few years that he becomes aware that he lives an entirely different existence from the rest of society.
In his luxurious cot attended by servants in Kensington Palace, he will be oblivious of the fact that a short distance away other babies are being evicted from their homes by the government's benefit cap on families living in flats charged high rents by landlords in central London. He will be unaware of other young children unable to stay with one of their parents over the weekend because of the bedroom tax.
The media is keen to promote the monarchy as a sort of normal family living a royal-celeb lifestyle. This serves as a useful distraction from real lives. Princess Kate's childbirth was nothing out of the ordinary, but its promotion serves to distract from the cuts being made in maternity services across the UK. There is something distasteful about the medieval way that both the media and the royals see princesses as breeding machines above all else.
Where was The Sun's coverage of the tragic loss of her baby by a mother in Caerphilly while she waited for an ambulance to take her from Ystrad Fawr hospital, where there is no consultant obstetrician to the Royal Gwent Hospital?
It is Socialist Party members, campaigning in the Penyrheol by-election, who are fighting for a consultant-led maternity unit at the hospital, while the royals continue to live a life of unimaginable luxury paid for by the mothers who need maternity services and are denied them by increasing austerity.
The Queen has declined the opportunity to join her subjects in cutting public spending - she has just been given a 5% rise - the royals total cost is an eye watering £200 million a year.
Senior civil servants, politicians, business people - they often seem to be just one big ugly blur swirling round parliament. Take Lord O'Donnell for example. He used to be the head of the civil service. Then he entered the House of Lords, speaking up loudly for big business-friendly policies.
And now he's bagged himself a one-day-a-week job as chair of Frontiers Economics. He will be attempting to use his knowledge from both his previous and existing roles to influence policy in favour of the company's corporate clients.
Margaret Thatcher's funeral cost a whopping £1.2 million - mainly covered by the tax payer. We're supposed to be pleased though as this is less than the upper estimates that were given at the time of £1.6 million. And the ceremonial funeral with military honours was nothing compared to the state funeral that she could have been granted.
But given the misery she brought on the working class we hope we'll be forgiven for not feeling too happy about a single penny being spent on her send off!
The effects of austerity are making thousands of people scared about losing their homes because they can't afford their rent or mortage. A recent survey by Age UK showed that nearly a quarter of those in their early 50s are worried about losing homes they have often lived in for decades as a result of redundancy, pensions reductions, the bedroom tax and lower savings rates.
From the first moves towards academy schools (under the last New Labour government) we've been assured that they won't lead to schools being run for profit. But the Socialist Party warned that opening the door would lead the way for sneaking privatisation.
The latest step is that academies are to be encouraged to open branches abroad and charge fees to foreign students. Yet another motivation for profit-hungry companies to grab a piece of the academy pie - and yet again nothing to do with providing a good quality education for all.
Professor Sir George Bain - the first chairman of the Low Pay Commission which established the minimum wage - has pointed out what has been obvious to many of us for a long time - the minimum wage isn't doing its job.
The minimum wage is currently £6.19 an hour while the living wage (i.e. what's actually necessary to live on) is at least £7.45 an hour. A minimum below the minimum becomes pointless rather quickly. 3.6 million workers are paid over the legal minimum but below the living wage.
Endorsement for Ty Moore, Socialist Alternative (US sister section of the Socialist Party), in the Minneapolis city council elections:
"I want to live in a city where every resident lives in prosperity, has access to good-paying jobs, enjoys safe neighborhoods, great quality schooling, and is part of building our democracy. We need someone who will elevate the conversation about our city's role in our lives and our neighborhoods. As a Council member, Ty will support raising the minimum wage in the city, allowing all residents to vote, call for a moratorium in deportations, improve and enforce our city's "Separation Ordinance" so families are not broken due to deportation, and support immediate and unconditional citizenship rights.
Even more importantly, Ty will use his position to move forward Ward 9 residents' vision for the good in common for us all. I am supporting Ty because I know he is committed to racial, economic, and environmental justice, and is committed to bringing ALL of us together to participate in our democracy."
Socialist Alternative is also standing candidates in Seattle and Boston. See socialistalternative.org
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main cause of global warming, has reached a critical level.
Carbon dioxide is released by the burning of coal, gas and oil, so called fossil fuels.
The recent measurement of the concentration of the gas at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii shows it has reached 400 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere for the first time since human beings inhabited the planet.
As the evidence on climate change has grown, governments have nevertheless refused to take any meaningful measures to address the problem.
Their paralysis in facing this emergency has become almost total since the financial crisis of 2008.
The graph below from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the USA, shows how the situation is now out of control.
Going back nearly a million years, carbon dioxide concentrations have risen and fallen but were never high enough to destabilise global temperatures.
This changed dramatically 30 years ago with a very rapid increase to 400 ppm. The earth has experienced this concentration before, tens of millions of years ago, and it was then associated with sea level rises of between 5 and 40 metres (16 to 131ft) and average global temperatures rose by 3-4 degrees. This could be repeated with devastating consequences.
Also, the earlier rise to 400ppm concentration took place over thousands, or tens of thousands of years, allowing time for life to adapt.
The present increase has happened in three decades and is accelerating all the time, making the future even more dangerous.
Global warming is not just a threat to future generations, the effects of climate change exist now in the form of extreme weather events.
The drought in the USA last year, combined with droughts and floods elsewhere, pushed up world food prices, which not only worsened world hunger but had more general economic effects.
In Britain inflation was expected to fall rapidly due to austerity, but didn't, partly because of sharply rising food prices.
As a result, take-home wages after allowing for inflation have continued to fall, prolonging the 'Great Recession'.
In the USA, the cost of Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy that devastated the Wall Street finance district last year has been put at over $100 billion.
The evidence linking the extreme weather events the earth is experiencing to global temperature rise is increasing all the time, yet despite the huge human and economic costs already incurred, there has been no significant action taken by capitalist governments on global warming.
The opposite is in fact the case, with attempts to agree a new treaty to replace the ineffective Kyoto agreement being abandoned and a new drive launched to step up fossil fuel production in the USA, UK and elsewhere.
This is linked to producing gas from shale rock where there are enormous potential reserves which will add a vicious twist to spiralling global temperatures.
Gas from shale, made by a process called fracking, could be even more deadly than conventional gas production.
This is because methane gas is released, which is far more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.
Fracking has also caused localised earthquakes and can lead to contamination of ground water.
Despite this George Osborne has just announced that he wants to create the world's most generous shale tax (dodging) regime to stimulate production. He intends to cut the tax paid by shale gas manufacturers from 62% to 30%.
One justification given for this policy is that a shale industry will create thousands of new jobs, but a programme to develop renewable energy like wind, wave and solar would generate far more employment.
Osborne's preference for fossil fuels over renewables is showing once again that what matters to the capitalist class is short-term profit and nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of this goal, even potential environmental destruction.
Competition between the main imperialist powers, whose governments primarily represent the multinational companies based inside their borders, has prevented any agreement being reached to tackle climate change.
The financial crisis of 2008 squeezed profits and made any agreement even less likely.
This deadlock clearly points to the need to remove the profit-based economic system and replace it with socialism that will create the conditions where environmental problems can be solved.
To put this programme into effect will need the democratic public ownership of the energy and transport industries.
The industrial sectors to be nationalised, or renationalised, will be the energy generating and distribution companies, vehicle manufacturers and bus and rail service providers.
Another key aspect in achieving environmental sustainability will be to increase the efficiency of the production of all manufactured goods and housing.
In fact, the need to reduce the intensity of energy use includes nearly all areas of the output of goods and services, so it will be essential to efficiently integrate the different sectors of the economy into a democratically determined plan of production, which will have environmental needs at its centre.
This in turn will require the public ownership of the approximately 150 big corporations that presently dominate British society.
"We stand on the eve of convulsive events, the greatest in world history, of which the mighty movements in these countries are the precursor."
This was how Peter Taaffe of the CWI's International Secretariat described the current international situation in the session at this year's CWI summer School on the 'Capitalist World in Turmoil - the crisis and the class struggle today'.
The "mighty movements" he referred to were the huge protests in Turkey, Brazil, Egypt and South Africa over the last 12 months, which have shown the colossal power of the masses once they move into action.
Video: Peter Taaffe gives a report of the discussion at the CWI Euro School to the 2013 Socialist Party summer camp in August
These have followed on from the protests against austerity in Europe of the last few years.
The mass occupation of the squares in Turkey was followed by mass action by the working class.
Millions mobilised in Egypt to overthrow President Morsi, more than in the first revolution of two years ago, although the absence of an independent workers' leadership helped the military tops seize the opportunity to put themselves in control.
However the struggle between the forces of revolution and counter-revolution are not over yet.
In Brazil, the mass demonstrations that began as protests against fare rises on public transport convulsed over 120 cities.
At one stage, 1 million or more were on the streets. They forced the government to recognise the massive social problems confronting the country.
In the past, such movements in Latin America might have led to 'guerrillaist' ideas gaining ground but South America is now the continent with the highest proportion (84%) of its population living in urban areas.
The working class and city poor are the overwhelming majority and lead the mass movements although it has echoes in rural areas. These huge changes are preparing the forces of revolution throughout the world.
These events - avidly watched through the mass media and social media by workers internationally - also underline the way that the world today is bound together with iron hoops.
The events in one country, continent or region can exercise a sometimes mesmeric effect on the outlook of the working masses.
In so doing, they reinforce the need for internationalism upon which the CWI is based and will grow.
The essence of Marxism is to generalise the experiences of the working class and draw out the lessons for the workers' movement and especially the CWI, guiding our actions now and in the future.
Without a broad understanding of perspectives we would be like a sailor without a compass in a stormy sea.
We cannot analyse events pragmatically and empirically. Marxists need to approach 'reality' in an all-sided way.
If not, we will be unprepared for the sharp turn of events and its highest and most important form: revolution itself.
Peter explained that our method had permitted the CWI to foresee a situation when an ANC government in South Africa would turn guns on workers.
Similarly, we had predicted the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt. We forecast a 'second revolution' based on an understanding of the laws of revolutions.
The masses make revolutions and their dissatisfaction with the Muslim Brotherhood in office brought them back onto the streets to get rid of them.
Our conclusions are founded not on sentiment or wishful thinking, but on the character of the present era, which is marked by the most devastating world economic crisis now in its fifth or sixth year.
Capitalist society exists with one quarter of youth worldwide as 'NEETs' (Not in Employment, Education or Training').
Desperate economic straits provided the initial impulse for the revolution in Egypt. Over 1,500 factories have closed since the first revolution in 2011.
Half of the country's eighty million people are living below the poverty line or near it. One journal, in relation to the overthrow of Morsi, commented: "This was a revolution of the hungry."
However, Peter warned that the overthrow of Morsi by the army - even though it appears initially it had the support of big sections of the mass movement, particularly the liberals - is a potential danger for the working class.
The Egyptian workers had shown tremendous appetite for struggle and organisation. David Johnson explained that the independent unions had grown in size from 50,000 to 2.5 million members in two years.
However, one of their leaders had joined the military-led cabinet following Morsi's overthrow! The movement that overthrew Morsi and the Brotherhood had behind it shadowy figures of the 'Deep State' and the Mubarak regime.
The downfall of Morsi and the Brotherhood had realigned the positions of the regional powers in the Middle East, whose stance was guided by the simple proposition what best would serve the counter-revolution against the 'Arab Spring'.
The interests of these powers are now polarising the Middle East and threatening the masses of the region, as witnessed by the bloody civil war in Syria.
The Egyptian army is not like the Portuguese army in the uprising in 1974. That army had been radicalised by neo-colonial wars.
The Egyptian army, like all capitalist armies, ultimately guards private property and the 'Deep state' has a significant economic stake, rather like the Pakistani army.
The likeliest outcome of the events in Egypt is that the Brotherhood and their co-thinkers in the rest of the Arab world will be weakened.
This will have consequences in Tunisia, where the Ennahda government is facing challenges to its rule.
When a leading leftist opposition leader was assassinated last week, a general strike movement was ignited.
We must always stress the independence of the working class and organisations from all pro-capitalist forces and fight for the creation of independent, working-class forms of struggle.
It is not always economic crisis that provokes mass movements. Both Brazil and Turkey have seen economic growth in recent years. But the fruits of this growth have been unevenly distributed.
This has laid the basis for the social explosions which have taken place, not just in demonstrations, but with moves towards occupations, assemblies, etc., which socialists in Brazil have campaigned for during this social and political tsunami. These revolutionary events have developed not from grinding austerity, as in Europe.
Significant economic growth has strengthened the power of the working class and the masses, which was then displayed in its full power in these movements.
With the worldwide intensification of class struggle, the capitalist state has implemented measures of civil war against the rights and conditions of the working class and the poor.
That is the warning from the revelations of whistle-blower Edward Snowden; of the massive surveillance against the population and organisations or of the planting of police spies in the anti-capitalist and workers' movements and organisations.
While these measures are anti-democratic, the capitalists cannot establish a police state now because of the opposition such a move would provoke.
But the rise of Golden Dawn in Greece shows the medium and long-term dangers to the working class, which needs to fight against the encroachment and attacks on civil and democratic rights, including anti-trade union laws.
These developments have induced widespread disillusion with President Obama, who has proved to be just as undemocratic and oppressive as George W Bush.
And his unpopularity is compounded by the lack of improvement in the conditions of the working class in the US. The bankruptcy of the city of Detroit illustrates the depth of the crisis.
Quantitative Easing (QE) internationally has had the effect of stabilising the economic situation to an extent.
Yet as Robin from Britain detailed, this had led to further speculation and new financial 'bubbles' being created that would burst at some stage.
Peter explained that the small recovery of the economic position in some countries and the slight pause in the class struggle and the success of capitalism in getting through austerity measures have posed questions, such as, "Is this a passing phase?" and "Could capitalism establish a new economic equilibrium?" These are the hopes of the capitalists internationally.
Marxists have pointed out many times there is no 'final crisis of capitalism'; capitalism will only be ended when the working class takes power.
But if the working class, through a lack of leadership, fails to take power, a new growth of capitalism in the future could not be ruled out. But this is certainly not the perspective in the short-term.
And this is recognised by the theoreticians of capitalism. They have absolutely no idea of any way out of this impasse for their system.
In all the big economies of the world, there has been little or no growth. And now that the Chinese economy is slowing down, this will have a profound effect both within China - where revolution will be put on the agenda - and internationally for those economies that either supply capital goods, like Germany, or commodities, as comrades from Australia and Canada amplified, where the economies have benefited from the Chinese boom.
Raheem from Nigeria showed that the gains from commodity sales, in Nigeria's case oil, were extremely unevenly distributed: 1% of the population owns 80% of the wealth in the country while 70% of the population lives in poverty!
Comrade Zhang from China outlined the huge debts in China, which has a 'Frankenstein economy' - large and out of control! Peter showed that Chinese workers were beginning to stir with strikes, protests and even the imprisonment of a company boss who was closing down a plant without giving adequate redundancy payments to the workers!
Revolution occurs not automatically through economic slowdown or through growth but in the change from one period to another.
The consensus of capitalist economists was that we are now in a 'depression'. With widespread austerity and the attempt to reconcile the working class to an era of low or no growth, further attacks could discourage struggle.
But there is the real prospect of a deepening of the crisis. This is the weakest 'recovery' in the US since the Second World War.
And the colossal debts of the banks internationally remain. Under capitalism, mass permanent or semi-permanent unemployment will be a feature.
Japan has tried a 'dash for growth' recently but this is already beginning to run out of steam. Japan's effective devaluation raises the danger of currency wars and protectionism, indicated by serious clash between Europe and China on solar panels, is also on the rise.
A central question from the point of view of capitalism is that there are no 'markets'. This is the result of the massive debt overhang and the existence of deflation.
The Economist magazine has commented: "By 2020 there will be $900 trillion of financial assets worldwide, compared to $90 trillion of GDP.
"The result will be a world economy structurally awash with capital and a corresponding shortage of places in which it can be invested."
This is the explanation for worldwide privatisation, as capitalists look to make profits from previously state run industries and services.
It is will produce a social catastrophe. But the capitalists hope it could offer a short-term outlet for their accumulated capital, which includes almost $2 trillion held abroad by US banks avoiding US tax.
Peter concluded by saying we are in a new period of long, drawn-out crisis. This, in turn, will mean the intensification of clashes between the capitalist powers that dominate the globe, including in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Africa.
In this new period, there will be wave after wave of radicalised and revolutionary movements. Tens of thousands of advanced workers, millions of raw masses, are pondering and learning the lessons of Brazil, Turkey and the Middle East.
However, political understanding is still historically low due to a number of factors, including lingering effects of the collapse of Stalinism and the rapid descent into the crisis which has stunned the working class.
Comrade Didi from Brazil explained how the workers' leaders helped muddy the waters: in 1992, they had led protests against the government which led to its downfall but this year, they had only sown confusion through lack of leadership.
But the capitalists themselves understand the drawn-out character of this crisis and some are quite clear that they fear revolution, particularly socialist revolution.
They will try and deflect and prevent movements from moving in revolutionary directions. Robert Bechert of the International Secretariat, in his summing up to the discussion, commented on pundits who were comparing the protests to the revolutionary movements of the 1848 and 1968, but were studiously avoiding comparison to 1917 and the period of working-class revolution following the First World War! The mass movement's of the last year were inspiring but Marxists had too avoid being "intoxicated" with their initial successes and judge soberly what programme and strategy were necessary to ensure that the working class and poor achieve their goals.
Peter said the capitalists have not taken the Marxists into account. A handful of Marxists in one country, for example in South Africa, could be the key to mass change.
There is scepticism and opposition from the new generation to the idea of 'parties' in general which are identified with pro-capitalist parties, their policies and massive corruption.
Comrades Andros from Greece and Kevin from Ireland explained how workers had the will to fight against austerity but there was still a hangover from the past period and the low level of understanding, which had partially acted against the idea of fighting.
Andros, in particular, showed there have been significant explosions in Greece yet the lack of a leadership was the key to the defeat, so far, of the battle against austerity.
And the Syriza leadership was moving rightwards. But new leaders, including the Marxists, would be propelled to the front of the movement in the next period.
Peter's final remarks mentioned the volatility of the political situation, which has thrown up new campaigns and organisations, like Occupy, the indignados in Spain and the Five Star movement in Italy.
Once the masses see a party fighting for their interests - especially on mass scale - which is incorruptible, they will flock to its banner. The current impasse will then be shown to be another passing phase.
New mass formations are inevitable given the stage through which the working class must pass. These will lead on to the formation of mass revolutionary parties.
Therefore, our tasks are to build the CWI now and prepare ourselves together with the working class to lay the foundations of mass revolutionary parties and a mass international.
The assassination of Mohamed Brahmi, MP for El Shaab (People's Movement part of the Popular Front opposition), has triggered a new mass movement of workers and youth in Tunisia.
Under mass pressure, the main union federation, the UGTT, called a one-day general strike on 26 July.
Clearly, the revolution is not over in the country which sparked the Arab spring over two and a half years ago, when the uprising saw the end of decades of dictatorship.
Since then, however, the situation for the workers and poor has deteriorated, as capitalist governments have driven through austerity measures dictated by the IMF.
The Socialist is printing extracts from a leaflet distributed on the day of the general strike by supporters of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) in Tunisia, one of whom, Rezgui, told us: "The strike was absolutely solid. And 50,000 people gathered for the funeral.
The town of Sidi Bouzid [in central Tunisia, where Brahmi was MP, and where the Arab spring erupted] has proclaimed self-rule, with 'democratic committees' being set up to defend and organise the area. The same is true of Gafsa, further south.
There have also been further mass sit-ins, with tens of thousands - even official figures say 25,000 - protesting in front of the national assembly building on 28 July. Security forces and the army are now encircling them.
"They are demanding that the government resigns and that the whole 'constituent assembly' is dissolved."
Rezgui added: "Although there are many examples of mass struggle, strikes and the formation of committees organising working-class and poor people, there are also some dangers in the situation, especially if a lead is not given.
"What is needed, above all, is the call for an indefinite general strike to bring down the government, and to move towards linking up the democratic committees and areas which have declared self-rule."
Two and a half years after the fall of President Ben Ali, the situation for the masses has gone from bad to worse and anger is brewing across the country.
The assassination of Mohamed Brahmi is a new catalyst for the fury of workers, youth and revolutionary masses, whose willingness to topple the Troika regime (the governing coalition) is at fever pitch.
The Popular Front gathers under its umbrella many revolutionary activists, trade unionists and young people who aspire to continue the revolution all the way and for the coming to power of those who serve the interests of workers and to end the exploitative capitalist system.
However, its outlook is toward reaching compromises with political forces alien to the struggles of the workers, the poor, and all those who carried out the original revolution.
The Popular Front has called for the formation of a 'National Salvation' government which will see the possibility of agreements with representatives of the wealthy classes - who want to end the struggle of the popular masses and the working class.
The CWI believes that the strength of the Tunisian trade union movement and the weight of the Popular Front should instead be placed in the interests of the struggling masses, in order to build a power that is democratically controlled by action committees at all levels of society and across the country.
The coming days will be decisive as to the future of the revolution, which is at a crossroads.
But the situation is fraught with danger. The risk of demobilisation, and the absence of clarity in how to extend and organise actions in the following days, can only benefit those who are against the revolution, whether they use demands for "democracy" or in the name of religion.
The CWI has called for the formation of revolutionary committees in workplaces, universities, schools and popular neighbourhoods to organise the movement collectively and democratically, and according to the will of the mobilised masses.
Such committees should also be responsible for self-defence to prevent violence by the forces of repression and reactionary militia.
These committees could be channelled into a revolutionary government in the interests of the workers, youth and oppressed, and could be supported by the UGTT and activists in the Popular Front, the Unemployed Union (UDC) and social movements.
The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) is the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated.
The CWI is organised in 45 countries and works to unite the working class and oppressed peoples against global capitalism and to fight for a socialist world.
For more details including CWI publications write to: CWI, PO Box 3688, London E11 1YE.
The Egyptian state's bloody crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood (MB) supporters continues, leaving hundreds dead and injured.
At least 83 died during last Saturday's (27 July) police massacre of supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi near the Rabaa Adawiya sit-in protest, in east Cairo.
The regime claimed that pro-Morsi supporters fired first, while the MB accused the police of orchestrating a bloodbath. Many victims were shot in the head and chest - a clear 'shoot-to-kill' policy.
The tops of the military and police are intent on violently crushing all pro-Morsi demonstrations and intimidating dissent.
Deposed president Morsi remains under arrest and is charged with conspiring with Hamas and "economic sabotage".
Saturday's massacre followed calls by the Egypt's army chief, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, for mass protests against pro-Morsi "terrorists".
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, could only bring himself to note "deep concern about the bloodshed and violence".
Unlike Libya under Colonel Gaddafi's rule in 2011, the EU, Britain, France and the US are not advocating any serious action to stop state massacres in Egypt.
This is because the Egyptian military are a key ally of US imperialism in the region, funded to the tune of $1.3 billion a year by the Pentagon.
The US and EU are broadly backing al-Sisi, while pushing for the stabilisation of an 'inclusive' regime in Egypt, to see an end to mass protests.
Morsi was removed by the army tops on 2 July, following enormous anti-Muslim Brotherhood protests involving at least 17 million people.
The mass movement was fuelled by deep anger at the MB's right wing policies, authoritarianism, collusion with police brutality, largely pro-US foreign policy and for presiding over the country's disastrous economic situation.
Tragically the huge movement had no independent leadership and the military tops were able to put themselves back into power.
Big parts of the 'deep state', including the old Mubarak apparatus, were never reconciled to MB rule.
The generals also acted to remove Morsi to cut across the street protests and a planned general strike, which they feared could have threatened the entire ruling elite.
Working people in Egypt have nothing to gain from the current military-appointed regime, which involves various neoliberals, Mubarak-era figures and Mohammad El-Baradei, a leader of the pro-capitalist National Salvation Front, and now Vice President.
The regime will come under intense pressure from the IMF to make cuts in fuel and food subsidies and other austerity measures in return for a financial lifeline, throwing millions more Egyptians into penury. Inevitably the regime will come into direct conflict with the working class.
The state's guns fired against MB supporters today can be turned against striking workers and radicalised youth tomorrow.
The interim prime minister has been given powers to declare a state of emergency and he announced the return of notorious Mubarak-era police units.
The Tamarod (Rebel) movement that helped spark the mass anti-Morsi movement was supported by some left groups, like the Revolutionary Socialists.
But Tamarod spokespersons supported the generals' takeover. A leader of the independent unions, Kamal Abu-Eita, is now Minister for Manpower and advocating an end to all industrial action.
The Egyptian masses have shown great reservoirs of energy and courage in overthrowing two regimes in just a few months. They will not easily accept a new repressive regime and neoliberal policies.
But to satisfy the urgent demands of the masses - including democratic rights, jobs and a living wage - requires the building of a genuinely independent workers' movement with socialist policies to struggle for power and to transform society.
Video by Paul Phillips.
The Greater Manchester Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation hit the ground running on 20 July at an energetic rally attended by anti-cuts groups from across the city.
Over 100 people turned out to inaugurate the federation, including affected residents and tenants, trade unionists, local activists and contingents from sister campaigns in Liverpool and Barnsley.
Roger Lewis from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Marion Nisbet from the Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation gave stirring addresses. Speakers from the floor gave their stories of the misery created in their communities by the pernicious bedroom tax, as well as the victories that local campaigns have scored. Tales of lobbying Labour councillors all came with the same familiar response of indifference and contempt from New Labour.
The meeting discussed the options for future action, including the possibility of civil disobedience to prevent bailiffs entering and repossessing homes. One speaker said: "There will be blood on the pavement outside my house before I leave it!"
After a spirited democratic discussion, the federation's founding statement was ratified unanimously. A steering committee was elected, including six Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition supporters.
On 23 July, Acocks Green in Birmingham saw its first anti-bedroom tax meeting, organised by local Socialist Party activist Eamon Flynn.
The 40 people attending listened to Dave Nellist, former Labour MP and Socialist Party councillor.
Dave compared social housing tenants losing 14% or 25% of their housing benefit for having 'spare rooms', to the £10,000s claimed by MPs for having a second home in London. With 23 millionaires in the Con-Dem cabinet, the bedroom tax is a law by the rich, for the rich.
The insanity of the bedroom tax was illustrated by a recent case with a major housing association, where Dave had helped in a dispute over the designation of a 4'1" wide box-room as a spare bedroom!
He proposed that, if councillors continue to implement the bedroom tax, ordinary working class people should put forward candidates of their own; representatives who would fight for the interests of working class people of Birmingham.
There were many in the audience who gave accounts of their very difficult circumstances, including a woman whose son was away in the army so his room is classified as spare!
At the end of the meeting, many attendees put themselves forward to help set up a local anti-bedroom tax group.
The High Court has rejected a challenge by ten disabled families over the bedroom tax, saying that the benefit cut does not breach human rights.
Two thirds of households affected by the bedroom tax contain someone who is disabled.
The BBC has reported that the Con-Dem government is "incredibly pleased" by the decision.
The families are going to appeal against the decision, but the court's verdict shows that mass action is needed to defeat the tax.
'Tough decisions' and 'hard choices' seem to be the stock replies by Labour in Lambeth, south London, when questioned about their diet of endless cuts.
In reality the hard choices and tough decisions are being made daily by people burdened with low wages, the bedroom tax, benefits caps and overcrowding.
That's why the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stood in the Tulse Hill byelection and offered a socialist alternative to the misery of cuts and austerity.
Our approach went down well on the estates and streets of an area blighted by recession. TUSC came fourth with 74 votes (3.3%) and beat both the Tories and Ukip.
More importantly, we made contact with dozens of local people who want to see a serious fightback against a Labour council hell bent on passing on government cuts.
TUSC now has a target of standing in at least ten Lambeth wards in the council elections next year.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is an electoral alliance that stands candidates against all cuts and privatisation.
It involves the RMT transport workers' union, leading members of other trade unions including the PCS, NUT and POA, and socialist groups including the Socialist Party.
30 people attended the Brent TUSC meeting on 23 July, with speakers including Steve Hedley, RMT assistant general secretary, Hank Roberts, Association of Teachers and Lecturers national president and Brent ATL Secretary (personal capacity) , Helen Davies - Barnet Unison and Unison NEC (personal capacity), Nancy Taaffe - Waltham Forest TUSC candidate and Isabel Counihan-Sanchez, housing campaigner.
The scandal of Sports Direct employing their entire part-time workforce (90% of employees) on zero hours contracts has been exposed this week.
At the same time they are paying huge bonuses in the forms of shares to 2,000 staff. But the bonus scheme only applies to full-time workers - mostly supervisors or managers.
And managers are apparently allowed to exclude workers from the bonus scheme for 'under-performing'.
The workers on zero hours don't know how many hours they will get to work from one week to the next, making it impossible to plan ahead or pay normal household expenses. They are also not entitled to sick pay or holiday pay.
This precarious existence is experienced by hundreds of thousands of workers - even the government statistics office ONS admit that over 200,000 are on such contracts and nearly half of those are 16-24.
These figures are rising as the bosses pass the effects of their crisis onto the workers at the bottom of the employment pile.
A combination of zero hours contracts, plus working hours and bonuses which can be arbitrarily withdrawn as a disciplinary measure, creates a bullying climate of fear in many workplaces.
Laurence, a young worker from south London is on a zero hours contract.
He told the Socialist: "The biggest things for me are that it makes it impossible to plan what you're doing on a week to week basis.
"That means it's socially inconvenient but obviously you don't know what money you'll have anyway.
"It's impossible to navigate the benefits system, which is designed for people who are on a fixed income. You can't tell them how much you earn."
But there is a fight back. Youth Fight for Jobs has launched the "Are You Sick of Your Boss" campaign.
They will be protesting in London outside Sports Direct in Oxford Street on 3 August and spreading the protests around the country.
Youth Fight for Jobs spokesperson Ian Pattison said: "We won't win proper contracts with guaranteed hours by asking nicely.
"Around the country, we will be marching straight into Sports Direct stores speaking directly to staff about how they can fight and strike for better rights and conditions."
This morning I sat with a 52 year old man as he wept. I've been a mental health nurse for more than two decades and commonly see patients in different states of distress but on this occasion the man's tears were not caused by a psychiatric disorder. He was crying because his benefits have been stopped and he has no idea how he will survive.
I work in a mental health home treatment team. Our remit is to provide intensive community support for people who are acutely unwell. Without the input of our team, most of our patients would have to be admitted to hospital.
Despite the fact that this gentleman is unwell and has had sick notes and supporting letters from our consultant psychiatrist confirming this, his Employment Support Allowance has been stopped and he has been told that he must apply for Jobseekers' Allowance and demonstrate that he is actively seeking work. Due to his current poor health, this is impossible for him to even start to contemplate.
I wish I could say that this gentleman is an exception, a rarity, but he is not. As the Con-Dem austerity knife cuts deeper, my colleagues and I are seeing more and more people in the same predicament. Vulnerable people who find themselves dragged to a dreaded Atos assessment or stung by the bedroom tax and have their already fragile mental health further undermined as a result.
I advised the gentleman to go to the Citizens Advice Bureau, ensured that a family member would be able to take him and moved on to my next visit.
I am angry. Furious that the most vulnerable people in one of the world's richest countries are intimidated in this way.
If you feel the same when you hear stories like this, don't just sit on that anger - use it. Let it motivate you to redouble your efforts to build the Socialist Party and to fight for a world where every human being is able to live with dignity and free of fear. That's what I do. It's how I stay sane.
Tamil Solidarity's protest against the 2013 Commonwealth meeting, due to take place in November in Sri Lanka, received a boost from the London region executive council of the RMT transport workers union.
It took a unanimous decision to affiliate to Tamil Solidarity and to take up the protest, after hearing from Isai Priya, a member of the campaign's national coordinating committee.
She expressed the outrage of the Tamil community at the decision to hold the meeting in Sri Lanka, as this will give a world stage to the authoritarian president, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
His regime stands accused of the most vicious war crimes, including the massacres of many tens of thousands of Tamil-speaking people in the first half of 2009.
Isai also condemned the decision to send Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince Charles to represent the British government and crown at the Commonwealth.
Tamil Solidarity has drawn up a protest letter - available at www.tamilsolidarity.org - for union branches, student and community groups to pass.
Over 130 copies of the Socialist were sold at the 2013 Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset when petitioning for the TUC to call a 24-hour general strike against austerity. Several people said they would attend the lobby of the TUC congress in Bournemouth.
Thousands of people attended the two-day festival, which remembers the six farm workers who were arrested and exiled to Australia in 1834 for forming a union.
"I really hate the bedroom tax and I want to help your campaign to get rid of it," said one person who donated £10 to Socialist Party campaigners in Lincoln, despite being affected by the bedroom tax himself. 12 copies of the Socialist were sold on the weekday stall with £47 fighting fund raised in total.
Discussions and debates every morning and evening • Activities available include climbing wall, archery, zip line, paintball, golf and fishing.• Regular meals cooked each day, available at reasonable prices • Evening burger bar • Camp fire • Quiz night • Live music • Crèche for younger children during discussions • Red Flag Club for older children
Bring along a tent, sleeping bag, plate, cup, bowl, knife, fork and spoon.
Costs (not including food): Waged adult £50; Unwaged £30; Family of 4: £100; Child over 4: £12.50; Deposit £20 per person.
The fortnightly schedule allows members of the editorial staff to attend the CWI Summer School and also take some holiday! In the meantime, with workers' struggles, anti-bedroom tax campaigns and other protests against austerity continuing, we recommend you keep a close eye on the Socialist Party website:
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@Socialist_Party and @Socialistpaper).
CWU members in Royal Mail are meeting on 31 July and 1 August to discuss defending the service against privatisation.
In a recent consultative ballot there was a 96% vote against the government's plans to float Royal Mail on the stockmarket within nine months.
The CWU has announced that it will have no choice but to proceed with an industrial action ballot if it can't get a watertight national agreement on protection of its existing national agreements.
We should go further than this. No matter what the law says we should take industrial action against privatisation.
As the law stands just now you can only take action if there is a trade dispute and the question of who owns the company would not be seen as a legitimate trade dispute under the current anti-trade union legislation.
But we should make it clear we will be fighting privatisation by any means necessary, up to and including strike action.
Our fight cannot be taken in isolation from the pay talks and other talks around pensions as well as the future of Royal Mail.
The union proposed a two-year deal which was followed up with a counter proposal of a three-year deal by the management.
This is because they want to clear up all issues and have a period of settling-in for a newly privatised service without any major industrial relation issues. We should oppose any pay deals longer than two years.
Churchill cleaners for the Tyne and Wear Metro have mounted a serious escalation in their industrial action.
They began two weeks of strike action on 13th July to coincide with the Durham Miners' Gala, as part of their ongoing battle against their company that is not providing them with a decent wage and working conditions.
The workers are currently on the minimum wage and many are still not on permanent contracts after years with the company. This latest action is their longest strike to date.
"Value for money for the taxpayer" is what Nexus director Bernard Gardner believes he is delivering for service users by contracting out these workers to the lowest bidder and investing in the Metro system.
Yet Gardner himself has seen a salary increase of 18% to £155,000 over the past five years, while the Churchill workers see no sick pay, no pensions and do not even receive travel allowances on the Metro.
RMT shop steward Stuart Roberts told the Socialist: "The decision to escalate strike action was one made by the cleaners themselves, since no movement has come from the company or any of the local politicians.
"Our dispute is said to be the longest-running in thirty years and if there is still no movement we will consider increasing it once again - possibly to a month.
"Our contract was sold off to the worst of the worst companies and the Labour government allowed this privatisation to take place, they have turned their backs on ordinary people. It is disgraceful that the Labour Party are overseeing this and doing nothing."
Another worker, currently on maternity leave, commented that the company need to buck their ideas up; all of the workers just want it to be done with but you've got to do what you've got to do.
She also went on to say that she is only receiving statutory maternity pay, while other companies offer full pay for at least the first three months.
There was another case of a female worker having to take a day's annual leave to attend a pre-natal scan, which should be covered under the 2010 Equality Act that states that pregnant workers should still receive payment when taking time out for these appointments. The union threatened to take the company to tribunal over this act of discrimination and the worker was rightly given the time off without it reaching that stage.
Regarding the next increase to the minimum wage, Churchill worker Jimmy 'Salou' Walker pointed out that they will not see this pay rise until the end of October.
Nightshift workers are paid no more than daytime staff either, at a time when there is little security presence on the Metro system. "The councillors don't want to talk; they're burying their heads in the sand hoping this will all go away.
"DB Regio don't want to know, Nexus don't want to know. But we're a strong union, we're prepared to keep coming out until we win this."
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 17 July 2013 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
Highly skilled and dedicated workers looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society have undertaken a second three-day strike against massive pay cuts.
Following a three year pay freeze, One Housing Group bosses decided to slash wages by up to £8,000 a year.
As the workers say: "if we sign the new contracts they will cut our wages next February. If we refuse to sign, they will cut our wages now".
At the Ponders End picket line, Unite members explained: "Even more people are out this time than last time because management have been so intransigent.
"Everyone's even angrier because of the bonuses. The volunteers are not coming in. Effectively we've brought the service to a closure."
One said: "I feel sorry for my clients but it's got to the stage where we have no choice".
One Housing management have decided to pay a £750 bonus to all staff apart from the care and support staff! There have even been protests from managers about the gross unfairness of this move.
Management agree that OHG is in good financial shape. They are making huge surpluses and the CEO has awarded himself a £31,000 pay increase.
Management brazenly say that they are not cutting pay because there is no money; they are cutting pay so they can undercut other service providers bidding for contracts.
Workers are determined to fight this disgraceful race to the bottom. They want to stop the pay cuts. They want to be treated with dignity, decency, respect and equality.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 25 July 2013 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
Fees for going to an Employment Tribunal have just been introduced. It will now cost £160 for relatively minor cases, or £250 for issues like unfair dismissal, to lodge a claim and a further charge of up to £950 if the case goes ahead.
Employment Appeal Tribunal fees are £400 to lodge an appeal and another £1,200 for a full hearing.
Unison is going to a judicial review over the introduction of the charges and the GMB protested outside a tribunal in central London when they were introduced.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey described the introduction of the fees as "a throwback to Victorian times".
This is yet another reason for a united trade union battle against the Con-Dem attacks on workers - starting with a 24-hour general strike.
Workers in the 371 Crown post offices were on strike for the ninth time on 29 July, over closures, jobs and pay. 4,000 workers were on strike across the network.
The Post Office wants to close or franchise out 75 Crown offices and cut 1,500 jobs. The workers have not had a pay rise since April 2011 while head office managers shared a bonus pot of £15.4 million.
The CWU members voted by nine to one to strike. The Post Office published half-year profits of £61 million in September 2012.
Transport union RMT is balloting its members on London Overground for strike action after Transport for London (TfL) announced plans to introduce driver only operation across the overground network. They are trying to axe 130 guards posts.
This is a massive threat to safety on the network and the union is organising a series of public meetings and protests as well as the ballot. The ballot closes on 15 August.
The Samaritans have derecognised Unite as the union for its 110-strong workforce. At the same time management have announced that they want to make sweeping changes to policies and procedures.
Unite are consulting the membership about how to respond to this attack - this is likely to include industrial action if the Samaritans refuse to negotiate.
PCS members working for Equiniti on NHS contracts were on strike for the second time on 29 July.
They were out previously on 1 July in a pay dispute.
The company initially agreed to benchmark pay against comparators in the public and private sectors but they have reneged on this agreement. Instead the company pays poverty wages whilst making millions on the contract.
The well-supported picket line in Fleetwood vowed to continue to put pressure on the company to negotiate.
For more information and a model resolution on the lobby see: www.shopstewards.net
In this book Jonathan Sperber says he aims to place the great revolutionary thinker and activist firmly in his times.
In a comprehensive, readable biography, the University of Missouri's Professor of History does succeed in portraying Marx engaging with 19th century society and intellectual currents.
The juxtaposition of Marx the public activist, theoretician and private man are generally well-balanced in Sperber's hands.
But a central assertion of Sperber's - that Marx's ideas have limited application or are largely irrelevant to 20th and 21st century politics and society - is the book's fundamental flaw.
Today, more and more workers and youth look to Marx's ideas to find an explanation for what has gone so badly wrong with world capitalism.
Not long ago Marx's ideas were derided by most defenders of the profit system. Now this year Time magazine ran an article, entitled, 'Marx's Revenge: How Class Struggle Is Shaping the World'.
The unfolding drama of the Egyptian revolution, alongside other mass movements and strikes across southern Europe, Turkey, Brazil and elsewhere, show that Marx's writings on the role of the masses in struggling to change society, the international character of this process and the need for a revolutionary socialist leadership have never been more relevant.
Sperber's mining of the "total editions of Marx's and Engels's writings" does not cause fundamental re-evaluation of Marx the man or his ideas. Sperber generally adds to our knowledge more biographical details and colour.
These include Marx's complex relations with his parents; his Jewish heritage (his lawyer father converted to Protestantism to escape restrictions imposed upon Jews); doubts over the supposed aristocratic Prussian background of Jenny von Westphalen, Karl's future wife; and the long years of poverty the Marx family endured in London exile, which led to Karl and Jenny's chronic ill health and to the death of several of their children.
Sperber recreates mid-19th century Trier, where Marx was born on 5 May 1818. The town fell under Napoleonic and later Prussian rule, leaving the young Marx with deep antipathy to Prussia's military and aristocratic orders.
As a student in Bonn and Berlin, Marx was hugely influenced by the great philosophers, GWF Hegel (who developed the dialectical method but in an obscure way) and Ludwig Feuerbach (who espoused a materialist philosophy).
Sperber also emphasises the impact on Marx of radical followers of Hegel, like Eduard Gans and Bruno Bauer.
Marx became involved in the Young Hegelians movement, who held a radical critique of Christianity and, by implication, a liberal opposition to the Prussian autocracy.
Sperber highlights Marx's work as a radical journalist, which he began after the authorities denied him an academic career.
Marx became editor, in Cologne, of the Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal newspaper backed by Rhenish industrialists.
His incisive articles, particularly on economics, led the government to close the paper.
Marx moved to Paris in 1843, where he began writing for other radical newspapers and met Fredrick Engels, who became his lifelong friend and collaborator.
Marx was in contact with groups of émigré German workers and French socialist sects, trying to form a bridge between early French socialism and German radical Hegelians.
In 'The Economic and Philosphical Manuscripts' Marx championed 'communism', ie the collective ownership of the means of production.
Missing from Sperber's account is the vigour of Marx's revolutionary contribution to human thought. Expelled from Paris in 1844, Marx moved to Brussels where he elaborated in 'The German Ideology' what became known as the materialist conception of history.
Marx traced the history of the various modes of production up to capitalism and its replacement by communism.
In 'The Poverty of Philosophy', Marx broke with the most influential French socialist of that period, Proudhon, who opposed political action by the working class and espoused utopian socialism.
On the eve of the 1848 revolutions that spread across Europe, Marx and Engels were commissioned by the Communist League to write the 'Communist Manifesto'.
This brilliantly set out their view of the communist movement's methods and aims. It explained the materialist conception of history; that human societies progress through class struggle.
Marx argued that capitalism was creating a world market and also the working class. The bourgeoisie were the ownership class that controls production and the working class provides labour for production.
But a new socialist revolution would see the working class act as the "grave diggers" of capitalism, ushering in a new society, based on need not profit.
Early in 1848, Marx moved to Paris, where the revolutions broke out, and then returned to Cologne where he founded the influential Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which presented a radical democrat line against Prussian autocracy.
Marx and Engels consistently advocated tactical and critical support for specific actions of the 19th century's rising capitalist class against reactionary autocracy, while calling for the political independence of the working class.
The Prussian counter-revolution led to Marx's expulsion from Germany and to exile in England in 1849.
He rejoined the Communist League and wrote important pamphlets on the 1848 revolution in France ('The Class Struggles in France' and 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte').
In preparation for renewed revolutionary developments, Marx devoted himself to a study of political economy to determine the causes and conditions of capitalist crisis.
It was not until 1867 that Marx could publish the first results of his work in volume 1 of Capital, which concentrated on the capitalist process of production (volumes 2 and 3 were published posthumously by Engels).
Marx laid bare the nature of capitalist crises which, he explained, were intrinsic to the system. Marx was writing when capitalism was still in its relative youth.
In our epoch, the system has exhausted itself. The productive forces have been strangled by the barriers of private ownership and the nation state.
One reason why Marx was delayed in his work on 'Capital', (his initial plan included separate volumes on the state, international trade, and the world market and crises) was that he gave so much time to the International Working Men's Association (1864) - the First International.
Marx and Engels played a leading role politically and organisationally in this formation. Sperber gives a lively account of Marx's struggle against the influence of Bakunin and the International's anarchist wing, where Marx insisted upon the working class acting as the main agent of socialist change.
During this period, Marx wrote 'The Civil War in France', which drew important lessons after the bloody defeat of the 1871 Paris Commune.
Not least, Marx analysed the role of the capitalist state, which has strong echoes today in Egypt.
The last decade of Marx's life saw a steady decline in his health and the death of his wife and a daughter.
Yet he developed his theories and commented substantially on contemporary politics. Although he strongly criticised the Programme adopted by the unification congress (1878) of German social democracy ('Critique of the Gotha Programme'), Marx was encouraged by the spread of socialist organisations throughout Europe, and by his ideas' growing influence in the socialist movement.
Throughout his comprehensive account, Sperber presents Marx's ideas alongside opposing views, from Marx's time and since.
For example, Sperber repeats the old myth that Marx's ideas were distorted and misrepresented by Engels, which "were then absorbed by an entire generation of socialist intellectuals and political leaders".
He says Engels' book, Anti-Dühring, which refuted the arguments of an economics lecturer who denounced Marx's ideas, was "a nasty and unpopular polemic" and wrongly presented Marx's ideas as a "positive science".
But Engels was never a crude "positivist" - as Sperber infers - who argued that the development of science meant philosophy was redundant and had lost all intellectual relevance.
On the contrary, Engels' (and Marx's) dialectical method led them to counsel that findings of even brilliant natural scientists will be limited to the extent that they lack philosophical understanding.
Marx and Engels' voluminous correspondence shows intimate intellectual and political collaboration from 1844 until Marx's death in 1883, with only secondary differences expressed.
Engels published Anti-Dühring with Marx's encouragement and Marx even wrote the section on the economy.
Not all that Marx and Engels wrote was correct in every detail or has always been confirmed by events.
Yet their contribution to our understanding of society has been immense and continues to be so. Not only that.
Marxism is a guide to action. As Marx famously remarked, "Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point, however, is to change it".
Marxism in Today's World, an excellent demonstration of Marxism's relevance to today's complex society, is now available in a new edition with a new introduction.
Socialist Books, PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD
020 8988 8789 www.socialistbooks.org.uk
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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.
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