16 articles from the Socialist, issue 443
8 June 2006
Don’t let the NHS bleed to death
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Organise for national action now!:“WHY HASN’T the UNISON union called a national demonstration yet? Labour’s privatisation war on the NHS is like death by a thousand cuts. The NHS is bleeding to death”.
This was the response of Claire, a nurse at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS) – it echoes the mood of many health workers, writes Andy Bentley, Stoke.
6,000 protest in Forest of Dean: SIX THOUSAND people, one in seven of all Forest of Dean residents joined a protest rally on 31 May against devastating cuts in Gloucestershire which could decimate health services in the Forest of Dean in particular…
Pregnancy discrimination: Bosses show their dirty tricks
THIRTY YEARS ago, the 1975 Sex Discrimination gave legal protection to pregnant women. Under current legislation it’s automatically unfair to dismiss someone or for them to suffer any other detriment because they’re pregnant, A Citizen’s Advice Bureau worker writes from north London.
Iraq: Bush and Blair’s deadly legacy
LESS THAN three weeks ago Bush and Blair assured us that US and British troops would start to be withdrawn from Iraq, writes Jane James.
A ‘trigger-happy’ police raid?
THE LOCAL community in Forest Gate, east London, was stunned but later angry, after a dawn raid on a terraced house involving 250 police in an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ last week, writes Simon Carter Newham.
Festival of football, carnival of cash
World Cup: OUR TV screens, newspapers and advertising hoardings are full of the World Cup. One of the world’s biggest sporting occasions is only days away. I can’t wait, writes Chris Newby.
Education after New Labour’s Education Bill
THE GOVERNMENT has got its highly contentious Education Bill passed through Parliament, with the full support of the Tory ‘opposition’…
2,000 sign up to Campaign for New Workers’ Party
Two thousand people have now signed up in support of the founding declaration of the Campaign for a New Workers’ Party (CNWP). This includes 40 members of trade union national executive committees, amongst them three more PCS NEC members, writes Fiona Pashazadeh, CNWP National treasurer.
1926 General Strike book launch
OVER 30 people gathered in Ottakar’s bookshop in Walthamstow to hear ‘local author’ and general secretary of the Socialist Party, Peter Taaffe, launch his new book – 1926 General Strike: Workers Taste Power…
National LGBT meeting: The Socialist Party LGBT caucus met on the 25th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. Members from around England and Wales, almost half of them youth or students, met to discuss Marxism, religion and LGBT rights and priorities, writes Tom Penman Leicester.
Natfhe: Final conference shows members’ resolve to fight: As the socialist went to press UCU leaders accepted a revised offer of 13.1% over three years, with 15.5% for non-academic staff…
Socialist Party members make an impact at Wales TUC
“A PARTNERSHIP of unions and employers is a partnership of riders and horses. The employers are always in the saddle!” Alec Thraves summed up the reality of ‘partnership’ agreements while speaking from the rostrum…
PCS conference: ON THE second day of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) section of the civil service union PCS conference, delegates wrestled with the crucial question of "where now for the DWP strikes?", writes Bill Mullins.
Unity needed to fight exploitation
Migrant workers: IN THE first part of an occasional series on asylum and immigration, KEVIN PARSLOW calls for the trade union movement to help migrant workers get organised and fight for their rights…
Right wing fail to stop Berlin WASG
THE LAST two days have seen legal decisions that have cleared the way for the clearly anti-neoliberal Berlin WASG (Election Alternative for Work and Social Justice) to stand in the city’s 17 September regional election, writes Robert Bechert, CWI, Berlin.
Chile: Youth take to the streets demanding action
A WEEK-long mass movement of secondary school students in Chile, demanding education reforms, culminated in a one million strong strike last Monday…
