26 articles from the Socialist, issue 448
13 July 2006
Socialist Party NHS campaign
NHS: Uniting to fight the cuts
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NHS WORKERS, patients and members of the public will march in Birmingham on Saturday 15 July. They will come from all over the Midlands and beyond, writes Andy Bentley, secretary North Staffs NHS SOS Campaign
Hewitt hides from health protesters
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HEALTH SECRETARY Patricia Hewitt hid from protesting health workers and patients from her own area last Saturday, 8 July. 300 people took part in the march in Leicester in protest against health service cuts and privatisation, writes Steve Score, Leicester Socialist Party.
I LIVE in Runcorn on an estate only a ten minute walk away from Halton Hospital. This is a vital service for those elderly and infirm on the estate including my own mother, who relies heavily on its services, writes Simon Swanick (PCS Wirral branch – personal capacity).
THE LOBBY of the health unions at the TUC organised by UNISON health branches has caused the union leadership to get active. Not in support of the idea of a national demo against the cuts in the NHS, but in threatening to discipline…
Youth and Education
ISR campaign against poverty pay: YOUNG AND working this summer? Chances are it’s a low paid ‘McJob’, a job with no opportunities to get better pay, and no job security where we can be hired and fired seemingly at will. Or so it seems, writes Tom Penman, Leicester ISR.
Parents win High Court victory
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Education: THE CAMPAIGN Against Academies in Merton (CAAM) has won an important first victory in the High Court in the first of three test cases over the government’s divisive academy schools proposals…
Socialist Party campaigns
Welfare Reform Bill scapegoats disabled people!
THE BLAIR government has brought out a new Welfare Reform Bill that aims to ‘save’ billions in incapacity and other benefits by forcing disabled people (among others) into poverty…
THE FAR-right British National Party (BNP) achieved significant advances in the May 2006 local elections, where they won 33 more councillors bringing their total to 55 nationally, writes Andy Bentley, Stoke Socialist Party.
Wales launches Campaign for New Workers’ Party
A WELL-attended meeting, mainly of trade union activists and largely drawn from South Wales, met in Cardiff on 29 June to launch the Campaign for a New Workers Party (CNWP) in Wales…
International socialist news and analysis
Israeli regime’s air invasion of Lebanon threatens regional war
"We will turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years". This threat from an Israeli general is now being implemented by a brutal bombardment of Lebanon by the Israeli army, the IDF. Within seven days, many parts of Lebanon…
Another stolen presidency in Mexico?
HUNDREDS of thousands of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s supporters rallied in Mexico City to demand a full recount of the country’s hotly contested presidential election…
Netherlands: Coalition government falls apart
ON 29 June the Dutch right-wing coalition government collapsed. It was made up of the Christian-democrats (CDA) led by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the right wing liberal party (VVD) and the so-called ‘left-liberals’, writes Ron Blom, Offensief (CWI, Netherlands).
Socialist Party workplace news and analysis
RMT conference: Striking back against privatisation
THE RMT, railworkers and seafarers’ union, conference met in Dublin last week to face up to attacks from employers on privatisation, pensions and pay, writes Ken Smith.
"Join the union to change the union"
Organising a fightback at Somerfield: A YOUNG shopworker, a member of USDAW and a shop steward, recently spoke to the socialist about organising in his workplace. Supermarket chain Somerfield was taken over by a consortium involving Barclay’s Bank last year…
Socialist Party feature
How the farmworkers got organised
1834, 1906, 2006: EVERY YEAR thousands of trade unionists journey to Tolpuddle in Dorset, to celebrate the brave and pioneering work of six agricultural workers who were sentenced to seven years transportation in 1834 for trying to form a union…
National Blood Service: Fighting job cuts
AMICUS MEMBERS in the National Blood Service are fighting 200 proposed job losses in the National Blood Service (NBS) laboratories in Birmingham, Southampton and Plymouth, writes Andy Ford, Amicus rep, NBS (personal capacity).
Socialist Party review
‘Storming heaven’: Battle for Spain – The Spanish Civil War
ON THE 70th anniversary of its outbreak, PETER TAAFFE reviews Battle for Spain – The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 by Anthony Beevor (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £25)…
Socialist Party National committee report
National committee report: The National Committee meeting on 6-7 July had a packed political and organisational agenda reflecting important developments and opportunities ahead, writes Nick Chaffey Southampton.
