16 articles from the Socialist, issue 424
26 January 2006
Striking to save jobs & services
OUR MEMBERS in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have come to the end of their tether. Staff are working more overtime than you can shake a stick at but even so, the department isn’t coping…
THREE THOUSAND angry local people marched through the normally quiet streets of Kendal in Cumbria on 21 January, protesting at cutbacks in the local hospital…
UNISON’S INDUSTRIAL Action Committee has approved a request to ballot members over the government’s plans to attack local government workers’ pensions…
City greed hits workers’ pensions
MILLIONS OF workers expecting pensions on their retirement will be hit by a crisis in the numerous pension funds. The City of London’s gilts market has had its lowest yields in half a century and pension funds are suffering.
THE YOUTH Forum of the civil service union PCS, held on 14/15 January, was the first national conference of the PCS Young Members’ Network…
‘Crisis in working class political representation’
Manny Thain reports from the conference called by the RMT on working-class political representation…
Time for a new mass workers’ party
Ken Smith, Socialist Party Executive Committee, looks at the way forward after the RMT conference held in London on 21 January…
A socialist world is necessary
Socialist Students is a national student organisation with active members in over 70 universities and colleges in England and Wales. We have been building campaigns against fees, cuts and closures, against war, terrorism, racism…
An antidote to cuts, lies and corruption
At last year’s Labour Party Conference, 82-year-old Walter Wolfgang was violently expelled for shouting "Nonsense!" at Jack Straw, who was trying to defend New Labour’s support for the brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq…
Morales’ presidential victory – a new phase in the class struggle
With Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez declaring an "anti-imperialist front" does this signify a genuine movement toward socialism or will both presidents seek to compromise with capitalism…
Chile: First woman president elected
THE ELECTION of Michel Bachelet as the first woman to be elected President of Chile has aroused big interest around the world…
Venezuela: Nurses protest in Caracas
"WE WANT the president’s ear and the health minister’s head". Over 50 nurses were protesting outside the Miraflores – President Chavez’s palace in Caracas, Venezuela. They had blocked the road and were faced…
Blair’s ‘high wire act’ – heading for a fall?
SO FAR nearly one hundred Labour MP’s are opposing the Schools White Paper backed by Blair revealing a Prime Minister who is well past his sell-by-date…
Lincoln fights to defend council housing
ACROSS THE country local councils are getting rid of their council housing through private finance initiatives (PFI), arms length management schemes and sell-offs to private companies and housing associations…
Homophobia isn’t the exclusive preserve of any religion
Reviews: Gay Muslims Channel 4: THE EXPERIENCE of British gay and lesbian Muslims was the subject for the Channel 4 documentary Gay Muslims. One of the aims of the programme was to illustrate the diversity within Islam and how different Muslim communities…
Scaring children into believing in Jesus
Review: The Root of all evil, Channel 4: Richard Dawkins’ two-part programme on religion on Channel 4, The Root of All Evil has provoked a massive over-reaction from the religious right. They show no sign of turning the other cheek and forgiving him!…