Articles from the Socialist, issue 587

7 July 2009

THE BATTLE lines are being drawn in the public sector. Chancellor Alistair Darling has warned of a ‘tight squeeze’ on the pay of six million public sector workers. Nancy Taaffe, a trade union activist in Waltham Forest, says it is time to fight back.

Jobs not dole

With every passing week yet more companies announce yet more redundancies. The figures are astounding. Earlier this year we saw the largest quarterly fall of people in employment since 1971…

Brown’s dead duck government

Editorial: U-TURNS, BACKTRACKING, mistakes, lies, defeats, clutching at straws – all everyday occurrences for a government clinging to power by its fingertips…

National Express goes off the rails

THE NEWS that National Express has walked away from its east coast rail franchise comes at a time when most other tocs (train operating companies) are experiencing a drop in revenue due to the recession, writes Mark Pickersgill.

Demanding justice for Shrewsbury 24

News in brief

Why women don’t have real equality

Sir Stuart Rose, executive chair of Marks and Spencer proclaimed in the Observer recently that women have got “more equality than you ever can deal with”…

Police trigger ethnic clashes in Xinjiang

Chinese authorities impose martial law A PEACEFUL sit-down protest in the capital city Ürümqi by around 300 Uighurs, the Turkic-speaking minority that is the dominant population group in Xinjiang, was transformed by trigger-happy police into perhaps the most serious ethnic clashes in China seen in decades, writes Vincent Kolo, chinaworker.info.

Sri Lanka: Protest over DfID role

Stalin’s Nemesis: The Exile and Murder of Leon Trotsky

Review: An account of Trotsky’s last years in exile in Mexico, during his heroic struggles against Stalinism, fascism and capitalism, and, pertinently, during the last great economic crisis, is to be welcomed, Reviewed by Niall Mulholland

Higher fees in higher education

University fees are to be raised by 2.04% in 2010, taking them to £3,290 a year. This means that top-up fees have increased by almost £300 since they were introduced three years ago. On top of this, the…

Teachers’ MOTs

First strike against Trust schools

Strike against BSF proposals

RMT Annual General Meeting: “If provoked – Will strike”

A number of delegates at the transport union RMT’s AGM wore T-shirts picturing a viper and the wording “If provoked – will strike”, writes Elaine Brunskill.

Private companies caught in jobcentre scam

South West Wales Media: Fight for jobs, defend conditions

Oilc – fighting for decent working conditions in the North Sea