Articles from the Socialist, issue 569

3 March 2009

THE CAPITALIST economy is going deeper into recession. 320,000 jobs could be destroyed in Britain in the next three months, ‘business advisers’ now predict. Over two million people are already out of…

Hands off our post!

BUSINESS SECRETARY Peter Mandelson, like a creature from the lagoon, is pressing ahead with Labour’s Postal Services Bill, claiming that only the ‘expertise’ of the private sector can ‘modernise’ Britain’s postal services, writes Chris Moore, Save Our Post Offices organiser.

Marx was right all along

“As capitalism stares into the abyss, was Marx right all along?”
This is not from The Socialist but from Stephen King, HSBC Banking Group’s Chief Economist, writing in The Independent (2 March).
Moreover, he answers his own question in the affirmative, writes Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary.

Has globalisation gone into reverse?

As the world credit crunch and financial crisis spread to the real economy, government leaders gathered at a G-20 summit, last November, agreed not to raise barriers to trade and investment and not to go down the road of ‘beggar thy neighbour’ protectionism, writes Niall Mulholland.

Anti-fees demo success – despite NUS leaders’ obstructions

A LOUD and militant march of over a thousand students took place in central London on 25 February. It demanded free education and living grants for all. It further called for mass opposition to university…

Youth Fight for Jobs

Birmingham: Members of the Socialist Party’s Birmingham branch have taken on the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign with gusto in recent weeks…

Construction workers plan more action

After another mass picket outside Staythorpe power station on 24 February to protest against the exclusion by Alstom of UK labour from jobs on the site, 3-400 construction workers marched into nearby Newark town centre demanding “What do we want, writes Alistair Tice.

Stop bullying at BT

Hundreds of BT engineers and members of CWU Solent branch, staged a mass demo in Southampton on 28 February to protest at the highly aggressive approach at work by BT managers over performance targets and sickness…

Sogefi workers demand strike

NUJ action

Cover supervisors: Teaching on the cheap

National Shop Stewards Network: Brighton launch meeting

International Women’s Day 8 March: Don’t make women pay for the bosses’ crisis

Women faced discrimination when the economy is booming. What then will be the consequences for women of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s? A fightback is necessary to…

Solidarity with Constantina Kuneva

Ireland: Scrap the ‘pension levy’: Organise a one-day general strike

THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is conducting a ballot of all its affiliated members for a general strike on 30 March 2009, writes Michael Murphy, Socialist Party (CWI, Ireland).

Support The Socialist on May Day this year

To celebrate International Workers’ Day and help the paper to continue reporting the viewpoints of people in struggle, The Socialist appeals to you for a May Day greeting in 2009, writes Bob Severn.