Articles from the Socialist, issue 563

21 January 2009

Oliver Twist banks – Please sir, can I have some more?, photo www.squashdonkey.co.uk

Nationalise the banks under full public control

BANK BOSSES, whose reckless greed for profit has helped push Britain and the world into the deepest financial and economic crisis since the second world war, are to receive another bailout from Gordon Brown’s government, writes Roger Shrives.

Gaza war paves way for further conflict

Demonstration against war on Gaza, London, 10 Jan 2009, photo Sarah Mayo

Editorial statement `One thousand two hundred and fifty confirmed dead, with the numbers still rising as bodies are dug out of the rubble…’ This is what the Israeli government calls ‘achieving its aims’.

Egypt: Gaza conflict fuels anti-Mubarak opposition

Readers’ comment: media reporting on Gaza

Hands off Royal Mail

Postal workers on strike, photo Socialist Party

Postal workers across the country reacted with dismay and anger when the Hooper review of Royal Mail was published in December 2008, writes Gary Clark, Sub Area rep Scotland No.2 branch CWU.

Save jobs – nationalise JCB

Fighting the cuts in Greenwich

Shop workers need a fighting trade union leadership

Campaigning in Exeter

Hoover workers march in protest at job losses

Amicus election

Glasgow Unison

Obama takes power: What change will the Democrats bring?

US president Barack Obama supporters, photo Paul Mattsson

OBAMA’S VICTORY in the 2008 election was historic. It signified a clear rejection of the Bush administration and its war on Iraq and ultra-free market policies. Voters also made history by electing the first black president in a country that was built on slavery and racism, writes Ramy Khalil, Socialist Alternative, USA

Refugees and repression in war ravaged Sri Lanka

Protest outside the Sri Lankan embassy in London, photo Paul Mattsson

THE HUMANITARIAN crisis in Sri Lanka has worsened since the government forces captured Kilinochi on 2 January, writes Danny Byrne and Senan, Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI).

Capitalism kills, concludes study of privatisation era

Lawyer assassinated

Opposing the expansion of Heathrow

The government’s decision to give the go ahead for a third runway at Heathrow has dominated headlines in London, writes Neil Cafferky.

Campaigners fight attacks on education and the environment

Students fight academy status

Weston Favell School (WFS) in Northampton is threatened with academy status starting from September 2009, with the United Learning Trust (ULT) as sponsor…

What’s going on? The meanderings of a comic mind in confusion, by Mark Steel

Mark Steel at Socialism 2008, photo Paul Mattsson

Mark Steel was one of the new wave of political (‘alternative’) comedians who emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, writes Ken Douglas.