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Socialist Party news and analysis
Bedroom tax beaten in Scotland
…now lets end all council cuts: The bedroom tax has been effectively defeated in Scotland. The announcement that the Scottish government intends to end the crushing burden of the hated and reviled bedroom tax is a huge victory
The National Health Service is under attack as never before. This feature looks at the effect of a huge government push for privatisation and the predatory actions of the pharmaceutical industry
Trade unions – time to break Labour link is now!
Is this the end for the unions and Labour? In response to the Collins Review proposals to ‘reform’ the link between the unions and Labour, Mirror columnist Kevin Maguire declared: “It is time for the trade unions to march proudly out of Labour’s front door instead of being slowly bundled out of the back”
Labour’s shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has incurred the wrath of the super-rich with his timid proposal that an incoming Labour government would increase the top rate of income tax for those earning over £150,000 a year from 45% back up to 50%
Poor get poorer: We’re still paying for the bankers’ and capitalist crisis
International socialist news and analysis
Sochi winter Olympics – -breaking all records!
When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2014 winter Olympics to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, eyebrows were raised at the cost of $12 billion
Ukraine: battling forces no friends of working class
A violent stand-off between protesters and riot police continues in Kiev, with unrest spreading to other parts of Ukraine
Reports and campaigns
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition conference
Preparing the biggest left of Labour election challenge since the war: Over 200 trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists came together at the TUSC conference in London. Dave Nellist, chairing the event, laid out the ambitious plan to stand 625 candidates as ‘anti-cuts beacons’ in the May 2014 elections.
Socialist Students: Preparing for struggles to come
On 1-2 February Socialist Students met for a national conference, with 61 people from 25 universities and colleges in attendance
Cameron’s cruel cuts hammer the homeless
Floods: fully-funded environmental planning needed
Stop £98 million cuts in Worcestershire
Worcestershire county council will meet on Thursday 13 February to discuss plans for a further £98 million of cuts to public services including the possible withdrawal of all funding for bus services
Fleetwood: MP tries to evade hospital campaigners
Llanelli: The 2 February Socialist Party paper sale and stall in Llanelli town centre supported Unison Carmarthenshire branch’s campaign against cuts in services and jobs proposed by the council and the campaign to save St Paul’s old people’s home
Socialist Party workplace news
Stop the tube cuts: Support the strikes!
As we go to press the RMT and TSSA unions on the London Underground (LU) are preparing for two rounds of 48-hour strike action on 4 and 11 February
RMT and TSSA memebers protesting against the threatened London Underground cuts, photo Paul Mattsson
PCS: Re-elect fighting, campaigning leadership
The elections for the leadership of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will start soon. Nominations will close on 6 March
NUT national executive agrees date for national strike
The NUT national executive has agreed the next steps in our campaign on pay, pensions and conditions, writes Martin Powell-Davies, Member of the NUT national executive.
Yorks ambulance workers strike again
Royal Opera House workers win living wage
Future Directions dispute settled
Readers’ comments
Who supported the 1984-85 miners’ strike?
Demanding a government apology for Thatcher’s ruthless attack on the miners sounds hollow coming from Labour MPs, writes Tony Mulhearn, Liverpool 47 councillor 1983-87.
Pete Seeger – Sound of US protest movement
The death of American folk singer Pete Seeger will be keenly felt by those who lived through the social and political convulsions of the 1960s
Osborne claims recovery – super-exploitation is reality
In October last year I began my apprenticeship as a spray painter. This has not offered a route out of poverty. With an hourly wage of £3.52 an hour, it has just been a route to super-exploitation