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Socialist Party news and analysis
There is nothing left to cut. Even Tory council leaders don’t know where they’ll find the government’s latest ‘savings’!
Trade unionists must organise fightback: The National Health Service (NHS) in England is in financial meltdown due to the Tories’ relentless drive toward privatisation.
Defiant mood as junior doctors demonstrate
Junior doctors from across the country demonstrated in London on 6 February. Medics protested against unsafe changes to working hours, and what are effectively pay cuts.
Lawyers defeat Tories’ unjust legal aid cuts
Justice Secretary Michael Gove has made a complete u-turn on cuts to legal aid at the end of January.
Cushy government job for Amazon boss
Tory work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has appointed Doug Gurr, president of Amazon China, to his department’s board of directors.
‘Pro-rape’ anti-feminist Roosh V humiliated
Anti-sexism campaigners have humiliated “pro-rape” activist Roosh V. Over 40 turned out to protest against rape culture in Cardiff.
Liverpool fans walk out against ticket price hikes
15,000 Liverpool fans walked out of the team’s game with Sunderland in protest against owners’ extortionate price hikes.
It’s one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us. Tory MP ‘doesn’t notice’ £400,000 income, 16 million workers worse off with new pensions. Cameron’s mum fights the cuts.
Socialist Party feature
Mental health: system in crisis
Mental health services are being cut to the bone and patients are dying as a result. There has been a 20% spike in deaths in mental health care in the last year.
Mental health: My battle for the help I needed
I was told by my GP that I have severe depression and anxiety on 1 October 2015. Now I had a name for it. And suddenly whoosh, I joined the one in five that will at some stage of their life suffer from some form of depression.
What we think
Cameron’s EU renegotiation charade
The Socialist Party opposes the EU, Cameron’s deal included, in order to defend working class interests and take forward the fight for socialism, in Britain and Europe.
Don’t give money to Ukip and Tory EU campaigners!
The establishment media has already decided that reactionary pro-austerity politicians are the only exit voices they will feature. They completely ignore the millions of trade unionists and young people who, like the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, oppose the EU from a completely different standpoint.
Momentum, Labour and the Socialist Party
Lack of strategy and exclusions threaten Momentum
On Saturday 6 February Momentum organised its first national committee. The response of John McTernan, former Blairite advisor, was: “It’s war.” Well, if it is a war, and it is, then Momentum is unfortunately setting itself up for defeat.
Birmingham: socialists kicked out of Momentum
If Momentum is to be a success it needs to throw its doors open to all those who want to fight austerity, not just Labour Party members. It should be putting its energy into kicking out the careerists and the Blairites, not the socialists.
Labour right wing blocks call to debate budget cuts
Southampton Labour council will this week propose the largest cuts to jobs and services since it took office in 2011
Socialist Party workplace news
No-cuts strategy needed to save 25,000 council jobs
The GMB union has revealed that there are over 25,000 redundancies in the offing at 52 English, Scottish and Welsh councils.
Local government union backs no-cuts council budgets
Unison’s local government SGE has called on councils not to implement cuts
Big victory at Small Heath School against academy attack
The third week of strike action in the Small Heath School dispute in Birmingham due to run from 2 to 4 February was called off after the sponsors of the proposed academy withdrew their interest on 29 January.
Cuts to premiums mean no ‘rise’ in store for Tesco workers
I almost laughed when I was told by my manager that I was getting a pay rise. From July I will be paid 23p more an hour. Great, what’s not to like? But with a cut in premiums I won’t be getting a rise at all.
Leicester taxi dispute: Labour’s rank hypocrisy
Taxi drivers in Leicester, organised in transport workers’ union RMT, are furious at the dictatorial attitude of the city’s Labour mayor in cutting taxi ranks and imposing red tape.
South London: Library workers strike to save services
Library workers in Greenwich and Bromley have taken strike action
Continued action in crane drivers’ pay dispute
Crane drivers for Ainscough, the country’s largest crane supplier, took a second day of strike action on 8 February over pay.
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles. Action against blacklisting at Fawley refinery near Southampton and potential opera chorus strike.
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Portsmouth: support for anti-austerity stand
On 28 January Portsmouth TUSC organised a public meeting on how to oppose the city council’s cuts by putting forward an alternative no-cuts budget.
Leeds meeting expresses Corbyn and McDonnell’s contradictions
Hundreds crammed into a Leeds meeting hall recently to hear Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell speak. But his vision for change isn’t yet matched by a strategy to achieve it.
Socialist Party members inspired by conference
Party members from 20 different villages, towns and cities met in Bristol
Torbay may be the English Riviera for the well-heeled, but for many working people it is a place of poverty, insecurity and low wages.
Anger against plans to close Bradford libraries
The planned decimation of library services in the Bradford area of West Yorkshire has led to angry scenes at recent ‘consultation’ meetings, where details about the possible closure of eleven libraries have been put on the table.
The Socialist Party held our first public activity in Redditch town centre on 30 January where the maternity unit at Alexandra hospital unit is under threat of permanent closure.
International socialist news and analysis
Sanders’ socialist message rattling the establishment
US elections: The opening US presidential primaries showed support for ‘non-establishment’ candidates in both the Republican and Democratic Party caucuses
US elections: Clinton coins it
Right-wing US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton earned $675,000 giving speeches for parasite speculators Goldman Sachs in 2013.
Short stories on workers’ struggles around the world. Irish general election, South Africa outsourcing victory and campaigning for workers’ rights in Taiwan