News and socialist analysis

Workers shouldn't pay for health and social care plans

As The Socialist goes to press, the Tories are in open warfare over Boris Johnson's plans on funding social care and the NHS in England.

End service cuts and care charges

Fight for free, public, adult social care: Tory-controlled West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is proposing to cut Adult Services by 50% from £10 million to £5 million per year

Families demand rights for care home residents

While government guidance now allows us to go to pubs and music festivals, go on holidays, and meet up with friends, care home residents are being kept under lockdown

Fighting NEU leadership needed to tackle school funding crisis

Vote Martin Powell-Davies for DGS: The Tories have presided over damaging cuts to school funding that have disproportionately affected the most deprived schools, a recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies has concluded.

Schools funding crisis fails vulnerable children

Schools face a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) funding crisis, a £1 billion shortfall in funding

Starmer's New Blairism consolidates

Within days of telling the Financial Times how "very proud" he was of the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer made it clear that his left-wing predecessor Jeremy Corbyn would remain suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party

Unite: Sharon Graham's stunning victory opens new opportunities

Sharon Graham's victory opens new opportunity to resist bosses and Tories' offensive, and challenge Starmer's New Labour

Afghanistan disaster - Unite to fight for funding for refugees and local communities

Many ordinary working-class people will be horrified by the tragic scenes of Afghans fleeing in desperation at Kabul airport

Exam results: grade gap widens

After a tumultuous two years of studying during a pandemic, students across the country finally received their teacher-assessed results on 10 and 12 of August

UK hospitals in danger of collapse

The NHS is crumbling from decades of underinvestment. Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, has its ceilings propped up with almost 200 steel props. Hinchingbrooke Hospital has set a weight

Kabul falls: A devastating blow to the US and Western imperialism

Afghans' suffering continues under Taliban

On Sunday 15 August, the Taliban reached the capital of Kabul, forcing the US-backed government of Ashraf Ghani from power. Thousands of residents tried desperately to board planes to flee the hard-line Islamic force.

Fight price hike

Ofgem is allowing gas and electricity suppliers to increase prices

Olympic 'success' masks cuts and inequality

Every Olympics reflects the sad contradiction of the world we live in, but Tokyo 2020 took this to a new level.

Defend the NHS. Fight the Tory pay insult. Prepare strike action!

NHS workers have been protesting for a 15% pay rise. The Tories' response? After the initial 1% slap in the face they've been forced under pressure to offer 3%. But NHS workers have lost around 20% in the last ten years. For the rest of the public sector the Tories are offering between 1.5% and nothing!

News in brief

Big-pharma vaccine price hike: Big-pharma bosses can't be trusted. After many firms taking public money for vaccine development or promising to take "marginal" profits, they are now raising prices. Pfizer have raised vaccine prices

NHS: Kick out the privatisers, Fight for funding, Build for strike action

Profit vultures descend on the NHS backlog: A recent report of new deals between the NHS and private hospitals and private healthcare groups comes as no surprise

Thanks to the miners - an example of workers' struggle and solidarity

"Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we're now moving rapidly away from coal altogether"

Tory government nationalises Sheffield steel plant

For years Forgemasters has teetered on the brink, being subject to takeovers and government bailouts.

London floods: Privatisation and heavy rain are a dangerous mix

In the capital, hospitals, tube stations, roads and houses were flooded

Labour expulsions confirm need for new mass workers' party

The proscription of a number of left groups by Labour's NEC will now make it easier for Starmer & Co to move more extensively.