Historic events

Llanelli railway riots 1911

"Workers of the world unite": This month commemorates the centenary of the Llanelli Railway Riots in Wales when railway workers participating in a national rail strike, along with the local community, faced the guns and bayonets of Churchill's troops...

18 years since Stephen Lawrence murder

We still need to fight racism... and cuts: Two men are now to stand trial for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager who had ambitions to become an architect but was killed in a vicious racist attack in 1993, writes Onay Kasab.

Paris commune 1871: When workers "stormed heaven".

The mass struggles against dictatorships and poverty sweeping North Africa and the Middle East encourage workers and young people in the region and internationally to seek to learn from previous revolutionary movements, writes Niall Mulholland

Manningham Mills 1890-1891: A strike that changed Britain's unions

On 27 April 1891, 120 years ago, the great Manningham Mills strike of Bradford textile workers ended after nearly 19 weeks...

Anniversary: Black Friday 15 April 1921

A warning for the workers' movement: Following the magnificent 26 March TUC demonstration workers and anti-cuts campaigners want to know how to build the movement to defeat the cuts...

1981 Brixton riots

April 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the riots in Brixton, south London, against police racism, unemployment and poverty...

Liverpool city council's historic victory over the Thatcher government

When organised mass action defeated the Tories: "Two unlovely black eyes" declared the Daily Mail. It was condemning Thatcher's environment secretary Patrick Jenkin for his retreat over extra funding for Liverpool. It wrote: "The Trotskyites and...

Mass non-payment - how the poll tax was beaten

The campaign against Thatcher's hated poll tax is an example of how a mass movement can defeat a government, writes Steve Score, Former secretary of the Leicestershire Anti-Poll Tax Federation.

Liverpool 1983-87: the council that fought Thatcher

THE LABOUR council leaders proposing the cuts budget in Liverpool council can feel a spectre haunting them...

Britain 1911-1914: The great unrest - lessons for today

100 years ago the working class responded to the terrible conditions imposed on them by taking mass industrial action in what became known as the 'great unrest', writes Jim Horton.

'Struggle or starve!' 1932 - when Birkenhead workers beat the means test

To the present generation of workers and young people, the phrase 'means test' probably means little, writes Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary.

Grunwick: leader of historic strike dies

Jayaben Desai, the leader of the famous Grunwick strike died just before Christmas aged 77. She inspired many who saw her, especially when she stood up to the bullying brutes of the Grunwick management, writes Bill Mullins, Socialist Party Industrial Organiser

We need 'biggest movement since poll tax'

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), meeting this year in Manchester, needs to hear clearly from ordinary trade unionists and activists that the time has come to get off its knees and organise a fightback against the government's programme of cuts, writes Bill Mullins.

Bloody Sunday: Innocent protesters murdered by the British army in 1972

THE PUBLICATION of the Bloody Sunday inquiry report, known as the Saville inquiry, has brought to light, once again, the brutal lengths the British capitalist state is prepared to go in defence of its interests, writes Gary Mulcahy, Socialist Party, Belfast.

The real lessons of the poll tax

Readers' comment: The centre page article about the massive anti-poll tax demonstration of 1990 by Steve Glennon (issue 617) was excellent, mainly because as chief steward, Steve had a very good overview of events, writes Rob Windsor, Socialist Party councillor, Coventry.

When We Were Miners

When We Were Miners marks the 25th anniversary of the ending of the 1984/85 miners' strike, the greatest movement of workers in Britain since the 1926 general strike...

March 1990 anti-poll tax demonstration

The riot - what really happened: In 1989, one million Scots were not paying the poll tax. The All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation was also planning organised opposition south of the border. On 1 April 1990, 35 million people would get...

Lessons of struggle: If you fight, you can win!

Liverpool Council 1983 - 1987: Young people face enormous attacks on their right to a future - unemployment, low pay, ever-increasing university fees and slashed public services.
Here, Socialist Party activists provide a small taste of some of the past battles they have been involved in where victories were won by working and young people.

USSR 1989 - the collapse of Stalinism

Clare Doyle - of the Committee for a Workers' International - was an eyewitness to the tumultuous events in 1989, and for five years (1990-95) lived in Russia as the USSR collapsed...

20 years after fall of Berlin Wall, capitalist triumphalism turns rotten

THE WORLD'S leading politicians, past and present, gathered in Berlin this week to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, writes Dave Carr.