Archive for April 2014
1 April 2014
Doncaster strike: Fight Tory 'don't Care UK society'!
Probably the most important trade union dispute in the country right now
2 April 2014
Junk jobs - we're fightin' it!
YFJ had a day of action against zero-hour contracts on 29 March, supported by the Fast Food Rights campaign and the BFAWU union
2 April 2014
The truth about the miners' strike
From the 1970s on, Tory politicians meticulously and ruthlessly prepared an offensive to try to vanquish the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and ultimately trade unionism
2 April 2014
France: Government punished in local elections
Far right gains highlight need for strong fighting left opposition: Local elections in France, which took place over two rounds on 23 and 30 March, confirmed the deepening crisis of the 'socialist' government of Francois Hollande
2 April 2014
May Day greetings in the Socialist
Over the last years we have had brilliant May Day displays in the Socialist
2 April 2014
New Poll Tax: Lord Warner, the former government NHS minister under Tony Blair and cheerleader for private healthcare, says the NHS is broken and needs fixing
2 April 2014
Kent 'peasants' storm Rochester
The peasants are revolting again in Kent! Dubbed by Medway Tory leader Alan Jarrett as 'peasants' for refusing to shut up at a council meeting, 200 angry Strood Library activists took to the streets
2 April 2014
London: Quinn Square Rent Strike 1938
The East End battle against high rents and slum conditions The women's poster demonstration was the first the locals in Bethnal Green in London's East End knew about their rent strike. Quinn Square was a slum.
2 April 2014
Climate change: Socialism and global planning essential
IPCC report: Climate change has arrived, and it is not politely knocking on the door. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a 'call to action', hit the headlines
2 April 2014
Unplug the 'Big Six' profiteers
The massive energy price rises at the end of last year have forced 4.5 million households into fuel poverty, families deciding whether to heat their homes or to eat
2 April 2014
A million march for dignity in Madrid
"De Norte a Sur, de Este a Oeste, la lucha sigue, cueste lo que cueste" (From North to South, East to West, the struggle continues no matter what the cost). This chant rang through the streets of Madrid on 22 March
2 April 2014
South Africa: It's your opportunity to make history!
There may be a big struggle to raise the finances for the Workers And Socialist Party (WASP) general election campaign but there was no shortage of enthusiasm at the WASP manifesto launch in South Africa on 29 March
2 April 2014
Victory for Carmarthenshire Unison
Carmarthenshire Labour-led local authority has backed off from ending the trade union secondments (TUS) it funds
2 April 2014
Ballot papers have gone out to Unite members in elections for the union's executive council (EC). Ballots have to be returned by 12 noon on 23 April
2 April 2014
Orgreave protest: On 29 March around 100 protesters gathered outside the northern office of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in Wakefield
2 April 2014
FF success: perspectives, planning and persistence
Socialist Party members and supporters raised over £7,000 in the last few days of the fighting fund campaign, smashing the target with a final total of £26,577
2 April 2014
Worcestershire: Is socialism only way of saving NHS?
'Is socialism the only way of saving the NHS?', was the theme of a Socialist Party public meeting of 30 people in Kidderminster on 25 March, writes Workers' struggles and socialism to save the NHS
2 April 2014
Anti-fracking camp: court backs off from eviction
The Barton Moss Community Protection Camp is for now saved from eviction, and the daily protests go on
2 April 2014
Fare-refusal protest demands restored rail passes
Elderly and disabled people took part in Freedom Ride on 31st March, catching trains to Meadowhall
2 April 2014
Governments that try to "guarantee a job to every person are doomed to fail", according to Tory Chancellor George Osborne. What an indictment of the capitalist system he represents!
2 April 2014
TUSC: No-cuts election challenge grows
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national steering committee is about to approve the 440th candidate for the challenge in May's local elections. Of 160 councils with elections in May, TUSC already has candidates in place in 76. In 12 councils TUSC will be standing in at least ten seats.
3 April 2014
3 April 2014
3 April 2014
Vote Socialist 2014 - Coventry campaign launched!
Coventry TUSC successfully launched its "Vote Socialist 2014" campaign
5 April 2014
Swansea: National Front thwarted!
Anti-racist campaigners occupied Castle Square to deny the use of the most public open space in Swansea to the racist National Front
7 April 2014
30 years ago: The Broad Left Organising Committee's huge impact
30 years ago a national conference took place in Sheffield organised by BLOC. The meeting coincided with the start of the miners' strike in March 1984, writes Bill Mullins
7 April 2014
Doncaster: March commemorates miners' strike
Around 500 marched through Edlington to commemorate the 1984 miners' strike
8 April 2014
Anti-bedroom tax demo in Leeds
Around 500 people protested in Leeds on 5th April against the bedroom tax
8 April 2014
Care UK strike: national union support needed
Doncaster Care UK workers have taken a further two days of strike action, fighting NHS privatisation and pay cuts
9 April 2014
Furious lobby against service privatisation
Manchester council unions are opposing plans to totally privatise rubbish collection and street cleaning
9 April 2014
photo Peter Symonds
With memories of duck-houses lingering in our minds, we didn't need another expenses scandal to remind us of the rottenness at the top of society, writes Dave Nellist, National chair, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
9 April 2014
Help with the Socialist sales campaign
The Socialist sales campaign is well underway with Socialist Party members in different areas trying to find new ways to get our important news, analysis and strategy out to as many people as possible
9 April 2014
Obituary: Pat James 1930 - 2014
Pat James, lifelong socialist and supporter of the Socialist Party, has sadly passed away at the age of 83
9 April 2014
Support the Socialist with a May Day greeting
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the CWI and later in the year there's the 50th anniversary of the first issue of Militant (forerunner of the Socialist), writes Suzanne Beishon.
9 April 2014
Probation workers unite to fight off no-justice vultures
Private vultures hoping to swoop down and feed off the remains of local Probation Trusts got a nasty shock when thousands of workers took strike action in defence of a fully integrated public service, writes Chas Berry, Kent Napo branch chair, personal capacity.
9 April 2014
Hundreds of former employees of Visteon/Ford marched on 2 April from their union Unite's HQ in London to Parliament to demand pensions justice
9 April 2014
Hillsborough tragedy - the final chapter?
'Heartbreak, tributes, tears' was the headline in the Liverpool Echo as the next chapter in the Hillsborough tragedy unfolded, writes Tony Mulhearn.
9 April 2014
House of shame: Culture Secretary Maria Miller's insulting 30-second apology after fiddling thousands of pounds in expenses has reminded the public of the 2009 MPs' expenses scandal
9 April 2014
Maria Miller resigns at last: With memories of duck-houses lingering in our minds, we didn't need another expenses scandal to remind us of the rottenness at the top of society, writes Dave Nellist
9 April 2014
System change to save the environment
The recent Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (see last week's Socialist) has pointed to the devastating impact on food production, and habitat, and the resulting risks of increased famine, water shortages and state conflicts if human induced climate change is not halted, writes Kate Jones, Socialist Party Wales.
9 April 2014
Save Leicester Race Equality Centre
In the last 50 years Leicester Race Equality Centre (TREC) has given advice and support to an estimated 150,000 people, writes Andrew Walton.
9 April 2014
Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) elections
The ballot for the PCS President and National Executive Committee (NEC) elections opens on 16 April and closes on 8 May. At stake is the leadership of one of Britain's most important unions, writes John McInally PCS vice-president personal capacity.
9 April 2014
Build on the fighting militant traditions of the RMT
Following the tragic death of Bob Crow the RMT is to open nominations for a new general secretary. Nominations will close on 2 July and the postal ballot will run from 21 July to 21 September, writes Jared Wood.
9 April 2014
Break with pro-cuts Labour now
A Labour defeat, said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, was likely if it went into the 2015 general election promising "a pale shade of austerity"
9 April 2014
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition progress update
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national steering committee met on Wednesday 2 April to discuss the latest progress report on the biggest left-of-Labour local elections challenge in generations
9 April 2014
OECD report: A system in crisis
"Society at a Glance 2014 OECD Social Indicators" doesn't sound like the most exciting document. However, many of the report's conclusions point towards a deep unease about the future direction of capitalism
9 April 2014
Book review: Silent Accomplice
The untold story of France's role in Rwandan genocide: It is 20 years since the Rwanda massacre in which one million Tutsis and non-sectarian Hutus were murdered by extremist Hutu militias in 100 days
9 April 2014
Cap rents not benefits - build quality council homes: My local area, the Labour-controlled south London borough of Lewisham, is no longer an affordable place to live, writes Chris Flood, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in Lewisham.
9 April 2014
On 4 April, 30 agency construction workers downed tools at a NG Bailey job at Three Bridges in Sussex
9 April 2014
Homes and Communities Agency strike
Staff in the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) in London and Manchester began a three-day strike on Tuesday 24 March, and may call further action
10 April 2014
Bedroom tax eviction respite in Salford
At less than 24 hours notice over 40 people turned up in Walkden, Salford, to prevent an eviction for bedroom tax arrears
14 April 2014
Goldthorpe: Anger at Thatcher's destruction of mining
Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014
One year ago, the ex-mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire hit the headlines because the street party to celebrate Thatcher's death burned an effigy of her in front of the TV cameras
14 April 2014
Pre-election anti-austerity demonstration called in Salford
Salford Against the Cuts held a public meeting to discuss the devastating cuts proposed by Salford council
16 April 2014
Gains for left on NUT executive
The NUT executive election results show a further loss of support for the 'Broadly Speaking' group
16 April 2014
The Socialist issue 807: Profit Vultures out of the NHS! Support the striking Doncaster Care UK workers, photo Socialist Party
Support striking Doncaster Care UK workers: "I'm proud to say I was born in Edlo. I was a teenager in the miners' strike and I can remember the hardship a lot of people suffered because of it. But I also remember how everyone stuck together
16 April 2014
Strikers shut cinema in battle for living wage
"The Dude minds, man! This just won't stand!" Workers at the Ritzy Picturehouse in London are fed up with poverty wages.
16 April 2014
Bridgend council has withdrawn itself from national pay-bargaining - deciding unilaterally not to honour any agreed pay increase for 2014
16 April 2014
RMT: Put the tube strike back on and escalate
The six weeks of talks since the tube strikes early this year have exposed London Underground (LU). It continues to demand 953 job losses and another 900 front-line jobs will become managers.
16 April 2014
Pay victory: Low-paid hospital workers in west London have scored an important victory. 150 GMB members working as domestic, catering, portering and other staff working for Medicrest, part of Compass, were on £6.31 an hour
16 April 2014
May Day greetings with the Socialist
Over the last years we have had brilliant May Day displays in the Socialist
16 April 2014
Working on zero-hour contracts
At the Sports Direct (SD) store I work in, 90% of us are on zero-hour contracts. Before Christmas they were hiring so many people, every day there was someone new. Over 180 people were working in the store
16 April 2014
India: massive election process could end in turmoil
New party expresses, but cannot solve, major discontent: India is halfway through its five week general election process. There are half a million candidates and more than 800 million potential voters. Nearly a million polling stations will have been opened
16 April 2014
Hard loads - and a fightback - on the bins
Widespread support for the Brighton bin workers shown on some bins in the area, photo Support Brighton Council workers Facebook page
I first became a union rep for Unite about a year ago but I have worked for the council on the bins for two and a half years. My job as a loader is hard physical work and can be very stressful, writes a bin worker.
16 April 2014
Stop the education catastrophe!
National strike action needed: A malaise is spreading throughout our schools. It's hitting teachers young and old, male and female, primary and secondary.
16 April 2014
Election appeal: help us make history
In Coventry 19 Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates are standing in the council elections, writes Lenny Shail.
16 April 2014
Disgusted at politicians' big business links
Why I joined the Socialist Party: I work in the Tesco distribution centre in Doncaster. My wife is a former NHS support worker, now privatised to the employment of Care UK, writes Jason Fawley.
16 April 2014
More cuts and another resignation in Southampton
We've had another busy week in Coxford, Southampton, delivering 6,000 copies of anti-cuts councillors Keith Morrell and Don Thomas' newsletter, 'Coxford Call'
16 April 2014
Tamiflu scandal exposes bloodsucking big pharma
Nineteenth century snake oil sellers travelled the USA, claiming they could cure all manner of illnesses, writes Jon Dale.
16 April 2014
Cash cow: Asylum seeker deportee Jimmy Mubenga died in the custody of G4S security guards; armed forces personnel had to be drafted in to secure the London Olympic Games after G4S failed to provide enough stewards...
16 April 2014
Con-Dems escalate housing crisis
'I don't know how I'm going to be able to afford to live in London'. This phrase, is being heard across the capital as workers, especially the younger generations, struggle to cope with sky-high rents
16 April 2014
Pit closures: Final act of Tory vandalism
30 years after the historic miners' strike against pit closures, the Tories are presiding over the axing of two of the last three deep mine coal pits in Britain
16 April 2014
Signalling that the bedroom tax is more trouble than it's worth, Basildon council withdrew 35 possession orders listed at the court
16 April 2014
NUS leaders: sip tea or put up a serious fight?
Debates at the National Union of Students conference offered a clear choice
16 April 2014
Health workers vote to fight government pay cuts
Unison health conference has overwhelmingly passed a resolution from the Service Group Executive calling for a strike ballot over pay, writes Neil Cafferky.
16 April 2014
Ending MPs' expenses scandal requires socialist change
House of thieves, photo Peter Symonds
To anyone outside the Westminster bubble it seems incredible that David Cameron believed he could save the career of Tory ex-cabinet minister Maria Miller by offering her 'warm support'
16 April 2014
Help TUSC offer a no-cuts alternative on 22 May
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national steering committee has approved a further swathe of no-cuts candidates to stand under the TUSC umbrella in the 22 May local elections. And there is still time for more candidates to come forward
16 April 2014
40 years of the Committee for a Workers' International
Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) logo
Socialism and internationalism: Since the beginning of the 20th century every decade has witnessed revolutions as the working and poor masses attempt to end the oppression and exploitation they suffer under capitalism
17 April 2014
120 turn up to Unite construction meeting
Red Lion Square, Unite construction meeting 16.4.14
120 construction workers turned up for a Unite branch meeting at Conway hall yesterday evening. The hall manager wouldn't let them in the meeting room because there were too many people for the room
21 April 2014
Care UK workers stepping up the action
Four days of action over Easter took us to day 20
23 April 2014
Over 550 TUSC no-cuts candidates in place
The candidate count for the no-cuts challenge in May's elections has grown
23 April 2014
Zero-hour contracts damage your health
A recent report by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills found that zero-hour contracts or flexible working generally can have a damaging effect on a worker's mental health, causing anxiety and other stress related disorders
23 April 2014
Coffee dregs: Starbucks, notorious in the UK for tax dodging, surprisingly announced it was relocating its European headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain
23 April 2014
Higher education pay: Socialist Party members in UCU are recommending the rejection of employers' latest offer in the bitter, months-long higher education pay dispute
23 April 2014
Rail workers prepare for action
Recently it was revealed in the Guardian newspaper that from the £4 billion in tax-payer subsidy to train operating companies, £200 million was siphoned off as dividends to shareholders
23 April 2014
CWU conference: Renationalise Royal Mail!
The most important debate at the forthcoming Communication Workers Union (CWU) conference will be over the privatisation of Royal Mail
23 April 2014
Building Socialist Alternative in the United States
Kshama Sawant's election as city councillor in Seattle has received repeated national media attention, writes Socialist Alternative.
23 April 2014
Workers at six out of ten factories in Dongguan, China, owned by Taiwanese multinational Yue Yuen have taken strike action after discovering the company has not been paying legally required levels of social security and housing contributions, writes chinaworker.info reporters.
23 April 2014
'A day of coming together in unity': The sun shone down on 15 April 1989. Little did Liverpool FC football fans heading for a cup semi-final know the sun would soon turn into the darkest night of their soul
23 April 2014
The Broad Left Organising Committee
Organising militant workers: Thirty years ago a national conference took place in Sheffield organised by the Broad Left Organising Committee (Bloc)
23 April 2014
Workers' Memorial Day: strike for safety
Workers' Memorial Day is on 28 April. In many towns and cities, construction workers and their trade union branches will take a lead in organising activities
23 April 2014
Scotland: Capitalist 'Project Fear' backfiring?
The socialist case for independence: There is growing fear, horror would not be too strong a word, among the capitalist establishment in Britain at the possibility of a majority Yes vote on 18 September in the Scottish independence referendum
23 April 2014
Why is there a housing crisis?
The Daily Telegraph predicted that 2014 will be another profitable year for homeowners, suggesting that "the spring could be a great time to go for that investment-cum-country-house you have had your eye on."
23 April 2014
Hungry Britain: Fight for jobs and a living wage for all
One million people are now being fed by food banks. In an effort to cut across the horror and sympathy this figure generated, government sources have denounced the author, Trussell Trust charity
23 April 2014
In the fight to defend our NHS, know your enemy
In their attempts to destroy the NHS the government has established local organisations under the guise of local accountability
23 April 2014
Every job matters: Support the Tube workers' strike
RMT members on London's tubes will strike on 28-30 April
23 April 2014
Don't let Gove wreck education!
Hundreds of teachers gathered in Brighton over Easter for the NUT annual conference
23 April 2014
New figures reveal capitalism in crisis - not recovery
Editorial: Desperate times call for desperate measures. That must have been the line of Chancellor Osborne's thinking when he claimed that new jobs and wages figures proved his austerity measures were yielding a recovery.
24 April 2014
Firefighters call more strikes
Firefighters in England, Scotland and Wales will take part in further industrial action over pensions, the Fire Brigades Union has announced
25 April 2014
TUSC lobbies Miliband in support of Care UK strikers
Lobbying Ed Miliband's surgery, 25.4.14, photo A Tice
50 protesters attended a lobby called by the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) of Ed Miliband's Doncaster North surgery this afternoon in support of the Care UK strike, writes Alistair Tice.
29 April 2014
Underground: RMT second strike against savage cuts
Striking RMT members - fighting to win - received a very good response from the public across London
29 April 2014
Workers striking against stingy "Zingy" bosses
EDF Energy refuses to honour pay deal, while spending lots of money on rebranding
30 April 2014
Defending pensions, jobs, pay, services... Back the strikes!
Following national strikes in November and February, firefighters are once again demonstrating their refusal to accept the pension robbery on offer
30 April 2014
A strike ballot among workers covered by the National Joint Council for local government will run from 23 May to 23 June
30 April 2014
Workplace safety: It's big business as usual
As trade unionists commemorated the workplace dead and injured on Workers' Memorial Day, 28 April, it emerged that safety on the multi-billion Crossrail project in London and the South East has been compromised by a 'culture of spying and fear'
30 April 2014
Good Samaritan: While David Cameron was sermonising about his religious beliefs, two leading church officials were receiving less than a Christian welcome at his Tory party constituency office in Witney, Oxfordshire
30 April 2014
UKIP - a pro-cuts party for the 1%
Ukip leader Nigel Farage has his eyes on the prize. On 22 May, he hopes to see his party romp home to victory in the European elections and gain a healthy smattering of brand new councillors.
30 April 2014
Care UK strike: Miliband shows workers can't rely on Labour
About 50 protesters attended the lobby of Ed Miliband's Doncaster North surgery on 25 April called by TUSC in support of the Care UK strike, writes Alistair Tice.
30 April 2014
Getting under Labour's skin in Southwark
A local community organisation recently invited Southwark TUSC to debate with the leaders of the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats on the council, writes Bill Mullins , TUSC candidate for Bermondsey South.
30 April 2014
Your financial support is vital
Fight back at the ballot box: The Socialist Party is asking all those who support building an electoral alternative, a voice for the working class based on the 99% and not the super-rich 1%, to donate to our election appeal
30 April 2014
Save Leicester Race Equality Centre
Around 100 people protested outside the Labour group meeting in Leicester on 29 April against the threatened withdrawal of funding for the Leicester Race Equality Centre (TREC), writes Mike Barker.
30 April 2014
Election Appeal: £2,148 raised so far
The Socialist Party is appealing for £15,000 to help finance our election campaigns for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the council and mayoral elections and No2EU in the European elections
30 April 2014
Ukraine: skirmishes threaten wider conflict
United workers' action needed to prevent war: The crisis in Ukraine deepened following clashes between pro-Russian separatists and armed forces despatched to the east of the country by the new Kiev regime, writes Niall Mulholland.
30 April 2014
Why I joined the Socialist Party
I grew up in the 1980s under the Thatcher government. I lived on an estate in Rochdale. My parents were unemployed and we were living on benefits so I know first hand what effect the cuts that the present government is making will have
30 April 2014
United against the far right in Brighton
On Sunday 27 April, a collection of far-right groups descended on Brighton for the annual 'March for England', writes a Brighton trade unionist.
30 April 2014
Fighting Library cuts in south Wales
Around 100 people, including Unison members, library users and anti-cuts campaigners gathered outside the Civic Offices in Barry on 28 April to protest against the Vale of Glamorgan council's plans to inflict brutal cuts on the library service
30 April 2014
May Day: Remembering Bob Crow and Tony Benn
This year's May Day has been dedicated to the memories of Bob Crow and Tony Benn. Here the Socialist carries again its editorial from issue 803, 20-26 March
30 April 2014
Miners and their families, photo D Pearson
Tyrone O'Sullivan, currently chair of Tower Colliery and Secretary of Tower NUM during the great miners' strike spoke to another NUM militant about the 30th anniversary of the strike.
30 April 2014
Cost of living crisis: Scrap zero-hour contracts!
1,500 people queued for hours outside an Aldi store in the hope of getting a job
30 April 2014
May Day 2014 - Step up the fight for a socialist world!
The first of May is traditionally a day of international workers' solidarity, celebrated by working class fighters around the world
30 April 2014
USA: reviving working class traditions
Fighting for $15 an hour and for socialism: 15Now hosted what can only be described as a marathon of a conference which ran from 11am to nine at night, write CWI reporters.
30 April 2014
Vote for a working class voice
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has announced that it will be fielding 561 candidates in the local elections on 22 May. This marks the biggest left-of-Labour challenge in 60 years. Candidates include trade unionists, anti-cuts campaigners and young people
30 April 2014
Usdaw conference - fighting democratic union needed
From 4 to 7 May, around 1,000 reps and activists in shop and distribution workers' union Usdaw will meet for our Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) in Blackpool, writes an ADM delegate.
30 April 2014
Newsnight - socialist teacher demands right of reply
BBC TV's Newsnight feature on the 'Left in the NUT' angered NUT members from right across its broad spectrum of political views.
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