Archive for August 2015

3 August 2015

Thousands gather at Leeds Pride

Thousands gathered in Leeds on 2nd August for Leeds' annual LGBT Pride march celebrating the LGBT community's progress towards equality

3 August 2015

Tumultuous applause for anti-austerity clarion call

The Adelphi hotel hadn't seen such rivers of people pouring in for decades

3 August 2015

National Museum Wales strike against pay cut

PCS members at all 7 sites of National Museums Wales took strike action on Saturday

3 August 2015

Anger at bus service cuts

Sheffield Bus Partnership is trying to push through drastic cuts to bus services in the city.

4 August 2015

The Socialist summer schedule

In order to allow the editorial team of the Socialist a summer break, issues 866 and 867 will be fortnightly and will cover the periods 6-19 August and 20 August-2 September respectively

5 August 2015

Kill the bill! Join the NSSN lobby of the TUC

If the many strikes and protests taking place were coordinated into a colossal movement against the anti-union laws and cuts, they couldn't be implemented. That would threaten the ability of the Tories to govern at all.

5 August 2015

Human tragedy of Calais crisis

Tories have no solutions: Despite weeks of reports about the desperate people encamped at Calais, Cameron still found a way to escalate anti-immigrant bile.

5 August 2015

University unions oppose jobs cuts and outsourcing

Attacks on staff and services are escalating at the University of Manchester

5 August 2015

National Gallery strike: all-out art action

All-out action by PCS members at the gallery is being brought forward to 11 August.

5 August 2015

Kshama gets 49.9% in Seattle primary vote

Socialist councillor Kshama Sawant, in Seattle, US, has received 49.9% of the vote in the Seattle primary election, a full 15 percentage points ahead of her nearest opponent

5 August 2015

Jeremy Corbyn: Thousands rally to anti-austerity appeal

Jeremy Corbyn's nomination for Labour leadership has transformed the contest. In contrast to the three varieties of Blairite 'austerity lite' on offer, he has captured a mood.

5 August 2015

Personal care budgets: more choice for service users?

'Personal budgets' for disabled and older people became a reality last year. Supposedly they give service users more choice over their own care. But what is their real effect?

5 August 2015

Bath: behind the elegant walls

The city of Bath, a popular tourist attraction, returned a big Tory majority at the general election. But behind the elegant surface of Bath's Georgian walls is a workforce that is ready to be politicised.

5 August 2015

China at a turning point

China's stock market crash has shaken the image of a 'strong' regime.

5 August 2015

Abolish the House of Lords!

The sex-and-drugs scandal and subsequent resignation from the House of Lords by Baron Sewel of Gilcomstoun merely re-confirms that Britain's political elite is rotten and out of touch with the real world.

5 August 2015

Rent hikes make housing unaffordable

Between June 2014 and 2015, average private rents in Britain increased by 2.5%, according to the Office for National Statistics.

5 August 2015

Police spying: campaigners demand full disclosure

This inquiry will give an opportunity to expose the extent of political policing and step up campaigns for the right to organise and protest, free from state interference.

5 August 2015

Health trusts told 'don't fill posts' - stop NHS cuts!

The NHS regulator has now told 46 health trusts in 'deficit' that their spending plans are "unaffordable" - and that only 'essential' posts should be staffed. In other words, make more cuts!

5 August 2015

Fiddling finance capital in the dock

The trial and conviction of former UBS and Citigroup trader, Tom Hayes, has revealed the huge scale of the 2012 Libor rate-fixing scandal perpetrated by the major banks.

5 August 2015

Socialist Party Summer Camp

August Bank Holiday Weekend: For full details and prices see www.socialistparty.org.uk/SummerCamp

5 August 2015

Them & Us

Brief dispatches on the utter hypocrisy of bosses and their politicians.

5 August 2015

Hiroshima - 70 years on

Can a future nuclear conflict be avoided?: Seventy years ago, on 6 August 1945, a single bomb dropped by a US bomber on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killed between 90,000 and 166,000 men, women and children.

5 August 2015

Lincoln demonstrators defy far-right threats

The Socialist Party in Lincolnshire, alongside Lincoln TUSC, will continue to fight racism, fight austerity and fight capitalism.

5 August 2015

TUSC lobbies 'Labstainer'

TUSC supporters protested against Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour Party MP for Poplar and Limehouse. Fitzpatrick abstained on the Tories' welfare bill, condemning poor working families and young people to further welfare cuts.

5 August 2015

Campaigning to end the housing crisis

For many young people buying a house, or even leaving their parents' home, is an impossible dream. Insufficient council housing and inflated house prices force people looking for somewhere to live into private rented accommodation.

5 August 2015

Rail shutdowns step up: second tube strike, 72-hour Great Western walkout

As we went to press, transport unions were about shut down London for 24 hours, and planning a three-day strike on First Great Western rail.

5 August 2015

Traffic wardens strike for sick pay

With union banners waving, traffic wardens in Hackney, east London, began day one of a 48-hour walkout on 3 August. Members of general union Unite working for APCOA Parking are striking for proper sick pay and a decent raise.

5 August 2015

Workplace news in brief

Short updates on trade union struggles.

5 August 2015

Fighting the anti-union laws

Lancashire unions public meeting Organised by Lancashire and District RMT, Thursday 20 August.

6 August 2015

Tube strike: pickets and public determined to beat bosses

From Edgware Road to Acton, the strike is solid. Not a train is moving.

6 August 2015

Pat Wall - a lifetime fighting for socialism

25 years ago today, Pat Wall - a giant of the workers' movement - passed away. Here we republish an obituary from the Militant newspaper

10 August 2015

Hundreds attend Corbyn rally in Bradford

With rallies in Liverpool, London and other major cities running out of space, the organisers of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership election rally in Bradford took the hint and opted for an outdoor rally

10 August 2015

Kinnock, the visionary?

The following letter was sent to the Observer by 'Liverpool 47' former councillor Tony Mulhearn, but was not published by the Observer

11 August 2015

National Gallery strike goes indefinite

First day of National Gallery all-out strike "stronger than ever"

12 August 2015

Video: Jeremy Corbyn and TUSC on the BBC News

BBC News 11 August 2015: Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition National Election Agent Clive Heemskerk refutes claims that TUSC is infiltrating the Jeremy Corbyn campaign in the Labour leadership election and confirms the popularity of socialist ideas, writes video.

14 August 2015

Corbyn stand: A welcome upheaval in British politics

Labour's right-wing have been astonished and horrified at the over-flowing rallies for Jeremy Corbyn. Those staunch defenders of austerity can only dream about attracting such large, enthusiastic and young audiences.

14 August 2015

TV review: Britain's nuclear secrets

In what was obviously intended as a positive story on the nuclear industry, respected physicist Jim Al-Khalili took a camera crew into the nuclear complex at Sellafield in Cumbria

14 August 2015

Meeting to say: Salford College matters!

On Monday 10th August Salford public, teachers, Socialist Party activists and youth workers gathered at a meeting to discuss the proposed 57 job losses at Salford City College and a call to have a wider public consultation on the matter

17 August 2015

London tube's summer of strikes joined by First Great Western

London Underground could be shuttered again by bosses' pig-headedness over staff restructuring and night service.

17 August 2015

National Gallery all-out strike goes on as bosses sell off jobs

The prolonged dispute at the National Gallery turned to indefinite strike on 11 August.

18 August 2015

Fascists caged, humiliated and driven out of Liverpool

There was a great result for anti-fascist activists in Liverpool on 15 August who opposed far-right group National Action and their planned 'White Man March'.

19 August 2015

Retail union must fight Sunday trading deregulation

Among the Tories' vicious attacks on working class people is further deregulation of Sunday trading.

19 August 2015

Solidarity with Polish workers

On 20 August, Polish workers in Britain are striking

19 August 2015

Socialist challenges for Unison leadership

Rank-and-file socialist Roger Bannister is standing for general secretary of Unison

19 August 2015

The Labour Party, Militant and 'infiltration'

In fury at the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership campaign, right wing politicians and media alike have been referring to 'infiltration' of the Labour Party by Militant supporters. Militant was the predecessor of the Socialist Party - whose supporters in the past were members of the Labour Party.

19 August 2015

Greece: Building a new left alternative after Syriza capitulation

Xekinima (Greek sister organisation of the Socialist Party) has called for a "new mass left". This is starting to be realised in response to PM Tsipras's disastrous acceptance of more austerity

19 August 2015

Youth 'Boot camps': We won't pay for their crisis!

Tory Cabinet minister Michael Hancock has announced punitive plans to force unemployed youth to attend military-style boot camps.

19 August 2015

Kids Company closure

The failure of David Cameron's 'big society': On 7 August Kids Company, a charity providing care for vulnerable children, closed its doors for the last time.

19 August 2015

Ireland: drop the prosecutions, scrap the water charges

Twenty-three of the 40 anti-water charges protesters arrested earlier this year in Ireland are expected to be charged with "false imprisonment" of the deputy prime minister following a peaceful sit-down protest in Dublin in 2014.

19 August 2015

Them & Us

Short dispatches on the utter hypocrisy of the bosses and their politicians.

19 August 2015

Gulf War 'unfinished business' remains today

25 years since invasion of Kuwait: 25 years ago, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait. Western powers responded with a build-up of forces that led to the Gulf War the next year.

19 August 2015

Probation and courts union Napo needs socialist leadership

Members of probation and family courts union Napo are currently voting for national officers. The union is under sustained attack following the break-up and privatisation of over half the probation service.

19 August 2015

Uni unions ready Manchester jobs fight

Trade unions UCU, Unison and Unite at the University of Manchester are preparing to fight to save hundreds of jobs. Over 300 staff attended a joint union meeting to discuss management threats.

19 August 2015

Workplace news in brief

Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles.

19 August 2015

Subscribe to the Socialist!

This edition of the Socialist and previous ones give a glimpse of the stormy period ahead of us. This shows the importance of our weekly newspaper - the Socialist.

19 August 2015

Anger at bus service cuts in Sheffield

Sheffield Bus Partnership is attempting to make drastic cuts to bus services in the city. 50 buses a day will be taken off the network resulting in approximately 150 bus workers losing their jobs.

19 August 2015

TUSC by-election boost in Grimsby and Cleethorpes

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate Dave Mitchell won 4.1% in a council by-election in Cleethorpes. This was up on 1.8% in the last election.

19 August 2015

US: Kshama Sawant leads Seattle primary elections count on 50%

Kshama Sawant, a member of Socialist Alternative (co-thinkers of the Socialist Party in the US) won over 50% of the vote in a Seattle City Council primary on 4 August.

19 August 2015

Government discrimination against EU workers

In Bristol, two Socialist Party members and their families are having their very right to live and work in the UK threatened. Both are European Union nationals with children, who came to the UK to work.

20 August 2015

Will robots end capitalism?

An interview with Peter Taaffe on technological developments, the threat to jobs, and perspectives for the struggle against capitalism and for the future of humanity

20 August 2015

National Museum Wales strikes continue

PCS members working for National Museum Wales are continuing their series of strikes

21 August 2015

Profiteering housing firm ignores angry residents

Residents on four former council estates on the Isle of Dogs, east London, face losing their homes to redevelopment.

24 August 2015

First Great Western strike

There were next to no FGW trains running out of Swansea station

25 August 2015

The Corbyn insurgency

Whatever the outcome of the contest, Jeremy Corbyn's campaign has already transformed the political situation in Britain. Public ownership, a free education system, trade union rights, councils resisting the cuts and not implementing them, all are once again up for discussion.

25 August 2015

Boothroyd's pro-capitalist credentials

Ex right-wing Labour MP Baroness Boothroyd writes that Labour is 'galloping towards the precipice' if Jeremy Corbyn clinches the leadership contest

25 August 2015

Indesit workers striking over pay

Hundreds of distribution workers at white-goods distribution company Indesit have started a series of national strikes over pay

25 August 2015

Manchester uni unions ready for jobs fight

UCU, Unison and Unite at the University of Manchester (UoM) are all currently preparing to fight after 300+ attended a joint union meeting to discuss threats to jobs.

25 August 2015

Article on China crisis

More than $5 trillion has been wiped off global stock markets in the two weeks since the Chinese devaluation

27 August 2015

RMT responds to night tube suspension

A RMT press release on Transport for London's (TFL) announcement that it is suspending introduction of a night-time tube service

28 August 2015

Will Scottish 'Rise' alliance offer a way forward?

A new "left electoral alliance" - in reality a party - is being launched on Saturday in Glasgow: RISE (Respect, Independence, Socialism, Environmentalism)

28 August 2015

Socialist councillor aids anti-gas storage campaign

Fleetwood Town Council has unanimously voted to oppose gas storage plans at Preesall by the Halite company.

28 August 2015

Greece: New Left force launched following Syriza's betrayal

While prime minister Tsipras has resigned and called a general election, 25 MPs have broken away from Syriza and formed Popular Unity

28 August 2015

"Unapologetic attack on austerity" at Southampton Corbyn rally

A call for an end to austerity from Jeremy Corbyn was met with a standing ovation and cheers from a near 1,000-strong audience

30 August 2015

Rail and PCS strikers rally together

Two unions in 3 workforces took part in a rally coordinated by Swansea Trades Council