Archive for August 2018
2 August 2018
Stop the Serco evictions - Fight for refugee rights
300 refugees in Glasgow are facing eviction by the private anti-trade union company Serco.
4 August 2018
Corbyn must end false unity with Labour's right
May's government teeters so close to the edge that - especially if it were faced with a mass movement, headed-up by Jeremy Corbyn along with the trade union and labour movement as a whole - it could be forced out within no time.
7 August 2018
Low-paid care workers are striking for 14 days against Birmingham Labour council's cuts
7 August 2018
No to Tory plans for radioactive waste under national parks
Nuclear energy has been neither cheap, safe, nor pollution-free
7 August 2018
Turn the heat on the bosses not the bus drivers!
Every year, the private bus operators are unprepared in summer and winter for both hot weather and freezing conditions
8 August 2018
Northants Council in total collapse: for a citizens' assembly to draw up a 'needs budget'
The unprecedented financial crisis of Northamptonshire's Tory county council continues. The first council to go technically bankrupt for many years is slashing services even further
8 August 2018
Rents soar 60% faster than pay - while spivs plan luxury homes on Green Belt
Cap rents, build council homes, protect green space: A Tory cabinet minister says "the choice is building on more greenfield sites... or losing the election and ending up with Jeremy Corbyn"
8 August 2018
Tax-dodging tech bosses make billons ... while 6m workers fear the scrapheap
Nationalise the big tech firms: Every ten seconds, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos makes the median salary of one of his employees: $28,000
8 August 2018
It's one world for the super-rich, and another for the rest of us. Branson's NHS billions v working while sick; principal's money for nothing v massive benefits underpayment; pubs too expensive
8 August 2018
NHS workers angry at reality of mis-sold 'pay rise'
The unions should give a lead to NHS staff and reopen the talks to pressure this weak Tory government into real pay rises for hard-working staff.
8 August 2018
Kirklees bin workers' strike forces management back
The deal includes ten more drivers with two new rounds and a further 30 agency staff to cover for leave and sickness. Crucially two of the hardline managers have been removed
8 August 2018
A mass campaign and trade union organisation can defeat the far-right FLA
The far right can be defeated by a mass campaign. It is essential that trade unions and Jeremy Corbyn do all they can to lead that.
8 August 2018
Ministry of Justice workers angry at barrage of attacks
Huge anger is being stoked up among staff in the Ministry of Justice after the 'modernising employment proposition' pay offer came as yet another in a long line of slaps to the face
8 August 2018
Take on probation privatisation with union action
The experiment of using private companies' for probation services has resulted in a worse service for staff and for prisoners
8 August 2018
Bournemouth train guards' RMT strike
RMT guards on strike on 31 July in Bournemouth were united in their continuing action against driver-only operated trains
8 August 2018
London cleaners' coordinated strike
Low-paid cleaners at five different sites in London took coordinated strike action for the London Living Wage and sick pay on 7 August
8 August 2018
Deadly fires ravage Greece: austerity contributed to high loss of life and property
Regardless of what is proven later, there is an undeniable reality: the deficiencies and cuts suffered by both firefighters and the Forestry Service, both in human resources and in materials
8 August 2018
Striking Portuguese dockers show the way forward
National strike against union busting, precarious employment and workplace harassment: Dockers in Portugal took strike action across all ports on 27 July
8 August 2018
Protests win temporary halt to refugee evictions in Glasgow
The retreat by Serco is partly in response to legal challenges by Govan Law Centre but is also as a result of the political pressure of working class people
8 August 2018
Why I joined: "I saw the need for Corbyn to stand against the right"
"In the run-up to 2017's snap general election, I found myself increasingly angry at the ineptitude and apparent contempt for working class people of the Conservative Party"
8 August 2018
Shropshire NHS - fight the cuts to our services!
Shropshire's reorganisation or 'Future Fit' plans are to close an A&E department at one hospital and have an urgent care centre at the other.
8 August 2018
Tolpuddle festival: combative trade unionism and anticipation of general election
Thousands gathered at the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs festival in Dorset to remember the sacrifices of the early farmworkers who founded the trade union movement
8 August 2018
Trade unions mobilise against EDL in Worcester
25 or so EDL supporters were outnumbered ten to one by protesters
8 August 2018
A must-read for anyone fighting NHS cuts
Pamphlet: If we fight, we can win! "It was with great pleasure and admiration that I recently read the pamphlet published by the East Midlands region of the Socialist Party to celebrate their successes in fighting cuts and closures within the NHS"
8 August 2018
Do you have something to say? Letters to the Socialist's editors. Thatcher's Militant blacklist, capitalism wants slums, World Cup nationalism?
8 August 2018
The fight against Labour's Blairites and TUSC's role now
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition could still play an important role if it is recast for the period ahead
8 August 2018
Break the pay cap - the fight continues!
The union needs a special delegate conference as soon as practically possible
8 August 2018
Antisemitism slanders against Corbyn
Further comment on the latest attacks on Corbyn will be posted on our website soon; meanwhile here are some links to previous articles
9 August 2018
Israel - Protest rally against the Nationality Law
Up to 120,000 people in Israel protested against the state's new Nationality Law on 4 August in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv
14 August 2018
Victory: NHS workers say no to privatisation
Unison members in estates and facilities at Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust were due to strike
20 August 2018
The dispute within the left of Britain's largest civil service union raises key issues for the whole labour movement. Above all, the need for democratic, lay-member control of fighting trade unions.
21 August 2018
Antisemitism smears against Corbyn are battering ram of the right
Accusations of antisemitism directed at Corbyn have resurged to a fever pitch
22 August 2018
London cleaners' strike: 'Pay us a living wage!'
In early August, cleaners at Kensington and Chelsea council and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) took three days strike against poverty pay
22 August 2018
Blairites go on saving Tories - boot them all out!
The Tory party's painful breakdown continues, as hardcore neoliberal Remainers like Anna Soubry pull in one direction, and right-wing populists like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg pull in the other.
22 August 2018
Staff and passengers are on same side: Beleaguered commuters learnt on 15 August that they will face yet another increase in rail fares from January.
22 August 2018
Johnson's burqa outburst highlights racist Tory hypocrisy
Corbyn and unions can halt right populism by leading fight: Boris Johnson's attack on Muslim women who wear the burqa - comparing them to "letterboxes" and "bank robbers" - is a sexist, dehumanising comment, with racism at its root.
22 August 2018
Tories fear housing anger... but offer no solutions
The government's latest policy document on housing is a much-delayed response to mounting anger at the Grenfell Tower fire and the deep housing crisis, with unaffordable homes and increasing number sleeping rough.
22 August 2018
MOJ pay offer: robbing Peter to pay Peter
Members of PCS in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have just concluded a consultation exercise with regard to a new offer and contract called MEP (modernisation employment programme).
22 August 2018
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles including Sheffield Supertram workers win and Woolwich ferry workers strike.
22 August 2018
Argentina: The struggle for women's lives has been painted green!
On 8 August, Argentina's Senate voted by 38 to 31 against legalising abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
22 August 2018
Huge anti-government demos in Romania
A series of mass rallies in Bucharest and in other cities by Romanians - those living in the country and those returning from abroad - have taken place against widespread government corruption.
22 August 2018
Morandi Bridge disaster - private profit to blame
Commenting on the Mirandi bridge collapse in which 43 people died, Resistenze Internazionali (CWI Italy) writes: "This disaster could and should have been avoided."
22 August 2018
Waltham Forest Labour council votes to close library - campaign goes on
Libraries come from a tradition of workers' self-education. Their heyday was the 1950s when workers laboured in the factories and mines and libraries serviced a certain deprivation of the 'soul'.
22 August 2018
As NHS campaigners, patients, and members of the public we are furious that those running Leicester hospitals are taking a significant step towards closing Leicester General as an acute hospital without any public consultation.
22 August 2018
Keep Middlesbrough hospital staff in the NHS
Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesbrough is a 365-bed mental health site built using a private finance initiative eight years ago at a cost of £75 million. By the end of the contract Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Health Trust will have paid out £328 million plus maintenance costs.
22 August 2018
Newcastle fans protest against Mike Ashley
The long campaign to force Mike Ashley out of Newcastle United football club continued on the first day of the season on 11 August.
22 August 2018
The Socialist sales drive - how can you help?
The Socialist is invaluable in the struggle against austerity. Whether it is reporting on the actions of workers to defend jobs and improve pay and conditions or reporting campaigns to defend public services such as the NHS.
22 August 2018
End Runcorn school PFI rip off
Schools, colleges and universities are struggling under the weight of cutbacks forced on them by Tory austerity. In Halton, Cheshire, a wave of cuts, poor management and an ill thought out private finance initiative scheme have created crisis in the local education system.
22 August 2018
Huge but chaotic Brighton Pride needs to be politicised
Members of Brighton Socialist Party attended Brighton Pride on 4 August. Although it is the UK's biggest Pride event, drawing in more than 400,000 people this year, in recent years it has been largely depoliticised.
22 August 2018
When meeting the funeral directors to discuss my mother's funeral, my sister suggested that the 'charity collection' should go towards a dementia charity.
22 August 2018
Why I joined the Socialist Party: "I was searching for an alternative to this system"
All of us are part of something greater than ourselves. But there are huge inconsistencies among humanity - the rich next to the poor, the powerful next to the powerless.
22 August 2018
Revolt and Rebellion West London walk success
18 people met on a slightly rainy Sunday afternoon for a political walk - 'Revolt and Rebellion' - through west London. It started at Turnham Green with a speech on the English civil war, and ended at the venue of the Putney debates.
22 August 2018
Ahed Tamimi - worldwide symbol of self-esteem in face of oppression
Non-fiction: Ahed Tamimi - a girl who fought back: On the morning of the last Sunday in July, Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi was released from an Israeli prison, where she had been for eight months since her arrest on 19 December 2017.
22 August 2018
Union bureaucracies, soviets and workers' power
Non-fiction: Workers control and workers management: 'Workers control and workers management: work in the unions' is the new book from Socialist Party member Ted Mooney.
22 August 2018
Letters to the Socialist's editors including antisemitism and Labour, Trump, plastic and food and more.
22 August 2018
TGIFriday workers at Stratford, London. TGI staff at a number of restaurants have been on strike against cuts in their tips. photo by Pete Mason
22 August 2018
Strategic discussion needed after pay ballot
PCS activists have been shocked by the launch of a new group set up to campaign for Janice Godrich against incumbent and Socialist Party member Chris Baugh as the union's AGS.
22 August 2018
Prison crisis: a catastrophe of cuts and privatisation
Birmingham Prison has become the latest in a long line of catastrophic failures of privatisation
22 August 2018
Bosses' pay up a fifth while workers' pay falls ...
The average worker would take four lifetimes to earn what the average FTSE 100 chief executive makes in one year.
22 August 2018
TGIFriday workers at Stratford, London. TGI staff at a number of restaurants have been on strike against cuts in their tips. photo by Pete Mason
23 August 2018
Pay campaign: Important discussions needed on way forward
The Socialist Party rejects the view of the new group 'Socialist View', that all that is required for success in 2019 is to do the same as 2018 but be better organised.
24 August 2018
'Earth Overshoot Day' - the day when every natural resource has been overconsumed to the point it could not recover within that year - has jumped forward almost three months in a decade
24 August 2018
Solidarity with Jasic Technology workers in Shenzhen, China
Workers at Jasic Technology, a maker of electronic welding equipment, have been engaged in a three month-long struggle to establish an independent trade union
28 August 2018
Why we support Chris Baugh for re-election as assistant general secretary
The SWP has issued a statement supporting Janice Godrich for the PCS LU election process for AGS.
29 August 2018
NHS services are showing the strain of cuts, privatisation and insufficient funding.
29 August 2018
Sunderland: Resolute Liebherr workers in pay strike
Liebherr strikers on their Sunderland picket line on 24 August were resolute. Talking about the importance of their picket line one of the strikers commented: "Even if it's thunder and lightning, we'll be standing here."
29 August 2018
Merseyside fire authority forced to postpone night closures
The Labour-controlled Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority planned to close four stations in Merseyside during nighttimes. But they have now backed down on the closure of two.
29 August 2018
Northern Rail guards continue fight against driver-only operation
Train guards in Newcastle, members of the RMT union, are participating in the ongoing battle against driver-only operation.
29 August 2018
Battle growing against Loch Lomond area big business sell-off
A major battle has broken out over the £30 million privatisation of land in Loch Lomond, West Dunbartonshire in Scotland, which has given rise to fresh resistance against the for-profit model of big business.
29 August 2018
East Dunbartonshire council workers back further strikes
Unison, GMB and Unite members in East Dunbartonshire council took four days of coordinated strike action at the end of June against the Tory and Lib Dem administration's cuts programme - including a major assault on workers' terms and conditions.
29 August 2018
The ongoing capitalist crisis and the struggle for a socialist world
Each year, the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) - the international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated - hosts a summer school bringing together its members based throughout Europe and the world. Here, we carry a report written by Kevin Parslow, outlining the opening discussion on the worldwide crisis of capitalism and the development of the workers' and socialist movement internationally
29 August 2018
Leicester lobby calls for consultation on NHS closure plans
Leicester City Council's health scrutiny commission meeting was met by a lobby of up to 60 demonstrators on 23 August, concerned about proposals that could lead to the loss of acute services from Leicester General Hospital without a public consultation.
29 August 2018
Socialist sales success in Cardiff
The Socialist sales drive we launched to mark the 1000th issue of the paper smashed through the target we set ourselves of 1,000 extra sales. We want to build on the success of this campaign by launching a new sales drive for issue 1011 at the end of September. Beth Webster, of Cardiff West Socialist Party, reports on success selling the Socialist in her branch
29 August 2018
In mid-July the far-right English Defence League (EDL) announced its plan to come to Worcester on 21 July.
29 August 2018
Huddersfield Socialist Party organise counter-protest against EDL
As the capitalist media focuses on the release of far-right leader Tommy Robinson, who is awaiting a retrial, we have seen an increase in action taken by far-right groups.
29 August 2018
Fracking companies backed by government and courts
A lot has happened on the fracking front in recent months. Notably, fracking companies Cuadrilla and Ineos have been awarded High Court injunctions which, in effect, restrict many forms of legitimate protest.
29 August 2018
Leeds protest against NHS treatment cuts
Campaigners from local groups involved in Health Campaigns Together gathered on 22 August to protest outside Leeds Town Hall, where a consultation on plans to remove 17 treatments from the NHS was being held.
29 August 2018
100 years since police went on strike: "never nearer to Bolshevism"
On a number of occasions, the ruling class in Britain has trembled with fear when faced with mass struggles of workers which could threaten their rule. Such movements as the 1984-85 miners strike and the 1926 general strike brought clashes between striking workers and the powers of the capitalist state.
29 August 2018
Letters to the Socialist's editors including Blairite liars and sell outs.
29 August 2018
Venezuela: How can reaction and imperialism be defeated?
The recent attempted assassination of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro has once again focussed attention on the deepening economic, social and political crisis in the country.
29 August 2018
Exam factories, cuts and violence - Fight for our future!
In the last five years alone, almost £1 billion was cut from youth services.
29 August 2018
Capitalism is a chaotic, irrational system - we need socialist change
On all fronts - from the environment and infrastructure, to jobs and services, to health and wellbeing - this system is failing us. It's no wonder that people are looking for an alternative.
29 August 2018
China: Solidarity with Jasic Technology workers
Since 18 July, workers at Jasic Technology - a factory in Shenzhen employing 1,000 workers making machines and robots - have been campaigning to set up a democratic, independent, trade union.
29 August 2018
Nationalise the energy giants to combat global warming
The oldest, thickest, most frozen sea ice in the arctic, to the north of Greenland, remains frozen all year. But this year it has broken away - twice! This has never been seen before.
29 August 2018
Working families £50 a week short of paying for kids
Feed your child or heat the house; buy a school uniform or pay the electricity bill - these are the kinds of impossible choices faced by more and more working parents every day
29 August 2018
Trump and his government are facing a fresh crisis. First his election campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was found guilty of financial crimes including tax and bank fraud. Then his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to breaking election campaign funding laws.
29 August 2018
Solidarity with Croatian shipyard strike
Shipyard workers in the Croatian port cities of Pula and Rijeka started strike action on 22 August, demanding the immediate payment of wage arrears and for the management to step down
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