Archive for December 2008
3 December 2008
3 December 2008
Secondary education: PFI's gloss soon peels away
IT'S ALL systems go at the Northampton comprehensive school where I work. The landscaping is being finished off and men in boiler suits haunt the corridors and stairwells, writes A school teacher, Northampton.
3 December 2008
Socialist women: Looking at the past to take action today
The Socialist Women weekend school, held in London on 29-30 November, started with a discussion on the Great Depression and a comparison to today's crisis, writes Sarah Wrack, Brighton Socialist Party.
3 December 2008
Help fund the alternative to big business politics
More and more people are looking for a socialist alternative. They are drawing the conclusion that it is capitalism itself, a system based on exploitation for profit in which crises are inevitable, that...
3 December 2008
More homeowners fall behind on mortgage payments: At least 5,000 homes a week are being put up for sale as the owners can no longer afford their mortgage...
3 December 2008
Socialist Party member Robbie Segal is standing for president of the shopworkers' union Usdaw. She spoke to The Socialist about the threats to jobs in the retail industry:...
3 December 2008
Fighting the threatened closure of Hoover factory
South Wales: Over 300 jobs are at risk in South Wales, as management at the Hoover washing machine and tumble dryer factory in Merthyr Tydfil warned it could no longer produce "competitively priced" products, writes Vic Jenkins.
3 December 2008
Editorial: Once again, terrorist carnage - this time in Mumbai in India - has shocked working people around the world...
3 December 2008
The horrific terror attack in Mumbai on 27 November must be condemned on all counts. It took place at the usually crowded CST railway station and six other prime locations, killing over 180 people, writes Jagadish Chandra, New Socialist Alternative, CWI India.
3 December 2008
Crisis-hit capitalism fears prospect of revolution
CWI International Executive Committee 2008: THE INTERNATIONAL Executive Committee (IEC) of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) met in Belgium on 23-29 November. Hannah Sell gives a summary of Peter Taaffe's introduction to the session on the global economic crisis and its political consequences with highlights from the discussion.
3 December 2008
Venezuela elections: Chávez wins victory but opposition gains ground
ON SUNDAY 23 November, more than 14 million people in Venezuela came out early in the morning to elect governors, mayors and regional representatives, writes Johan Rivas, Colectivo Socialismo Revolucionario, the CWI group in Venezuela...
3 December 2008
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Climate change demo December 2007, photo by Paul Mattsson |
Climate scientists argue that critical processes, such as the melting of polar sea ice, are happening much faster than previously predicted.
The march will demand a 'Green New Deal', Paula Mitchell writes.
3 December 2008
Judiciary challenged over right to protest
THE MAY Day Detainees went back to court last week. This time they appealed to the House of Lords against the judgement from the High Court, which said it was lawful for the Metropolitan Police to hold...
3 December 2008
Social workers demand proper resources
Overworked, underpaid, undervalued: I agree with the comments of the social worker in issue 557 of The Socialist ('Social workers say: Investment needed'), writes A south Wales social worker.
3 December 2008
Vote 'no' to BT's pension cuts
BT is pursuing its pre-existing plan to get its workforce to accept a cut in pensions provision. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) executive committee (NEC) is now recommending that members vote to...
3 December 2008
A Christmas message from the Unite leadership
Good news of great joy: A message from Unite the union to its members: "The return of real Labour? A welcome move towards progressive politics and Labour's natural constituency", writes Mick Cotter.
3 December 2008
Workers employed by Dover Harbour Board (DHB) have announced that they will stage a further three 24-hour strikes next week, writes Jacqui Berry, Kent Socialist Party.
3 December 2008
Workers at Appledore shipyard in North Devon have accepted an offer from Babcock Marine management, ending their industrial action...
3 December 2008
Liverpool: mobilising against the far right
OVER THREE hundred anti-fascists protested in Liverpool last Saturday against the British National Party...
3 December 2008
Building a left wing political alternative
FORTY PEOPLE including trade unionists, community campaigners and students attended the first London regional meeting of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party (CNWP), writes Paula Mitchell.
3 December 2008
Southampton uni students fight fees
AROUND 100 students attended a Campaign to Defeat Fees (CDF) protest at Southampton University on 1 December...
3 December 2008
Welfare to profit: Attacks on benefits paid to lone parents and disabled people will feature in the Queen's speech to parliament this week...
3 December 2008
Twenty years since Section 28: This year is the twentieth anniversary of the infamous Section 28, an openly anti-gay law pushed through by Thatcher's Tory government, writes Greg Randall, Convenor of the LGBT socialist group.
3 December 2008
The Isle of Man general strike 1918: Workers' power paralysed government
On 3 July this year it was the 90th anniversary of the little-known Manx general strike, the Isle of Man's first and only general strike, writes Christian Daugherty.
3 December 2008
Fight back now against job cuts
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Unite members demonstrate at Labour Party conference 2007, photo Bob Severn |
10 December 2008
DNA evidence - Labour's draconian laws...
CLAUSE 18 of the Counter-terrorism Bill 2008 will allow DNA and fingerprints to be gathered and held by a vast range of public bodies ranging from the security services to local councils...
10 December 2008
Student struggle in Spain - time of revolt
Student protests against the education reforms in the Declaration of Bologna, part of the 1999 EU agreement, commenced in Spain in May 2008. Johan Rivas and Denise Dudley write.
10 December 2008
60,000 march against education cuts in Dublin
A massive demonstration against education cuts, organised by the teachers' unions, saw over 60,000 teachers, parents and students take to the streets of Dublin on Saturday 6 December, writes Paul Murphy, Socialist Party, Ireland.
10 December 2008
Wales - the true extent of student debt exposed
On Thursday 4 December, members of Bangor Socialist Students organised a 'Wall of Debt', writes Laurence Winch-Furness.
10 December 2008
Usdaw presidential election - support Robbie!
After winning an excellent 40% vote in the election for shopworkers' union Usdaw general secretary, Socialist Party member Robbie Segal is standing for president of Usdaw, a shopworker writes.
10 December 2008
Jean Charles de Menezes Coroner restricts inquest verdict
THE JURY in the inquest into the death of Brazilian migrant worker, Jean Charles de Menezes, in a horrifically botched police operation in July 2005 has now retired to consider its verdict...
10 December 2008
Lewisham's Greens and the BNP 'supporters list'
ONE of the Green Party candidates who stood in Telegraph Hill ward, south London in the 2006 local elections appears on the list of alleged BNP supporters recently leaked to the media, writes Clive Heemskerk.
10 December 2008
Queen's rep suspends Canada's parliament
IN AN unprecedented move, the Canadian governor general, Michaelle Jean, used her 'royal' powers as a representative of Britain's Queen, to prorogue (suspend) the country's parliament until 26 January in order to allow the right wing prime minister, Stephen Harper, to cling on to power...
10 December 2008
Unite against university attacks
In response to continual attacks by Sussex University management, this time aimed at associate tutors (ATs), a rally was held against plans to "casualise" the workforce, writes Lee Vernon and Sarah Wrack.
10 December 2008
Hospital trust offers pay cuts for Christmas
Staff working in the Greenwich Community Outreach Team, dealing with mentally ill patients, have just been told that they will be sacked and offered new contracts, minus a 17.5% allowance currently received for weekend working...
10 December 2008
Attack on child protection Greenwich Unison has condemned a proposed 'reconfiguration' of the council's child protection service...
10 December 2008
Socialism and left unity - a critique of the Socialist Workers Party
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Socialism and Left Unity |
This desire for unity is understandable and very important because of the need to build a strong left-wing alternative, and a new mass workers' party in particular, especially now that the economic crisis is exposing the failings of capitalism to many more people.
10 December 2008
Car industry in crisis - national meeting
The National Shop Stewards Network is organising a meeting for car workers and those in ancillary industries:
Saturday 14 February 2009, 12-4pm, The Birmingham and Midland Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham B3 3BS.
Please encourage your union branch/workplace to sponsor this meeting and send delegates (£5 per delegate or visitor).
See also: www.shopstewards.net or PO Box 58262, London N1P 1ET.
10 December 2008
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The Socialist Party's 'Grim Reaper' joins the Keep Our NHS Public 'Defend our health service' protest outside the Department of Health on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the health service, photo Paul Mattsson |
10 December 2008
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Protesters in Greece, photo Xekinima |
10 December 2008
Welfare 'reform' - fight these attacks
Editorial: The 'reforms' to welfare benefits announced in the Queen's Speech last week are an attack on some of the poorest people and families...
10 December 2008
PCS gains steps towards settlement
The civil service and related bodies have been a particular target of the anti-public sector policies of the New Labour government, writes John McInally, PCS vice-president.
10 December 2008
The government's latest target in its privatisation of the welfare state is the Social Fund. This fund has been in place since 1988 when it replaced single payments, which were non-repayable grants, with...
10 December 2008
Chicago workers occupy factory
ON THE afternoon of 5 December, 260 workers at Chicago's Republic Window and Door factory were told that it was closing down and that they would be laid off, writes Will Soto, Socialist Alternative, USA.
10 December 2008
Militant response needed at ex-Visteon plant to save jobs
Workers at the ex-Visteon plant in Swansea are reeling at the shock announcement that the new owners, Canadian company Linamar, are 'offering' 200 voluntary redundancies to the workforce. Unite convenor Rob Williams spoke to Alec Thraves (in a personal capacity).
10 December 2008
Twenty shop stewards and activists recently attended a joint Welsh Shop Stewards Network and Swansea trades council meeting to discuss the avalanche of job cuts in south west Wales, writes Alec Thraves.
10 December 2008
Water - essential of life or blue gold?
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Lack of flood prevention investment by Severn Trent Water was a prime factor in the floods in Gloucestershire, photo Chris Moore |
10 December 2008
Share out the work
For a 35-hour week with no loss of pay.
Create more jobs
Nationalise job-shedding companies. For massive investment in public housing and infrastructure projects.
16 December 2008
Bush humiliated by shoe attack
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17 December 2008
Kazakhstan CWI comrade Ainur Kurmanov arrested
Attacked by police and jailed for 15 days
29 December 2008
While details differ since this Socialist Party editorial of 12 March 2008 was written - the situation today is even worse - it applies in essentials.
30 December 2008
Demonstration
Saturday 3 January 2009
12.30 pm, Embankment, London
Also daily demos outside Israeli embassy
19 Feb Manchester Socialist Party: British Perspectives & our tasks
19 Feb Bristol North Socialist Party: Socialism - Utopian & Scientific
20 Feb Hackney & Islington Socialist Party: The 1978-79 Winter of Discontent
21 Feb Caerphilly Socialist Party: How councils can fight the cuts
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