Archive for December 2012

5 December 2012

CUTS DON'T WORK

Pic: Paul Mattsson

TUC lobby 11 December to name date for 24-hour general strike to defeat ConDem cuts.

Chancellor Osborne has had to admit the humiliating truth - his policies to revive the British economy aren't working.

5 December 2012

Workfare schemes failing: We need real job creation

We will never be good enough. Millions strong and most of us young, all of us ready to work. We will never be good enough for Iain Duncan Smith, writes James Ivens.

5 December 2012

Them & Us

Hot air from Starbucks...: The ever-generous Starbucks has agreed to carry out a review of whether it maybe possible, at some point, to pay a little more tax...

5 December 2012

NHS in Wales under attack

Mass action needed to save our health service: In England, NHS users face the relentless drive to privatise so that ruthless private bosses can make a fortune with no regard for the service they are supposed to provide, writes Claire Job, Nurse and Socialist Party member.

5 December 2012

Demo against South West pay cartel

A 24-hour general strike to defend the NHS: Over 2,000 trade unionists and their families marched in Bristol on Saturday 1 December to protest against the recently formed NHS employer, South West Regional Pay Consortium, writes Dominico Hill.

5 December 2012

Campaign to save Lewisham A&E continues

Saturday 24 November, defying cold driving rain, up to 10,000 residents and staff marched to defend Lewisham Accident and Emergency (A&E) and linked arms around it., photo Socialist Party

Around 10,000 NHS staff and local people demonstrated on 24 November against the closure of Lewisham hospital's A&E department and other services...

5 December 2012

Belgium: Defend Tamil activist from deportation

Tamil Solidarity activist Muruganandam Murugathas - Thas to his friends - was arrested in November and taken to a closed centre for asylum seekers in Steenokkerzeel, in reality a deportation camp...

5 December 2012

Obituary: Suzanne Coombes

Bristol Socialist Party members were stunned by the untimely death of our comrade Suzanne Coombes on 10 November...

5 December 2012

November by-elections: Building an anti-cuts alternative

TUSC on the 28 March 2012 NUT London strike and demonstration , photo Socialist Party

"November was an unusual month. You can wait a long time for a byelection and then six come along in one month...

5 December 2012

Food banks without politics don't help

Nancy Taaffe on Waltham Forest anti-cuts protest, photo Senan

In a slightly shorter version of an article previously published on the Food Bankers' blog, Nancy Taaffe explains her severe misgivings about food banks...

5 December 2012

Yorkshire NSSN plans for future battles

The Yorkshire Shop Stewards Network conference held in Leeds on 24 November was attended by 45 delegates from 14 different trade unions from Hull, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, York, Harrogate and West Yorkshire...

5 December 2012

RMT cleaners: 'Prices are going up - but we get nothing extra'

RMT train cleaners from Churchill and ISS, who have taken strike action, protesting at Newcastle Central station, photo Elaine Brunskill

Train cleaners from Churchill and ISS, rail union RMT members, have taken further co-ordinated strike action against their unscrupulous bosses, writes Elaine Brunskill.

5 December 2012

Workplace news in brief

All-out Christmas strike: After taking over 30 days of strike action over the summer, 20+ re-cycling workers, working at Sheffield's five Dump-it sites, thought they had secured an agreement to restore their working hours...

5 December 2012

Scottish referendum: What sort of independence should socialists campaign for?

Rallying for a yes vote in Edinburgh as thousands march for an independent Scotland, photo M Dobson

The 2014 referendum is going to take place against the backdrop of an unprecedented economic crisis. Tory Toff, David Cameron's Con-Dem government is attempting, and to a degree has already succeeded,...

5 December 2012

Nothing to lose - Tesco drivers vote for indefinite strike

180 Tesco drivers, members of Unite the union, at the supermarket giant's distribution hub in Doncaster have announced an indefinite strike from 7 December

5 December 2012

Stop the A&E closures!

Health unions should take action to save our NHS: Proposals have been announced to close four accident and emergency (A&E) units in north west London: Charing Cross, Central Middlesex, Hammersmith and Ealing, writes Michael Wrack.

5 December 2012

Standing up to austerity on the south coast

Trade Union and anti-cuts activists from across Hampshire came together on 28 November at the invitation of Southampton RMT shipping branch to launch Stand Up on the South, a campaign of direct action and civil disobedience in opposition to the Con-Dems' austerity agenda...

5 December 2012

PCS: Action agreed to end pay freeze and defend working conditions

Press release from the Public and Commercial Services Union, PCS:
The union's national executive has agreed plans for a determined campaign for fair pay and working conditions, including a ballot for industrial action by more than a quarter of a million civil and public servants, writes (PCS).

5 December 2012

Kazakhstan: commemoration on massacre

Cultural commemoration on the first anniversary of the notorious massacre in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, of unarmed men, women and children by state forces, Sunday 16 December.

5 December 2012

The rotten establishment - of a rotten system

Just as arrogant bankers flaunted their wealth while they helped crash the economy, so establishment politicians, press barons and some police have had their arrogance and contempt for 'the plebs' revealed.

5 December 2012

System change needed

Editorial: Don't throw things at the telly - fight back! Working people face attacks on their wages, jobs, services or benefits.

5 December 2012

Challenging Jack Straw MP

In October, the Lancashire Telegraph serialised former Labour cabinet minister Jack Straw's memoirs. Peter Harris, one of six Labour Party members expelled from Straw's Blackburn constituency party, wrote to the Lancashire Telegraph challenging Straw's version of events

5 December 2012

Victory for teachers' strike

After revelations that the academies programme has run up a £1 billion overspend, which other schools are now being asked to pay for, anger against the government's flagship education policy is growing...

5 December 2012

We need decent jobs not benefit cuts!

In his Autumn Statement mini-budget, Chancellor George Osborne will attempt populist politics in his budget by scapegoating the unemployed and attacking benefits...

5 December 2012

Scottish Unison unanimously backs one-day general strike

Photo by Duncan Brown

All 200 delegates representing 160,000 Unison members working in local government, health, education etc have unanimously supported a motion from the Glasgow city branch calling for a coordinated industrial action strategy, beginning with a one-day strike across Scotland...

6 December 2012

Youth & students lobby Sheffield Council to Restore EMA - photos

Sheffield Youth Fight for Jobs and Socialist Students lobby Sheffield Town Hall before presenting petitions demanding the Labour Council restore EMA, photo by A Tice

Sheffield Youth Fight for Jobs and Socialist Students lobby Sheffield Town Hall before presenting petitions demanding the Labour Council restore EMA. Two photos...

6 December 2012

Gove goes to war on teachers' pay

6 December 2012

Osborne's budget: more pain, more reasons for a 24-hour general strike

Photo Paul Mattsson

Osborne's autumn statement is yet another attempt to transfer wealth from the 99% to the pockets of the 1% elite...

6 December 2012

Doncaster Tesco drivers on indefinite strike - photo

Striking Tesco drivers on the picket line , photo by A Tice

See article: www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/15804/05-12-2012/nothing-to-lose-tesco-drivers-vote-for-indefinite-strike, writes Please send messages of support to Unite shop steward Trevor Cheetham: lynncheetham@yahoo.co.uk.

7 December 2012

About Socialism 2012

Join the fightback. Fight the 1%. Fight for socialism...

7 December 2012

Sheffield teachers' strike against 'mock Ofsteds'

Over 30 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) took strike action on Thursday 6 December at Westfield Sports College, a secondary school in Sheffield, writes Alistair Tice.

7 December 2012

Demand the immediate release of Ramy Sabry and all activists in Egypt

The CWI condemned the organised killing of journalist Al Housseini Abou Dayf, and the kidnapping and torturing of activists by Muslim Brotherhood members during the recent mass protests

7 December 2012

Release political prisoners in Sri Lanka

Tamil Solidarity has launched a new campaign in protest at the arrest of students at Jaffna University by the brutal Sri Lanka regime...

10 December 2012

Socialist Women plan campaigning for 2013

On 5 and 6 January a Socialist Party national women's meeting will take place. In the lead up to this two regions of the Socialist Party report on similar meetings they have organised

11 December 2012

Kazakhstan - Vadim jailed for 12 years

On the second attempt, the authorities in Kazakhstan have jailed Vadim Kuramshin, a well-known campaigner for prisoners' rights and member of the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan, for 12 years...

11 December 2012

Tesco drivers successfully blockade distribution centre

Striking Tesco drivers on the picket line , photo A Tice

With confidence high after Saturday's march and picket, Doncaster Tesco drivers upped the anti on Monday in their dispute with Tesco/Stobarts, writes Alistair Tice.

11 December 2012

Trade unionists lobby TUC for 24-hour general strike

Video added 12/12/12. On 11th December, 100 trade unionists joined the National Shop Stewards' Network to lobby the TUC general council

12 December 2012

Condemning an anti-LGBTI bill in Uganda

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex activists, and human rights campaigners, protested outside the Ugandan High Commission in London on 10 December against a repressive bill currently going through the Ugandan parliament

12 December 2012

Brixton byelection, south London: We want a candidate we can count on

It may be cold outside but not as cold as George Osborne's heart and his brutal austerity measures. But he's not the only one...

12 December 2012

Striking against 'mock Ofsteds'

Over 30 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) took strike action on 6 December at Westfield Sports College, a secondary school in Sheffield, writes Alistair Tice.

12 December 2012

Bristol postal workers fight bullying

Dressed in Santa hats and with spirits high, around 40 postal workers and their supporters joined the picket line on 10 December at the Bristol South East delivery office, writes Tom Baldwin.

12 December 2012

Workplace news in brief

Defend the Four: The Hackney Unison branch committee has unanimously passed a motion welcoming the decision of Unison to withdraw its High Court appeal against witch-hunted Socialist Party members Glenn Kelly, Onay Kasab, Suzanne Muna and Brian Debus, which has probably saved the union £100,000...

12 December 2012

Hands off our NHS!

The Tories have been caught lying about spending on the NHS. They claimed that they have increased spending on the NHS in each of the last two years...

12 December 2012

South African miners' struggle

South African miners on strike 2012

'An historical faultline': The recent determined struggle of South African miners, who have braved bloody repression by state forces, has created political shockwaves throughout the country...

12 December 2012

Sri Lanka: Solidarity with Jaffna students

Protests outside Sri Lankan embassies against the brutal suppression of Tamil students in Jaffna, have taken place around the world...

12 December 2012

Fracking - gas profit dash could wreck climate

In his Autumn Statement, Con-Dem chancellor George Osborne announced a new 'dash for gas' including fracking, the technology used to obtain gas and oil trapped in shale rock, writes Pete Mason.

12 December 2012

Protesting against council cuts

Manchester: Greater Manchester Trades Council called a demonstration against austerity and Osborne's autumn statement, writes Paul Gerrard.

12 December 2012

Kazakhstan: Free Vadim Kuramshin!

Vadim Kuramshin, campaigner for prisoner rights and member of the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan has been jailed for 12 years...

12 December 2012

Merry Christmas from Starbucks

What a lovely Christmas present we've had from Starbucks this year! The company has generously volunteered to pay £20 million corporation tax over the next two years...

12 December 2012

Austerity UK: 'I want to live, not just exist'

20 October 2012 TUC demo against austerity, photo Paul Mattsson

An ambulance worker fighting the proposed closure of his ambulance station told me recently: "I want to live, not just exist." As a single mother, struggling to even 'exist', I understand this sentiment, writes a public sector worker.

12 December 2012

Gove goes to war on teachers' pay

We have to urgently announce a programme of escalating national strike action in defence of teachers' pay, writes National Union of Teachers (NUT) executive member Martin Powell-Davies

12 December 2012

Workers will fight austerity

Rob Williams, NSSN national chair, replied to an article "The British have no fight in them any more" by Nick Cohen in the 9 December Observer..

12 December 2012

A very Them & Us Christmas quiz

How much attention have you paid to the 'Them & Us' column in the Socialist? Try our 20 questions of 2012 to find out.

12 December 2012

NHS in crisis

Saturday 24 November, defying cold driving rain, up to 10,000 residents and staff marched to defend Lewisham Accident and Emergency (A&E) and linked arms around it., photo Socialist Party

Student nurse says: Give us the resources to provide care!: A recent report flagged up rising death rates and a chronic bed crisis in the NHS. The next day, the national press vilified nurses as uncaring and lacking compassion.

12 December 2012

Great offers from Socialist Books

We have many books which would make good presents for your family and friends - both political and less political - and we have selected just a few here.

12 December 2012

Blacklisting: 'we will fight for justice in every way'

National Shop Stewards Network chair, Rob Williams, recently interviewed Dave Smith, a blacklisted construction worker.

12 December 2012

Them & Us

United Socialists of America: A recent poll by Gallup in the US has shown that 39% of Americans now view socialism positively.

12 December 2012

Mass protests in Egypt against Mursi and his reactionary constitution

Big demonstrations have opposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's attempt to seize new powers and railroad through a repressive Islamic constitution

12 December 2012

Prepare to resist austerity in 2013

photo Paul Mattsson

Millionaire Tory Chancellor Osborne began his Autumn Statement speech with excuses for economic predictions reduced from 0.8% 'growth', to -0.1%, a contraction, and lower forecasts for years...

12 December 2012

Kick out the cuts coalition

photo Paul Mattsson

When Tory Chancellor George Osborne presented his Autumn Budget Statement what he served up wasn't so much a speech as a load of lies spun together with well-rehearsed anti-working class hoopla. The Socialist unravels some of the Con-Dems' claims..

13 December 2012

'Grotesque Chaos' at Birmingham council cuts meeting

Birmingham council's ruling Labour party has quickly raised the white flag to the Con-Dem government, resolving to cut the city's remaining threadbare public services on its behalf

14 December 2012

Doncaster drivers give Tesco & Stobarts a bloody nose

From the National Shop Stewards Network website, www.shopstewards.net...

14 December 2012

2 sisters food workers fight back

Chants could be heard in English, Urdu and Polish as over 200 workers braved the icy weather for a mass picket outside the depot of 2 Sisters Food Group in Smethwick, Birmingham...

15 December 2012

Robbie Segal

Socialist Party members will be saddened to hear about the death of Robbie Segal on Thursday 13 December...

17 December 2012

Brighton & Hove lobby against council tax cuts

A petition of 700 signatures opposing cuts to council tax benefit collected from across Brighton and Hove was presented to Brighton and Hove council yesterday...

17 December 2012

Southampton - Newtown public meeting

Last week councillors and council officers were summonsed to a public meeting in the inner city of Southampton

17 December 2012

Lobby of Coventry council

Last Tuesday saw trade unions at Coventry City Council hold a protest lobby of the Cabinet meeting. Around 80 workers attended in their lunch break, with support coming from others unions such as CWU,...

17 December 2012

Lobbying Carmarthenshire council for a 'living wage'

On 12th December, Unison members and Socialist Party activists braved the bitter cold to lobby Carmarthenshire councillors

18 December 2012

Campaign Kazakhstan: protests and Zhanaozen memorials

One year after the Zhanaozen massacre, memorials and protests have taken place in a number of countries

18 December 2012

Caerphilly council workers protest against bosses' pay hike

Over 600 council workers protested on Monday and Tuesday against the plan by Labour-controlled Caerphilly council to increase top managers' pay by over 20% while council services and jobs are cut by 10%

19 December 2012

Save Sheffield Early Years centres

Over 250 protested outside Sheffield Town Hall to save children's centres and nurseries

19 December 2012

Comet owners walk away with £ millions

Over Christmas and New Year 2008/2009, Woolworths, the long-established high street retail chain, folded - a victim of the capitalist economic recession...

19 December 2012

Support the Shrewsbury pickets

Ricky Tomlinson's announcement that the Justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets Campaign has launched a petition to secure the release of state documents, deserves maximum support...

19 December 2012

Northern Ireland: Widespread protests continue over union flag on Belfast City Hall

Protests have taken place across Northern Ireland since Belfast council voted through restrictions on flying the British union flag on the City Hall

20 December 2012

Nobody supports cuts in Birmingham council's sham 'consultations'

One of four cuts 'consultation' meetings across Birmingham took place in the in the Council House

20 December 2012

Robbie Segal

Robbie Segal

Robbie, a longstanding comrade in the Socialist Party and a leading activist in Usdaw, was at the forefront of workers' battles

20 December 2012

Victory for post depot cleaners and engineers

Cleaners and engineers who work on contracts for Royal Mail have secured a big improvement to the pay rise on offer from their bosses after threatening to strike tomorrow (Friday)

30 December 2012

Tyne and Wear Metro strikers tell bosses to end poverty pay

Churchill cleaners working on Tyne and Wear Metro have taken a further 72 hours of strike action over the Christmas holiday

31 December 2012

London Underground cleaners strike over New Year

"We will not tolerate low pay in this day and age" say tube cleaners