Archive for December 2020
2 December 2020
Equity union conference calls for radical change - now lead a fight!
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2 December 2020
East London teachers strike in support of victimised union rep
2 December 2020
Heathrow workers strike against 'fire and rehire' plans
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2 December 2020
Solidarity with Brighton UCU strike - we won't pay for Covid crisis
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2 December 2020
What will the spending review mean for me?
Five Socialist Party members respond to the spending review, and what it means for youth, pensioners, schools, councils and those out of work.
2 December 2020
Napo kickstarts fight against pay freeze
At my first meeting on the national executive committee (NEC) of probation union Napo, I put forward an emergency motion to launch a campaign against the pay freeze.
2 December 2020
Don't let the festive season be one of misery for retail workers
The three days leading up to the England-wide lockdown were a taste of things to come, with shoppers flooding to the high street to squeeze in Christmas shopping.
2 December 2020
Hackney: Stop plan to halve school support staff!
Parents listened intently as trade unionists told them what management has not: it intends to cut the support staff in half.
2 December 2020
"Devolution is a disaster" were the reported words of Boris Johnson, referring to the Scottish government and "Tony Blair's biggest mistake".
2 December 2020
Pay freeze protest Homerton Hospital
Around twelve NHS staff held a socially distanced protest at Homerton Hospital against Rishi Sunak's pay freeze, on Wednesday 25 November
2 December 2020
The Socialist Party hosted Socialism 2020, a series of online workshops and rallies, from 20-23 November
2 December 2020
Young members from Devon Socialist Party ran a Friday lunch-time campaign stall outside Exeter College
2 December 2020
Our financial appeal at Socialism 2020 raised a fantastic £50,145.80. Much of the money pledged has now been paid, we would like pledges to be redeemed by 20 December.
2 December 2020
Labour meeting lets MP get away with 'Spycops' abstention
63 people attended a public meeting on the Spycops undercover policing scandal, organised by Hornsey and Wood Green Labour Party in protest at the abstention of right-wing Labour MPs on the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) bill.
2 December 2020
Send your news, views and criticism, in not more than 150 words, to [email protected] - or if you're not online, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
2 December 2020
Diego Maradona - Working-class rebel, football genius
Diego Maradona, the greatest footballer the world has ever seen, sadly passed away aged 60 last week.
2 December 2020
The Social Dilemma is a film recently produced by Netflix, exploring the impact of social media on society
2 December 2020
Fast fashion, big profits, low pay
It's estimated that the fashion industry is worth £2 trillion globally and brings £30 billion a year in revenue to the UK
2 December 2020
Conflict in Ethiopia: ethnic-linguistic divisions are the historical product of capitalist inequality
2 December 2020
Review: Friedrich Engels - Condition of the working class in England
The second in our series on socialist pioneer Friedrich Engels, on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Socialist Party national committee member Helen Pattison reviews one of the first books he wrote.
2 December 2020
NHS: Underfunded, understaffed, underpaid
Everyone on shift feels the Tories have been an unmitigated disaster in their handling of the pandemic, whatever they voted in the general election.
2 December 2020
Scotland: Campaign wins end to period poverty
In a first of its kind globally, the Period Products (Free Provision) Scotland Act was enshrined into law in Scotland on 24 November, laying the foundations for eradicating period poverty for Scottish women.
2 December 2020
'Building back greener' - yet more Tory greenwash
The Tories announced on 17 November their ten-point plan to tackle climate change, and reach a net-zero emissions target by 2050
2 December 2020
Better for billionaires. Worse for workers
Back in August, Boris Johnson promised a "world beating" track-and-trace system. Most people agree that didn't happen but the government and economy are 'world beating' in other respects.
2 December 2020
Unions must resist return to austerity
Chancellor Sunak's spending review should be a wake-up call to the trade union leaders. Even from the capitalists' point of view there was no immediate need to impose a pay freeze on 1.5 million public sector workers.
2 December 2020
Rent strikers' victory in student halls
Students at the University of Manchester won a 30% refund of their rent for the term
2 December 2020
Wales TUSC plans to mount an electoral challenge
A well-attended Zoom meeting relaunched TUSC in Wales
2 December 2020
Arcadia and Debenhams closures: Nationalise to save jobs and pensions
Arcadia's insolvency is not simply another Covid-affected collapse. Its problems predate the pandemic. Likewise Debenhams.
7 December 2020
How far can the Starmer counter-revolution go?
And what are all those who have supported Jeremy Corbyn proposing can be done to reverse the tide? Read the editorials of Socialism Today
9 December 2020
Super-rich tax evasion costs 34 million nurses worldwide
£320 billion is lost annually to corporate tax abuse and private tax evasion, the equivalent of nearly 34 million nurses' salaries, according to the Tax Justice Network.
9 December 2020
HMRC pay talks - PCS needs to organise members now
Revenue and Customs (HMRC) management's business case for pay linked to contract changes has been agreed by the Treasury
9 December 2020
Reinstate sacked Unite London bus rep Judith Katera
Judith, a longstanding Unite union rep and activist in Battersea bus garage in south London, has been dismissed by employer Abellio
9 December 2020
South London council workers vote to strike
Greenwich Council housing maintenance staff have returned a thumping 97% 'yes' vote for strike action in a ballot over plans to slash wages by up to £20,000
9 December 2020
London Socialist Party hits the streets
Socialist Party members in London took part in a socially distanced campaign day on 5 December. Our aim was to get as many of our members out campaigning to demand that the working class should not pay
9 December 2020
Tenants and workers unite to take on landlords
Unite members, together with tenants and housing activists, gathered outside the HQ of 'One Housing' last Friday to protest against the unfair treatment this anti-social housing association gives out to its workers and tenants
9 December 2020
York students determined to build for rent refunds and free education
Students held a protest in York city centre against their ongoing treatment by the government and university management
9 December 2020
Send your news, views and criticism, in not more than 150 words, to [email protected] - or if you're not online, PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT
9 December 2020
TV review: Red, White and Blue
More than just diversity - we need democratic, working-class control of the police: The BBC recently aired the film 'Red, White and Blue' from the Steve McQueen mini-series 'Small Axe'
9 December 2020
Engels and the answer to the housing question
Engels published The Housing Question in 1872 as a contribution to debates about the appalling housing conditions facing the working class in Germany, Britain and elsewhere, and what should be done about it
9 December 2020
Malaysia: Massive capitalist exploitation of migrant workers exposed by Covid pandemic
News of the spread of Covid-19 in factory hostels across Malaysia has come at a time when Malaysians are facing the highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic in early March this year
9 December 2020
Mass protests against Macron's repressive draft law Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated across the streets of France, on 28 November against President Macron's latest repressive measures, in particular, his draft security bill
9 December 2020
Should Corbyn stand for London Mayor?
Working-class people need better than Dodd's 'austerity later' policies.
9 December 2020
Fund NHS, not Tory crony contracts
The Tories clapped for the NHS. Heroes, they said. The NHS is safe in our hands, they said. Liars! Instead, Johnson and co have given lucrative contracts to their friends and family.
9 December 2020
High street jobs, safety and pay: We have to fight
Hospitality: Understaffed and underpaid, now it's got worse: Bar worker John Williams, a Socialist Party member in Cardiff, spoke at a protest to oppose the pay freeze in the public and private sector on 5 December.
9 December 2020
Luxury for some, poverty for the rest of us
Many of us won't have much to cheer about this Christmas. In 2020 we've lost people to a pandemic which is still hurting us. One-in-twenty young people are currently unemployed.
9 December 2020
It is with great sadness that we announce the loss of our friend and comrade Roger Priest.
9 December 2020
Trump's election defeat has sharply posed the question: What happens next?
9 December 2020
Covid vaccines only first step - fight job losses, austerity and 'virus' of capitalism
Covid-19 vaccines in record-breaking times have raised hopes that life will return to normal
9 December 2020
'Cut the Rent!' campaign kicks off
Students at the University of Oxford launched a rent strike campaign amid growing anger towards the university management
9 December 2020
Welsh trades councils rally against the pay-freeze
Speakers from several unions called for an end to the public sector pay freeze.
9 December 2020
Further education workers win pay rise in Wales
Workers in further education in Wales have won a long overdue pay increase. This will mean we are not left behind by the pay rise that was announced for school teachers in the summer.
9 December 2020
Why I joined the Socialist Party
Like many new Socialist Party members, I was formerly a Labour Party member during the Corbyn years.
9 December 2020
RMT gen sec election - vote for Steve Hedley
The upcoming general secretary election is an opportunity for RMT transport union members to change the direction of our trade union.
16 December 2020
Welsh schools close for safety after union pressure
Belatedly, the Welsh government announced the closure of secondary schools in Wales, moving to online teaching one week before the end of term.
16 December 2020
Met police investigate British mercenary war crimes against Tamils
The Metropolitan Police are investigating British mercenaries' hand in the massacre of over 100,000 civilians and the brutal defeat of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), who fought an armed struggle for an independent Tamil Eelam nation.
16 December 2020
No surprise, poverty is rising
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that 2.4 million, including half a million children, experienced "destitution" in 2019 - before coronavirus reached the UK
16 December 2020
Rich countries hoarding vaccine is danger to us all
The Covid-19 pandemic has been truly global in character, with every nation reporting cases. Why is it then, that as the first vaccine shipments leave the factories, your ability to access it will depend
16 December 2020
Cancel exams for class of Covid
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has refused to follow Scotland and Wales in cancelling exams, justifying his decision with: "Exams are the best form of assessment we have".
16 December 2020
Stop 'fire and rehire' at British Gas
As a loyal employee of over 20 years I am disgusted with the way senior management at British Gas are treating their staff.
16 December 2020
Determined strikers at Leaways school
NEU members at Leaways school in Clapton, East London, are taking part in a six-day strike spread over three weeks
16 December 2020
Can green technology and AI save capitalism?
The following article is an edited transcript of the speech by Mark Best in a workshop at the Socialism 2020 event organised online by the Socialist Party from 20-23 November (see 'Socialism 2020: Growing search for ideas to change the world' at socialistparty.org.uk)
16 December 2020
TUSC relaunch in the north west
Socialists, community activists and trade unionists were all represented at an online meeting held on 12 December to relaunch the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in north west England
16 December 2020
Protests in solidarity with Indian farmers
Around 300 people from the city's Indian Sikh community turned out in Cardiff Bay on Saturday 12 December to protest in solidarity with farmers in Punjab, India, taking action against the brutal right-wing regime
16 December 2020
Protest against immigration enforcement centre in Newham
The Tory government is trying to build an 'immigration enforcement centre' in Docklands, east London
16 December 2020
What a year! The Covid pandemic, the worst recession in living memory, the Black Lives Matter movement, the US presidential election, the Brexit debacle, growing class inequalities...
16 December 2020
On 2 March 2020, as coronavirus cases rose to four in a day, Boris Johnson told us that Britain was "well-prepared with a fantastic NHS"
16 December 2020
Strikes are how to fight for state education
Two London strikes have the future of publicly owned and run education at their heart
16 December 2020
'Socialism - Utopian and Scientific' by Engels
In the fourth article in our series marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, Ross Saunders looks at one of Engels' best known works.
16 December 2020
Effective testing and properly funded safety plan needed
The health secretary hopes mobile testing units can stop the Covid tide
16 December 2020
School boy assaulted by police in Tottenham
People woke up to a horrific video on Friday 11 December. It was of a 16 year old black boy in his school uniform, being assaulted by a police officer in Tottenham, north London. A protest was quickly
16 December 2020
Maternity unit deaths - democratic, public ownership needed
The recently published Ockenden report into the deaths and serious injuries of mothers and babies at the maternity units in Shropshire and Telford Hospital NHS Trust exposes a very dark side of the lack of accountability in the NHS
16 December 2020
Openreach and EE: Massive vote for action
Openreach and EE (now owned by BT) CWU members have retuned a massive 97.9% 'yes' vote on a 74% turnout in a consultative ballot on whether they wish to take industrial action against compulsory redundancies, site closures, reduction of terms and conditions, and a race to the bottom.
16 December 2020
Unite launch ballot over sacked London bus rep
Unite the union is running a consultative ballot on 16-17 December to launch the campaign to get Judith Katera reinstated
16 December 2020
Book: The national question - a Marxist approach
90 socialists from Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland, and even from as far afield as the US, attended an online book launch public meeting organised by Socialist Party Scotland on 10 December.
16 December 2020
Tremendous fighting fund reflects confidence
Socialist Party members and supporters have done brilliant work over the whole of 2020 in making sure we smashed through our fighting fund target for the year
16 December 2020
Christmas redundancy shock at L&Q housing association
Workers at highly profitable housing association L&Q were shocked to be told of major restructuring and the threat of large-scale redundancies.
16 December 2020
Unemployment and Covid rising
The beginning of a mass vaccination programme has raised hopes of an end to the Covid crisis. But putting profits first, the Tories have mismanaged the health and jobs crisis from day one.
16 December 2020
Union conference stripped of powers by NEC
The NEC of the PCS union decided to remove key powers from the 2021 annual delegate conference
16 December 2020
No to Tories' new anti-protest law
The Tories are looking at more ways to restrict the right to protest.
16 December 2020
Mass testing - we need trade union oversight and full pay for all
How effective are the resources being put into testing?
30 December 2020
2020 - a year which drove home the catastrophic failures of capitalism
Too many deaths from the pandemic, job losses, pay cuts and poverty were the experience across the planet.
16/07/21 Football: Smash racism
26 Jul Leeds Socialist Party: Brexit so far and in the next period
27 Jul Brighton Socialist Party: Material deprivation and the impact on schools
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