Archive for February 2022
2 February 2022
Dave Nellist standing for Birmingham Erdington
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is standing Dave Nellist in the Birmingham Erdington parliamentary by-election taking place on 3 March.
2 February 2022
Gas and electric bills set to soar by 50% this year
Nationalise the energy sector now: While millions will have to choose between heating or eating, the big energy companies are laughing all the way to the bank. BP and Shell are making £900 a second in profit!
2 February 2022
Victory at NewVIc college! 'The picket line gives us power'
The sixth-form strike in Newham, east London, has won! After 12 strike days at Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc), management has withdrawn proposals to become a privately run 'academy'.
2 February 2022
May Day Greetings: Back the paper that backs the working class
Thousands of workers fought back in 2021 and that strike wave has continued into 2022. These hundreds of struggles, including many victories, are reported every week in the pages of the Socialist newspaper.
2 February 2022
Nominate Broad Left Network rank-and-file socialist candidates: The Broad Left Network (BLN) is standing candidates in the 2022 PCS national elections. It is challenging the current, failed, almost invisible Democracy Alliance (a pact between Left Unity and PCS Democrats).
2 February 2022
Scunny scaffs strike restarts with a bang, barricades and a win!
Scunthorpe scaffolders' first week of renewed strike action in 2022 (after successfully reballoting following 12 weeks of strike action before Christmas) kicked off with a real bang - with flares, barricades and a win!
2 February 2022
A cavalcade circled McDonald's in Sheffield on 30 January with car horns blaring, coloured smoke flares, banners, loudspeakers and vocal support from around 60 supporters who joined couriers opposing the 'offer' of a pay rise of minus 25% by Stuart which employs Just Eat couriers
2 February 2022
Tories sinking, workers rising - help fund the socialist fightback
The Tories are on the ropes, while workers face more and more attacks on their jobs, wages and living standards
2 February 2022
Essex Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is meeting on 1 February to discuss what services people need locally, especially council housing, and how to fight for this at the local elections in May.
2 February 2022
Portsmouth: Council workers leaving and tenants' double whammy
Council workers are leaving. They can't live off the wages paid by the council.
2 February 2022
Bristol Labour £19.5 million cuts: At a Bristol council cabinet meeting, a GMB union representative for Avon and Wessex declared: "Low-paid citizens face a triple whammy of a 3% rise in council tax, 4% rise in rent, and probably 20 to 30% rise in their service charges."
2 February 2022
Hackney Unison to encourage anti-cuts candidates
This was emailed to all 1,600 union members of Hackney local government Unison.
2 February 2022
Covering basic costs is hard, and it's getting worse
At the start of lockdown, as a key worker in the funeral industry, I faced difficulties paying for rent, food, a car, insurance, tax, fuel, phone and internet, like many others.
2 February 2022
School students strike in Austria
In the middle of the Covid Omicron wave, Austrian students walked out in a school strike on 26 January, following a warning strike on 18 January.
2 February 2022
Northern Ireland: Bloody Sunday 50 years on
A pivotal event in the course of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland took place 50 years ago, known as 'Bloody Sunday'.
2 February 2022
On 24 January 2022, a group of military officers toppled President Roch Kaboré's government in Burkina Faso.
2 February 2022
France: Education workers and students walkout
On Thursday 27 January striking students and teachers from my lycée (state secondary school) joined other demonstrators in Albi to protest at the lack of consideration for the health of teaching staff and students
2 February 2022
Belfast: Worth watching portrayal of previously airbrushed workers' unity
Film review: Belfast: Kenneth Branagh's semi-biographical film opens with images of modern-day Belfast, and then moves back in time (in black and white) to 15 August 1969, and the soundtrack of Van Morrison.
2 February 2022
Why a socialist candidate for Birmingham Erdington is vital
The Erdington by-election is taking place as the living costs of the majority soar, and the Tory government drowns in cover-ups, corruption and lies
2 February 2022
Why I joined: I'm tired of austerity and status quo
Why I joined the Socialist Party: I am tired of austerity and the squeeze on the working class and lower middle class. What happened to the concept of 'quality of life', where families have the right to a fair standard of living, an
2 February 2022
Starmer's Tory-lite Labour is no alternative.
Under Boris Johnson it's one law for us and one for the rich and powerful.
That means the recently revealed lockdown lawbreaking, sleaze and crony Covid contracts. But also the policies that make the rich richer while workers and our families suffer.
2 February 2022
The winter strike wave escalates as workers fight back and win
The strike wave that developed during the last months of 2021 is growing in 2022. It has claimed significant victories for workers.
2 February 2022
Coventry bins: all-out against strike-breaking Labour council
There’s a packed and determined picket line in winter weather each strike day
2 February 2022
NHS mandatory vaccination to be ditched
Ministers have announced plans to scrap the order forcing all NHS staff in England to get vaccinated against Covid
2 February 2022
Ukraine: Workers' unity needed
The beating of war drums is getting ever louder. For weeks, Western media and politicians have raised the prospect of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, and are threatening dire consequences for
2 February 2022
NI rise piled onto shoulders of the lowest paid
The working class is already suffering from spiralling prices and stagnating wages, but there will be no let-up around the corner
2 February 2022
Memorial meeting remembers Pauline Wall
Forty people, including Socialist Party members from Bradford and further afield, attended a meeting on 29 January organised by the family of Pauline Wall to commemorate her life.
2 February 2022
Getting organised for 2 March walkout
Socialist Students groups are building for the 2 March walkout and other protests.
2 February 2022
NHS workers begin strike for 15% and against outsourcing
Hundreds of outsourced NHS workers have begun a two-week strike for higher pay and an end to privatisation
2 February 2022
Tories attack UC recipients with 'get any job' threat
Bosses used the pandemic as an excuse to maximise profits by driving down wages and conditions, and now struggle to recruit
3 February 2022
Socialist Party statement on Unison president Paul Holmes
Kirklees council dismissed from employment the left branch secretary of Kirklees Unison and national union president
9 February 2022
Cut our fuel bills - nationalise energy
Putting food on the table or keeping warm. That's the stark choice facing millions more households as gas and electricity bills reach new unpayable heights.
9 February 2022
'I'm dreading trying to live on a nurse's salary'
As a student nurse in London, I'm living in an expensive city on a paltry student loan during my three years of training.
9 February 2022
Cuts created NHS waiting list crisis
In desperate need of urgent spinal surgery, I am forced to be a patient patient. Due to the long waiting list, I am left bedbound whilst in immense pain.
9 February 2022
Tories' 'levelling up' falls well short
The Conservative Party has wheeled out its 'levelling up' announcements, promised during the 2019 general election, targeting 12 'missions of development' to be reached by the decade's end
9 February 2022
Tories' 'partygate' crisis continues - kick them out
Five Tory aides have quit. The Boris Johnson government faces growing anger for partying in 10 Downing Street, as people were forced to stay at home or pay hefty fines for breaking lockdown rules.
9 February 2022
Tesco slashes jobs and customer service
Urgent fightback needed against profiteer bosses: Job losses in the region of 1,600 jobs could go at Tesco. After two years of being praised as front-line key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, this is how Tesco is repaying the workers, who have earned
9 February 2022
Just Eat couriers drive chief exec out of town as strike spreads
Striking Just Eat/Stuart couriers and supporters scared off a McDonald's big cheese from visiting the Sheffield Hillsborough restaurant recently
9 February 2022
Scunthorpe scaffs mark 100 days of strike action with protests
100 days! By the time you read this, that's how long the scaffolders will have been on strike against their contractor Actavo working at British Steel Scunthorpe. In a dispute going back three years,
9 February 2022
King's student union refuses to back staff strike and NUS walkout
I went to the annual general meeting of the university student union at King's College London (KCL) to raise two things
9 February 2022
A socialist voice in Stanwell North
Vote TUSC in the by-election on 23 February: The Surrey Advertiser carried an article on 4 February, titled 'County's plan to tackle growth in levels of poverty'
9 February 2022
Tamil Solidarity protest against repressive Sri Lankan regime
On Sri Lankan independence day, 4 February, Tamil Solidarity organised a protest at the Sri Lankan high commission in London to oppose the repressive Sri Lankan regime
9 February 2022
Perfect storm brewing in education
There is a perfect storm brewing in education. Frustration over the issues of workload and pay will come to a head.
9 February 2022
Swansea Trades Council pledges to fight local government cuts
Swansea Trades Council held an open conference on 26 January to discuss Swansea council's budget proposals for 2022-23 and the medium-term plan for the next three years.
9 February 2022
PCS consultative pay and conditions ballot - vote 'Yes'
The PCS union which organises civil service and public sector workers is holding a consultative ballot of its members on pay and conditions
9 February 2022
Oxfam 'Inequality Kills' report
Capitalism means inequality - socialism can end it: The 'Inequality Kills' report by Oxfam shines a light into the horrific poverty conditions experienced by billions around the world
9 February 2022
The Socialist: 25 years of assisting workers' struggles and fighting for socialism
May Day Greetings: This month, the Socialist celebrates 25 years of being to the fore in fighting for a democratic socialist society, to end the nightmare conditions of inequality, poverty, wars, and environmental catastrophe arising from the capitalist profit system.
9 February 2022
Does the fight for Trans rights conflict with women's rights?
Michael Johnson's article, 'Stonewall attacked by the establishment' (the Socialist, 15 December 2021), refers to "some in the women's and labour movement", he asserts, are jointly campaigning with right-wing journalists and politicians "to present trans and non-binary people's rights as con
9 February 2022
Socialist Party youth meeting: Mood is changing - socialist ideas growing
Socialist Party youth organisers meet: I kicked off the 'youth weekend', 29 and 30 January, by attending the commission introduced by Socialist Party trade union and workplace organiser Rob Williams, emphasising the power of the organised working class.
9 February 2022
Pro-market Socialist Party wins Portugal's election
Left Bloc and Communist Party lose ground: Portugal's snap general election was won by the ruling Socialist Party (PS) headed by current Prime Minister António Costa
9 February 2022
Support the university strikes!
Starting on Valentine's Day, the UCU has called an almost three-week-long strike.
9 February 2022
Catastrophic energy bill hike - a crisis made by capitalism
Working-class families face a perfect storm. After two lost decades of living standards, stagnating wages, privatisation and cuts, and benefits slashed, now inflation is heading for 7%.
9 February 2022
Force back Serco and Barts management!
The Barts hospital workers' picket lines have been big, bold and angry.
9 February 2022
Preparing for the council and Erdington elections
TUSC local government conference report: "The working class across England and Wales is facing the biggest cost of living crisis in 30 years, and the last 30 years have not been milk, honey and plenty," said chair Dave Nellist opening the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) 2022 local government conference
9 February 2022
Dave Nellist talking with striking bin workers in Birmingham. Dave is standing for TUSC in the 3 March Erdington byelection. Click for details to help or donate.
9 February 2022
10 February 2022
How will Unite's clash with Labour effect the Erdington byelection?
Sharon Graham suspended Unite's funding to Labour while the Coventry bin strike continues.
11 February 2022
Trade Unionists Support Dave Nellist - a Socialist for Erdington
Add your name at: https://bit.ly/TUsupportNellist
15 February 2022
Left Labour MPs under pressure over Erdington
Zarah Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry South, received angry responses to a tweet
16 February 2022
Campaigning in Birmingham Erdington by-election
A worker we met said: "These MPs with two homes when some can't get one are a disgrace". They are now out leafleting with us for Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate Dave Nellist.
16 February 2022
Why I'm going to Socialist Students conference
The financial screws are tightening on students. The government is freezing the threshold when students start to repay their loans, as opposed to raising it in line with inflation, meaning they will have
16 February 2022
Stop eviction of Camden homeless collective
A collective of homeless people is facing eviction. They took over a disused hostel owned by One Housing Group (OHG). They have called a protest for 17 February.
16 February 2022
East Sussex: Poverty and cuts bring people to Socialist Party
16 February 2022
Closed before Xmas, the Tory council in Southampton locked out hundreds of users from St Mary's Leisure Centre (SMLC) halfway through a council consultation on its future.
16 February 2022
Fund us to fight for socialism
Socialist Party branches are doing campaign stalls and other activity to help us hit our quarterly fighting fund target of £25,000
16 February 2022
From our history: 1972 miners' strike
Fifty years ago, the miners' strike for a fairer pay system saw some of the biggest demonstrations of workers' power since World War Two.
16 February 2022
TV: 'Death of Two Black Men: Police in the Spotlight'
The BBC Wales documentary 'Death of Two Black Men: Police in the Spotlight', shines a light on the horrific deaths of Mohamud Hassan and Mouayed Bashir, immediately after contact with South Wales Police
16 February 2022
'A Killing in Tiger Bay' is an in-depth, three-part documentary telling the story of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history - 'the Cardiff Three'
16 February 2022
How Cardiff Bay's redevelopment led to 'social cleansing'
'King Coal' in the late 19th century gave rise to Cardiff docks and the surrounding area, which became known as 'Tiger Bay'
16 February 2022
Abi is a hospital domestic, working nights at weekends. That's just one of his jobs.
16 February 2022
Tory stealth taxes burden 'packhorse generation'
Young workers are set to shoulder the burden of Covid spending and addressing the crisis in NHS and social care, according to the Intergenerational Foundation think tank
16 February 2022
Left Labour MPs under pressure over Erdington
Zarah Sultana, the Labour MP for Coventry South, is under threat of deselection for being one of the small number of Labour MPs who has publicly called for Jeremy Corbyn to be reinstated as a Labour MP
16 February 2022
Neither Washington, London nor Moscow
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has declared his devotion to Nato - the US-led Western powers' military organisation, established during the period of the 'Cold War' with the former Soviet Union.
16 February 2022
West Sussex care campaigners' victory
West Sussex Tory council will not cut adult services in 2022 or 2023. Our campaign has certainly made an impact.
16 February 2022
In September 2021, Cressida Dick was offered a two-year extension to her £230,000-a-year role as Metropolitan Police Commissioner
16 February 2022
Australian nurses strike against understaffing and low pay
Tens of thousands of New South Wales nurses and midwives at 150 hospitals held a one-day strike on 15 February
16 February 2022
Join the scaffs mass picket at Scunthorpe steelworks
On 22 February, all roads will lead to Scunthorpe's steelworks, but none will get in! A mass demonstration and picket of the site has been called by Unite, the union representing the 60 scaffolders employed
16 February 2022
Worksop Wincanton workers win pay rise after strike
450 Unite members in Worksop, North Notts, have returned to work after winning a much improved pay deal. Wincanton, the logistics company running the B&Q depot, had originally offered 4%.
16 February 2022
"If we don't fight, we won't win!"
Gas and electric bills up 30%. National Insurance increasing soon. Rent, mortgage and food costs continuing to skyrocket. Yet pay stays the same.
16 February 2022
'Labour by name - Tory by policy'
Solidarity with the Coventry bin lorry drivers
Build a movement to defend living standards
Labour by name, Tory by policy," chanted Coventry's HGV drivers' union convenor as he marched through Coventry along with his striking colleagues.
16 February 2022
Covid: Fight for full sick pay
Numbers of Covid cases and hospital admissions are at a similar level to February last year. There are still over 200 deaths per day. But, for political reasons, the Tories are using a drop from the record-high
16 February 2022
Just Eat strike spreads and forces concessions
The Just Eat/Stuart delivery drivers strike is spreading. Couriers in Middlesbrough and Dewsbury have joined the action, with drivers in Leicester meeting to plan action. Chesterfield and Sunderland couriers
16 February 2022
NEU strike at girls' school chain over pensions
1,500 members of the National Education Union (NEU) at 23 independent schools within the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) have taken strike action over plans to withdraw staff from the 'Teachers' Pension Scheme'
16 February 2022
Campaigning to make 2 March student walkout happen
Our march in Brighton on 2 March - from Moulscoomb campus to the Level - will be a show of force that we do not support the marketisation of our education, we do not support further degradation of staff working conditions, and we do not support exploitation of postgraduate-research students as cheap
16 February 2022
Britain's economic growth figures mask fragile false recovery
The capitalist media celebrated the announcement that the UK economy grew by 7.5% in 2021.
16 February 2022
University workers striking back
Workers at 44 universities walked out on 14 February after bosses refused to withdraw cuts to the Universities Superannuation Scheme
16 February 2022
PCS Elections 2022: Time for new union leadership
It is in the vital interest of PCS members to replace the Democracy Alliance leadership
16 February 2022
Following two weeks of solid strike action the Barts hospital strike has ended - for now.
16 February 2022
Birmingham Erdington by-election
The enthusiasm and energy in a packed-out meeting was palpable, at the prospect of a truly anti-austerity pro-worker candidate
23 February 2022
Johnson scraps Covid safety measures
Fight for trade union control of workplace safety: At every stage of the pandemic, Johnson's Tory government has made decisions motivated in large part by the objective to protect bosses' profits.
23 February 2022
Tories instruct teachers to wipe Britain's real history
The Tories in the Department for Education (DfE) are issuing guidelines to teachers about impartiality in the classroom
23 February 2022
Fight for free, green, publicly owned transport: Nearly one in five households do not have access to a car. For those in the bottom 20% of households by income, the figure is one in three.
23 February 2022
Coventry bin strikers lobby strike-breaking Labour council
At a rally and march of striking Coventry bin lorry drivers on 22 February, the mood was really determined as workers marched from the picket line to Coventry council offices
23 February 2022
Scunny scaffs action forces bosses to the table
16 weeks of indefinite strike action by the scaffolders at British Steel Scunthorpe, solidarity strike action by other construction workers, and an extensive leverage campaign against company bosses and scabbing companies, have forced employer Actavo back to the negotiating table
23 February 2022
Usdaw: 'Reinstate Max' week of action
Three months on from exhausting all appeals, Socialist Party member Max McGee is preparing to take Tesco to an employment tribunal over his trade union victimisation and sacking
23 February 2022
Trade union support for standing anti-cuts election candidates
On the back of so much Tory sleaze and betrayals by Labour, many working-class people can't be blamed for having no faith in any of the establishment parties.
23 February 2022
Barts NHS workers to walk out again on 28 February
Barts hospital workers will start a further fortnight of strike action on 28 February, following two weeks of solid strike action by 600 workers between 31 January and 13 February.
23 February 2022
Rail workers strike in Sheffield
The second weekend of a four-week Sunday strike at TransPennine Express took place on 20 February.
23 February 2022
Privatisation and crisis in the NHS
The Tories have used the cover of the Covid pandemic to speed up their agenda of opening up the NHS further to the profiteers in the private sector.
23 February 2022
TV review: This is Going to Hurt
Crucial story from NHS coalface: 'This is Going to Hurt' is a groundbreaking look at the pressures and strains on clinicians and the NHS
23 February 2022
Brighton Green and Labour cuts - workers and communities fight back
Austerity has left Brighton without vital services, a housing crisis and rising poverty as wages are cut, with bills, council tax and charges on the rise
23 February 2022
Surrey: Unions and campaigns say stand as an anti-cuts candidate
Every week we hear about cuts to services - local bus services, public toilets closed, older people's homes closing, community centres - the list goes on
23 February 2022
Newham City Farm - closed with no consultation
Newham City Farm, run by the local council, has been a well-known community and educational resource in east London since 1977
23 February 2022
London Socialist Party women's meeting
Discussing ideas to fight women's oppression: Violence against women has been brought to the fore by recent events. There have been angry vigils and protests against sexual assault and attacks. This was the backdrop for our meeting of women members
23 February 2022
1 March: Socialist Party new website launch
A new Socialist Party website will be replacing the present one on Tuesday 1 March. The existing website has played an important role for two decades in getting out the Socialist Party ideas - but now
23 February 2022
Fighting fees and marketisation after 2 March student walkout
Socialist Students national conference takes place in Birmingham on 26 February. The Socialist Students steering committee has put forward this motion to be debated and voted on.
23 February 2022
Unite and fight for a decent pay rise
While bad weather batters the country, another storm is raging. A growing number of workers are taking action as the cost of living squeeze tightens. This is the most significant strike wave for over a decade.
With real inflation heading towards 8% and energy costs set to explode on the back of the Tory NI hike, increasingly workers are forced to fight back.
23 February 2022
Workers and students unite and fight
The NUS has called a national student strike on 2 March in response to growing anger
23 February 2022
Tube workers strike in defence of pay, pensions and conditions
Tube workers in London are facing some of the biggest attacks in decades.
23 February 2022
Vote Nellist for a workers' MP in Erdington
"I've already voted for him" said a young mother with a postal vote walking past the railway station
23 February 2022
Ukraine: Workers' unity against capitalist warmongers and imperialist meddlers
Russia's president Putin has recognised the 'independence' of two Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine
23 February 2022
The Erdington byelection and the fight for a new mass workers' party
Five years on from 13 million people voting for Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity manifesto, Corbyn
is not allowed to sit as a Labour MP.
23 February 2022
University workers continue strike against bosses' attacks
UCU members began the second round of action in the current national dispute on 21 February
23 February 2022
Canada: Prime Minister Trudeau invokes Emergencies Act to end 'Freedom Convoy'
On 14 February, Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency measures to deal with the 'Freedom Trucker Convoy' protests against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination.
23 February 2022
Just Eat couriers continue action to fight pay cut
The most recent Sheffield Just Eat drivers' strike meeting was inspired by Mohammed's report from Chesterfield
23 February 2022
Restore Cardiff's slashed services
At the People's Budget meeting called by Cardiff Trades Union Council, speaker after speaker spoke movingly about their personal experience, outlining the human cost of cuts.
23 February 2022
One year after the military coup in Myanmar
"The regime's failure to control the country has taken many by surprise. The new generation does not want to allow any form of political domination by the military.
24 February 2022
For workers' unity against war in Ukraine
The main beneficiaries of war in Ukraine will be the billionaires and the oligarchs, the bosses of the arms industries and the capitalist profiteers.
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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