Archive for January 2007

4 January 2007

Workers prepare for action over jobs, pay and services

NEARLY 300,000 members of the PCS civil service union are balloting for national strike action over jobs, pay and privatisation...

4 January 2007

Saddam Hussein: Barbaric hanging deepens divisions

Saddam's execution: THE HANGING of Saddam Hussein on 30 December had nothing to do with obtaining justice for his victims or the working people of Iraq and everything to do with satisfying the agenda of the elite Iraqi Shia-dominated government ...

4 January 2007

Strike action brings victory

Visteon: WORKERS AT Ford's parts organisation, Visteon, have achieved a breakthrough on the pay deals for the three 'tiers' of contracts in the workforce...

4 January 2007

Fighting the bosses' offensive

2007 - a new year of struggle worldwide: As the new year begins, Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe looks at the challenges lying ahead for socialists in 2007

4 January 2007

Build for a March demo

NHS: THE BATTLE to save the National Health Service must be stepped up in 2007 to stop cuts, closures and privatisation...

4 January 2007

Merthyr fights Labour's 'designs'

SOCIALIST PARTY members in Cardiff and Taff Vale have been campaigning against NHS cutbacks in Merthyr Tydfil where people are angry at the Welsh Assembly's proposals to 'rationalise', ie cut, vital services at the local P...

4 January 2007

Vigil remembers the victims

Ipswich murders: OVER 200 people joined the Reclaim the Night candle-lit vigil, march and minute's silence in Ipswich on 29 December in memory of the five young Ipswich women who were recently murdered....

4 January 2007

Arise, Sir Dodgy Dossier

JOHN SCARLETT is the man who, in 2002, 'sexed up' the notorious dossier that 'justified' Blair's support for the invasion of Iraq...

4 January 2007

We want our busses back!

Bus fares rise again: We Want Our Buses Back (WWOBB) campaigners will be on the march again in Sheffield, on Saturday 6 January, protesting against bus fare rises...

4 January 2007

Victory for Surrey social workers

SOCIAL WORKERS in Surrey have won an important victory after organising solid strike action....

4 January 2007

No to the 'Single Status' race to the bottom

GREENWICH COUNCIL has proposed a series of wholesale attacks on the pay and conditions of staff...

4 January 2007

Railworkers fight for quality of life

SENIOR CONDUCTORS working for Central Trains voted in two ballots to strike on 1 January 2007 and not to work on Christmas eve and New Year's eve 2006...

4 January 2007

Super-rich pocket £18 billion

FAMILIES who lost their savings due to the collapse of the company Farepak struggled to have a good Christmas.

At the same time London's top financiers were living it up with bonuses totalling £9,000,000,000 (£9 billion). Across Britain as a whole, the bonuses received by directors were estimated to be double that figure, a staggering £18 billion.

11 January 2007

Union action can defend the NHS

THE GOVERNMENT'S plans for the NHS (see front page) are a declaration of war on health service workers and surely need a militant response from the health trade union leaders...

11 January 2007

Manchester NHS: "Making it better" means making it worse

RIDICULOUS NAMES for the savage cuts in Greater Manchester fool no-one. "Healthy Futures" means cutting A&E and emergency surgery, affecting Bury, North...

11 January 2007

The war for oil profits

Iraq: AS WE go to press, President Bush is due to tell the US Congress his plans for Iraq...

11 January 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean

Review: THERE IS great interest in Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, Evo Morales' Bolivia and Fidel Castro's Cuba, among workers and young people worldwide...

11 January 2007

Murderous raid on anti-war meeting

Sri Lanka: SIRITUNGA JAYASURIYA of the United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka) and some associates in the 'United People's Movement' escaped with their lives when over 300 armed thugs, led by a deputy minister, raided the place where ...

11 January 2007

Ethiopia invasion throws Somalia further into crisis

THE LONG-suffering Somali people, after enjoying six months of relative stability, have once again seen their country thrown into chaos...

11 January 2007

Northern Ireland: New governing executive looks in doubt

THE BRITISH and Irish governments are again attempting to push the main political parties in Northern Ireland towards forming a governing executive. ...

11 January 2007

Ipswich murders lift lid on violence against women

THE brutal murders of five young women in Ipswich shocked and touched people all over the country...

11 January 2007

The Lagos oil pipeline tragedy was avoidable

Nigeria letter: IMMEDIATELY AFTER the devastating oil pipeline explosion on Boxing Day in Lagos, Nigeria, in which 265 mainly poor people were killed, the Democratic Socialist Movement, (DSM - the Socialist Party's counterpart in Nigeria) i...

11 January 2007

Ruthless Ruth Kelly

FORMER EDUCATION Secretary Ruth Kelly has angered parents and teachers. She took her son out of an inner London state school and sent him to a £15,000-a-year...

11 January 2007

Students fight for free education

SO RUTH Kelly, former education minister, sends her child to a £15,000 a year private school...

11 January 2007

How to become a fees fighter

Students now face tuition fees of up to £3,000 a year and the government can't even be bothered to measure the effect this is having on students from working-class backgrounds...

11 January 2007

ISR and Socialist Students' conference - a political voice for young people

COME TO ISR and Socialist Students' conference on Sunday 18 March - put the date in your diary now...

11 January 2007

Public transport and private ownership don't mix

NEW LABOUR claims to defend both the environment and public services. Their claims look hollow following the large rises recently announced in rail prices.

11 January 2007

We want our buses back!

Sheffield: WITH ONLY four days after the New Year's holiday to build support for it, We Want Our Buses Back (WWOBB) campaigners in Sheffield were pleased with the 120-strong demonstration on 6 January against First's latest bus fare r...

11 January 2007

Time for action on pensions!

Local government pensions: WHILST EVERYONE else was preparing for Christmas, in true scrooge-like manner, the new local government pensions regulations were being laid before parliament...

11 January 2007

Vote 'yes' in PCS ballot

A STRIKE ballot involving nearly 300,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) is under way...

11 January 2007

Construction boom - workers organise

Liverpool: AS LIVERPOOL prepares to be "Capital of Culture" in 2008, construction on Merseyside booms to the tune of £3 billion...

11 January 2007

Labour to savage NHS jobs

Exposed: A LEAKED document from the Department of Health reveals that New Labour is considering more savage cuts to the NHS that go way beyond anything most anti-cuts campaigners anticipated...

15 January 2007

Sri Lankan government blamed for violent attack on ant-war rally organiers

Interview With Siritunga Jayasuriya.: AT: Siri, the press has carried reports of a violent attack by armed thugs against you and other organisers at a public rally in Colombo...

18 January 2007

Blair's vision: 'wars without end'

TONY BLAIR'S political failures in Iraq and Afghanistan - which have cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians and nearly 200 UK service personnel deaths - has not stopped the megalomaniac prime minister envisagin...

18 January 2007

The Trial of Tony Blair

Review: "IT'S 2010, Hillary Clinton's in the White House, Gordon Brown's in No 10 and Tony Blair is in the dock at The Hague." Thus ran the promotion for More 4's latest attempt at satirical drama from Alistair Beaton, author o...

18 January 2007

Iraq: Bush continues his dangerous blunder

"THE MOST dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam" were the words Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam war veteran used to describe Bush's latest revised Iraq strategy...

18 January 2007

Keep up the pressure for 3 March demo

Save our NHS: HEALTH CAMPAIGNERS are angry that union leaders have not called a long-awaited national demonstration to defend the NHS for 3 March...

18 January 2007

"We're moving towards a socialist republic of Venezuela" - Hugo Chávez

IN A televised speech after swearing in his new Cabinet, Chávez announced the nationalisation of Electricidad de Caracas, Venezuela's largest private electricity firm and the telecommunications giant, CANTV...

18 January 2007

The veil and Muslim women

THE VEIL controversy sparked by the comments of British ex-Foreign Minister and leader of House of Commons, Jack Straw, is not confined to the West but also affects countries with a majority Muslim population...

18 January 2007

Anger against top-up fees grows

Join the national Day of Protest against fees on Thursday 22 February Applications for university places in September 2007 closed this week. These students will be starting in the second year of top-up tuition fees, paying...

18 January 2007

Sri Lanka: Urgent action needed

ON 16 January, Socialist Party members and others joined a protest at the Sri Lankan High Commission in London...

18 January 2007

Fighting for a socialist world

International Rally 27 January: A GREAT international rally on Saturday 27 January in central London will feature leading fighters from around the world speaking about the struggles against poverty, war and exploitation, and the struggle for a socialist alt...

18 January 2007

Interest rate hike pushes up costs

THE BANK of England monetary policy committee has put up interest rates to 5.25%...

18 January 2007

Academies myths

THE FOLLOWING letter by Ian Page and Chris Flood, the two councillors on Lewisham council's Socialist Party group, was sent to the Education Guardian....

18 January 2007

Campaign for a new workers' party

TOMMY SHERIDAN (on behalf of the Scottish socialist movement 'Solidarity') has agreed to speak at the Merseyside Campaign for a New Workers' Party (CNWP) meeting on Monday 12 February, 7.30pm, Casa Club, 29 Hope St., Liver...

18 January 2007

Fight the government's sell-off plans

THE CIVIL service union PCS will be announcing the result of their national ballot for industrial action on 23 January...

18 January 2007

Strike ballot put on hold once again

Local government pensions: ON 10 JANUARY the local government executive of UNISON voted (16-5) to accept a proposal from the leadership to give the government yet more time to come up with the goods on the local government pensions scheme...

18 January 2007

PCS stands firm on pensions

THE GOVERNMENT'S attack on public-sector workers' pension rights has been going on for some time. ...

18 January 2007

British Airways pensions

British Airways cabin crew: GMB SHOP stewards have unanimously voted to reject the company's pension proposals...

18 January 2007

Fujitsu workers strike

Hugh Caffrey...

18 January 2007

'Single status' battle in Manchester

THE MANCHESTER local government branch of UNISON is in dispute with the authority over implementation of the Single Status agreement...

18 January 2007

UNISON NEC elections

UNISON branches can nominate candidates for the National Executive (NEC) elections up to 16 February...

18 January 2007

Re-instate Unique workers!

SACKED WORKERS employed by Unique Care were singing and chanting for justice this week as picket lines began outside the Unique-owned homecare buildings in Huddersfield...

18 January 2007

What's behind the school leaving proposals?

THE GOVERNMENT is apparently preparing to raise the school leaving age from 16 to 18...

18 January 2007

Labour ministers make us sick!

NHS cuts hypocrisy: THE MASSIVE anger against cuts and closures in the NHS is making even desperate Labour ministers pretend to be taking action...

25 January 2007

Iraq: build for 24 February protest

Iraq: SINCE US president Bush announced that he will send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, there have been more terrible bombings in Baghdad, killing hundreds more people...

25 January 2007

'No to the US base'

Italy: ON 16 January 5,000 people demonstrated and blocked the railway station at Vicenza in the northeast of Italy...

25 January 2007

Labour's super-rich friend

THE ARREST of Tony Blair's aide Ruth Turner, on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in the cash for honours investigation, has bought the whole question of funding of political parties into the limelight again...

25 January 2007

Strike ballots show willingness to fight

Editorial: BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action...

25 January 2007

British Airways in more battles with workforce

BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) cabin crew have voted overwhelmingly for strike action...

25 January 2007

NHS still needs national demo

Editorial: NEARLY 300 people packed out the Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) conference on 20 January...

25 January 2007

New Labour leads the big-business assault

National Health Service in crisis: Health worker Jon Dale explains the truth behind the government's spin....

25 January 2007

A socialist programme for the NHS

Bring the NHS into public ownership. Rebuild it as a publicly funded service, free at the point of use, with immediate cash to end the underfunding crisis...

25 January 2007

Trade unions must give a lead

Defending the public sector: THIS YEAR promises to be decisive one in the government's attacks on the public sector - the NHS, schools, the civil service, the post office and all parts of local government....

25 January 2007

When will the bubbles burst?

British economy: A NEW document from the Socialist Party executive committee, outlining developments in Britain, is being debated at the Socialist Party's national congress in February...

25 January 2007

Behind the bonus bonanza

Review: MARC GLASSCOE of Lincolnshire Socialist Party reviews Excess In The City: Bonus Bonanza, shown on ITV1 on 16 January....

25 January 2007

London Underground workers ballot for strike over pay

RMT MEMBERS working in all grades across London Underground (LUL) are to vote on strike action...

25 January 2007

Save our school buses

BRIDGEND COUNCIL in south Wales are planning yet again to try and cut free transport to primary and secondary schools....

25 January 2007

Big Brother viewers reject racist bullying

Viewers reject racist bullying: Press headlines in the last week have been dominated by TV programme Big Brother...

25 January 2007

New Labour hypocrites wade into Big Brother row

In its domination of British newspapers last week, Big Brother even made it onto the front page of the Financial Times...

25 January 2007

Endemol defends racist abuse

You would have to be stuck in the Antarctic or adrift in an open boat (lucky you) to have missed the row over the bullying and abuse of one of the contestants in the strangely named Celebrity Big Brother.

25 January 2007

Join the national day of protest on 22 February

SCRAP ALL FEES: University Vice-chancellors say they want to be able to charge £10,000 a year for university fees...

25 January 2007

Building for the 22 February Day of Action

Campaign to Defeat Fees, Brighton: The disgusting claim from a Guardian survey of 40 university vice-chancellors that fees would need to rise to £10,000 per year shows the urgent need for a mass united campaign against fees...

25 January 2007

Support the paper that fights for a socialist future

May Day Greetings: Every year the socialist prints May Day greetings to celebrate International Workers' Day and help build the socialist alternative to war, poverty and environmental destruction....

25 January 2007

Sri Lanka: anti-war organiser attacked

Interview with SIRITUNGA JAYSURIYA from Colombo, Sri Lanka, is convenor of the newly formed United People's Movement and secretary of the United Socialist Party (CWI, Sri Lanka).

25 January 2007

Workers brave regime's bullets

Guinea general strike: OVER 40 people have been killed by security forces since the trade unions launched a general strike on 11 January in the west African country of Guinea....

25 January 2007

Striking to defend public services

Job cuts, low pay, privatisation: PUBLIC AND Commercial Services union (PCS) members have voted for national industrial action across the civil service. 61,488 (61.3%) voted for strike action.

1 February 2007

NHS: Protests must reflect people's anger

AT LONG last, the London NHS Together campaign has announced its event for the national day of action to defend the NHS on 3 March...

1 February 2007

NHS union attacked in Brighton

THE ROYAL Sussex County in Brighton is the hospital that many services will be centralised to, as the NHS on the south coast is butchered...

1 February 2007

Striking for jobs and services

AS WE go to press, hundreds of thousands of civil servants are preparing to strike...

1 February 2007

BA bosses make concessions

But workers must prepare for future attacks THE PLANNED two-day strike of British Airways cabin crew on 30-31 January was called off following a deal between their union, the TGWU, and BA management...

1 February 2007

Mass action can defeat fees

NUS backs Campaign to Defeat Fees: The National Union of Students (NUS), representing five million members, has published a message of support for the Campaign to Defeat Fees (CDF), and is backing the protests on 22 February...

1 February 2007

Building for the protests

The big turnout from Swansea University to the last anti-fees demo in London shows the potential support for the CDF...

1 February 2007

Sinn Fein's major U-turn

Northern Ireland: DELEGATES AT the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Dublin on 28 January voted by an overwhelming majority to back a leadership motion to support the police and judicial system in Northern Ireland....

1 February 2007

Iraq - build for 24 February demo

HUNDREDS OF thousands of people protested in cities across the USA last Saturday, 27 January against Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq and to demand that the troops be brought home now...

1 February 2007

Lewisham leads the way

Tales from the council chamber: LEWISHAM COUNCIL in south London became the first local authority to oppose the government's planned replacement of the Trident submarine nuclear weapons system - after a motion moved by Socialist Party councillors, Ian Page...

1 February 2007

CWI rally: An inspiring international meeting

THE COMMITTEE for a Workers' International (CWI) "Rally to unite the globe" on 27 January was an inspiration...

1 February 2007

CWI World Congress: Building the forces of socialism worldwide

The ninth world congress of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) took place in Belgium in mid-January...

1 February 2007

Sri Lanka: Defend socialists under attack

THE SOCIALIST Party is stepping up its campaign to defend socialists and other activists of the cross-party United People's Movement (UPM) in Sri Lanka from government-sponsored sectarian attacks....

1 February 2007

Bolivia: Mass protests demand right-wing Prefect's resignation

TWO WEEKS of intense mobilisations, protests, and street blockades calling for the resignation of right-wing departmental prefect (elected head of the regional administration), Manfred Reyes Villa, culminated in a popular ass...

1 February 2007

Power industry: Fight this victimisation

E.ON UK, of which Central Networks is just a part, has around 15,000 employees, Chub is European Works Council delegate for the UK and a lead negotiator...

1 February 2007

Sacked electricians fight on

SINCE LAST April, three sacked electricians have protested against the employers on the major Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) construction site...

1 February 2007

BP condemned over safety standards

A RECENT US report slammed Britain's biggest oil company BP for flouting safety standards in this very dangerous industry...

1 February 2007

Support the Unique Care workers

IF ENERGY, determination and unity were the only ingredients necessary to win an industrial dispute, then the Unique Care workers in Huddersfield would already be home and dry...

1 February 2007

Southampton care workers on strike

IN THE face of massive attacks, care workers in Southampton are taking three days of strike action from 3-5 February. ...

1 February 2007

National meeting on Single Status

Coventry: Single Status Activists Meeting. Saturday 10 February 2007 from 2pm - 4pm. United Reformed Church, Warwick Road, Coventry. More details: www.coventryunison.co.uk...

1 February 2007

Reid's prison disaster

HOME SECRETARY John Reid is under great pressure from the media and MPs after several well-publicised crises and humiliations about his department's work in law enforcement...

1 February 2007

Gay adoption: Christian hierarchy attacks equal rights

WHILE SOCIALISTS were out last week campaigning against cuts in the NHS, the leaders of Britain's main Christian de-nominations were involved in a different kind of battle.

Picture: LGBT protest. Photo Marc Vallee.

They want to be given an exemption from laws due to be implemented this spring that will ban discrimination against Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people (LGBT) in the provision of services.

1 February 2007

Review: Silent Accomplice

BETWEEN APRIL and July 1994 nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred by the Rwandan government and its Hutu militias. ...

1 February 2007

Private hands off our health service

THIS WEEK, the Association of Directors of Public Health floated the idea of the NHS charging for 'non-essential' surgery...