Archive for July 2012
2 July 2012
Wales Shop Stewards Network conference calls for 24 hour general strike
70 trade unionists in 10 unions from all over Wales, mainly reps and shops stewards, gathered in Cardiff at the annual conference of the Wales Shop Stewards Network
2 July 2012
PCS media release: Historic vote for union to support election candidates
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have voted overwhelmingly to strengthen their campaigning against cuts and for the alternative to austerity with an historic decision to back election candidates...
3 July 2012
Essex FBU strike back at bullyboy management
Since 2008 the Essex Fire Authority has been set on a course of aggressive confrontation with the FBU union, and wholly unnecessary cuts in frontline services, writes Dave Murray.
4 July 2012
Tax haven in the city: The 'event of the summer' will be treated just like the tax havens of Jersey or the Virgin Islands...
4 July 2012
Tory tax dodging: "Morally repugnant" - that was David Cameron's description of tax avoidance in the midst of the Jimmy Carr scandal...
4 July 2012
Unite needs fighting socialist policies
Unite has recently led or participated in a number of prominent disputes: as well as the public sector pensions' dispute, Unite has been involved in the sparks' protests, Coryton and the London bus workers, writes Kevin Parslow.
4 July 2012
Supporting Sheffield recycling workers
We marched through the gates into the yard chanting "MHH-hear us say, Picket lines are here to stay!" MHH Contracting Ltd are a haulage company that have been hired by Veolia/Sova to break the Sova recycling workers' strike in Sheffield, writes Alistair Tice.
4 July 2012
It's our NHS - let's fight for it!
Leaked proposals describe how a consortium of 16 NHS organisations in the South West intends to break away from national collective bargaining in order to launch an unprecedented attack on health workers' pay and conditions...
4 July 2012
Welsh Labour's health service 'redesign' means cuts!
Claire Job, a nurse for Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health board, spoke at the Wales Shop Stewards Network conference about the need to fight for the future of the NHS in Wales...
4 July 2012
South London NHS: Socialist councillors said: 'Axe PFI, not our NHS'
South London Healthcare NHS Trust, with a £150 million deficit, is facing 'special measures'. However, as shown by an excerpt from 'Our Record - Socialist councillors are different', Ian Page and Chris...
4 July 2012
Obituary: Roger MacKay, a tireless fighter for socialist ideas
Roger Mackay
It is my sad duty to report the death of Socialist Party member Roger MacKay on 28 June 2011, aged 71. He passed peacefully after a short battle with lung cancer...
4 July 2012
Selling The Socialist in Waltham Forest, photo Alison Hill
The Socialist Party is launching an appeal to raise £12,000 to buy a new server for the computer network at our national centre, writes Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer.
4 July 2012
Racist and hooligan EDL invades Dewsbury
The racist and hooligan EDL marched in the former mill town of Dewsbury on 30 June. Dewsbury has many different cultures within its borders...
4 July 2012
London buses: "This is why we're in the union"
Hackney bus workers stopped the busses on the 22 June 2012 London-wide bus strike , photo Paul Mattsson
London bus workers have shown how determined they are to win their dispute. But as we go to press bus operating companies are still refusing to pay London bus workers a £500 bonus for working during the...
4 July 2012
Immolation horror - we demand jobs
Waltham Forest Youth Fight for Jobs protest outside Leytonstone police station 29 June 2012 to demand the lifting of the dispersal order zone in the area, photo Sarah Wrack
It was revealed recently that the private companies running the Con-Dems' slave labour workfare schemes want even more unemployed people to have their benefits stopped as punishment for 'not looking hard enough for a job'...
4 July 2012
RMT conference: Vote for one-day general strike
"Coordinated action is the way forward, the mood is out there. The only way the government is going to listen is if we shut down the country", said general secretary Bob Crow in reply to the debate on...
4 July 2012
Sexuality, austerity and socialism
Leeds Pride 2011
In 78 countries, homosexual acts are still illegal. In five of these the maximum penalty is death. In Ukraine a law is currently being considered that would make it illegal to talk about lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) issues in the media. As internationalists, socialists oppose oppression around the globe.
4 July 2012
BBC Video: NSSN particpates in Bus protest
BBC website: Bus workers protest, photo BBC
As we go to press the London bus companies have been forced to make a new offer, and Unite have postponed the Thursday (5 July) strike...
4 July 2012
Jail the banksters! Nationalise the banks under popular democratic control
Their system, their crisis: kick 'em out! nationalise the banks, photo Socialist Party
In 2008 the Socialist warned that: "the calls for regulation are like asking the bank robbers' gangs to keep a check on the bank robbers. What is urgently needed is popular control of the major banks and finance houses, not 'oversight' by unelected quangos and elected capitalist politicians, whose allegiance is to big business." Now the bank robbery has been exposed yet again.
4 July 2012
PCS votes to stand candidates in national elections
HMRC PCS Leicester
Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members have created history by being the first trade union not previously affiliated to the Labour Party to vote to stand candidates in national elections, writes John McInally, PCS national vice-president, personal capacity.
4 July 2012
Boot out the private 'vultures': The outrageous decision by the Tories to allow South London Healthcare NHS Trust, with a £69 million 'deficit' to go bust, contrasts markedly with the treatment of the banks, a Unison health worker activist writes.
4 July 2012
Kazakhstan: Resisting state oppression, fighting for survival
Esenbek Ukteshbayev, (centre) president of the independent trade union Zhanartu, during his recent visit to London, photo by Dave Carr
Feature: Kazakhstan is the scene of mass struggle and state repression. The country's dictator, president Nursultan Nazarbayev, is terrified of explosions from social movements and the working class.
4 July 2012
On 26 and 27 June, around 40 Balfour Beatty construction workers went on strike with the intention of making the company stick to earlier promises that workers could expect a four-day weekend in return for working 17 consecutive 12 hour days...
4 July 2012
Leicester: Police undermined opposition to racist march
On 11 June, the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) held a well-attended meeting in Leicester introducing their report on the (mis)policing when the far-right English Defence League (EDL) marched through the city on 4 February.
4 July 2012
Book review: This book, by the author of "Two Caravans", tells two parallel stories about a 1970s hippy commune and the adventures of two of its children in the 21st century. Derek Macmillan reviews Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka.
5 July 2012
Remploy vote for strike action
Members of GMB and Unite employed by Remploy in 54 factories across the country have voted by an overwhelming majority to take part in strikes and other industrial action to protest against the closure of the Remploy factories and disabled workers being forced into unemployment
5 July 2012
Sheffield recycling workers win victory against sackings
Sova recycling workers in Sheffield, members of the GMB, have won the reinstatement of six colleagues
6 July 2012
Nottingham students fight back
On Thursday 5th July, over 100 students from New College Nottingham (NCN) protested outside the High Pavement campus against the closure of some college sites and changes to teaching
11 July 2012
The politics of fighting the racist EDL
"We Are Waltham Forest" campaigning group has been meeting regularly since it was discovered that the English Defence League is planning a march in Walthamstow on Saturday 18 August
11 July 2012
South London Healthcare Trust has effectively gone bankrupt. That news will not surprise health workers and socialists who follow the nightmare of PFI (Private Finance Initiative). The PFI scheme threatens...
11 July 2012
Libor scandal exposes rotten racketeering system
Photo Senan
If the appearance of Bob Diamond before the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee was intended to demonstrate some kind of public accountability of bankers before parliament then it dismally failed...
11 July 2012
Lords reform - Abolish the House of privilege!
"The House of Lords is an unbelievably undemocratic institution" and an "appalling system of institutionalised corruption", writes Ken Douglas.
11 July 2012
Pride should be about protest, not profits!
25,000 marchers took to the streets of London for Pride last Saturday. Pride is the largest LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) event in the UK but many of the marchers were saying that it was an organisational...
11 July 2012
When Kevin Parslow's report on the Unite union's policy conference, (socialist 725) said: "On the Labour Party, Unite will continue its strategy of working to 'change from within' with its radical policies," it rang bells with the situation in my union, GMB...
11 July 2012
Minimum wage, minimum security
As a young unemployed person living in East London the Olympics were painted as a brilliant chance for me to find work, not only within the Olympic park but also in other businesses in the surrounding areas...
11 July 2012
London bus workers discuss new offer: "militant strike action pays"
London bus workers have been fighting for payment for extra work during the Olympics with joint strike action, the first for many decades, a London bus worker writes.
11 July 2012
Vote no to the local government pension offer
Unison's local government leadership has instructed branches to consult members over what recommendation should be made on pensions, writes We say, vote 'No' in the consultation and vote 'No' in the ballot
11 July 2012
UK swindlers plc: 'Bankers' has become a byword for swindlers after these fat cats stuffed their pockets with bonuses while engaging in fraudulent activities and then received billions of pounds in bailouts from public funds.
11 July 2012
TV Review: Britain on the brink - back to the '70s
This Panorama documentary (9 July) looked at what effect the economic crisis had on ordinary people. It asked whether we would see the same response as at the end of the 1970s when falling living standards...
11 July 2012
The Shard: As useless as a hole in the ground
Readers' comment: Europe's tallest building, the Shard, next to London Bridge station, opened on 5 July at a cost of nearly £1 billion, writes Bill Mullins
11 July 2012
Single status appeal: Victory for Vine workers
We Learning Support Assistants have finally won our pay and grading appeal. We work at the Vine, a small Leeds City council service that provides specialist education and social care to young adults with...
11 July 2012
GMB members working for Remploy have voted 80% for strike action and nearly 90% for action short of strike, to stop factory closures and defend jobs, writes Remploy strike vote.
11 July 2012
The Socialist Party has launched an appeal to raise £12,000 to enable us to buy a new computer server...
11 July 2012
Save Worcestershire A&E services
NHS bosses have put forward six plans for the reorganisation of Hospital Services in Worcestershire. The majority of the plans involve the closure of either the Redditch Alexandra or Worcester Royal accident...
11 July 2012
TUSC continues to build support in Liverpool
After Tony Mulhearn's 'remarkable' result in the Liverpool mayoral election in May, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coaliton (TUSC) was in action again on Thursday 5 July, writes Alec Price.
11 July 2012
Leeds protest at prison privatisation rally
Socialist Party members recently took part in a protest outside a conference at Leeds University entitled 'Private Sector Involvement in Criminal Justice', writes Matt Booth, Leeds North West Socialist Party.
11 July 2012
Help boost sales of the Socialist
The Socialist reached 88% of its national sales target for the April-June 2012 quarter. Well done to the 23 Socialist Party branches that reached their targets, writes Sarah Wrack.
11 July 2012
Epping Forest, Essex. Political discussions in a relaxed atmosphere, fun for children and adults: Walks in the woods • Deer park • Crèche • Cycling (bikes for hire or bring your own) • Games • Barbecues...
11 July 2012
LOOTED! PFI empties NHS coffers
Fight for our NHS, photo Senan
Scrap PFI privatisation - bring health services back into the NHS The richest 1% in society are the only people profiting from the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme that is ruining Britain's public services.
11 July 2012
Build the fightback against the Con-Dems: Join the lobby of the TUC on 9 September
For a one-day general strike Government cuts and the austerity agenda are provoking a fightback
11 July 2012
Fight for a future for the 99%
Photo Paul Mattsson
No jobs, no education, no future - that's the grim vision that the establishment politicians have for young people...
11 July 2012
Egypt: Will Mursi's presidential election victory bring real change?
A week after Egypt's new president - Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood - took office, a dramatic confrontation with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) erupted
13 July 2012
Southampton: two Labour councillors vote against Labour council cuts
In the 3 May elections, the Tory council in Southampton suffered a heavy defeat. This followed months of strikes and mass demonstrations by council workers with the backing of the local community.
16 July 2012
Action For Rail conference, Manchester
About 60 union reps came to the North West 'Action For Rail' conference in Manchester on Friday 13 July to organise resistance to the McNulty report into the future of the railways
16 July 2012
RMT cleaners Trans-Pennine Express strike
Warrington Trades Council was pleased to help RMT members employed as cleaners on the Trans-Pennine Express route as they leafleted passengers outside Warrington Central station on Saturday...
16 July 2012
Bristol protests counter racist EDL
Anti-racists protest against the EDL marching in Bristol, photo by Bristol SP
About 1,000 anti-racist demonstrators gathered in various locations across Bristol to protest against the march of the far-right, racist English Defence League on Saturday 14 July
17 July 2012
Sheffield teaching unions march
A Sheffield demonstration on 14 July, called by the NUT and NASUWT, saw over 500 people attend. The demonstration was twinned with a similar protest in Oxfordshire
17 July 2012
Oppose the closure of the Independent Living Fund
On 12 July, Tory minister for disabled people Maria Miller announced the final coup de grace for the national Independent Living Fund when she launched a government consultation on what should happen to its 19,000 users when it is closed in April 2015
18 July 2012
Fighting against exploitation of seafarers and port workers
The RMT in Portsmouth and Southampton is campaigning against the exploitation of foreign seafarers by Condor Ferries, and Unite is balloting for action against council cuts to the contracts of quay assistants
18 July 2012
Remploy: Welsh government offer is short of earlier promises
The Welsh government has announced with much fanfare, a scheme to support Remploy workers made redundant by the Con-Dems' factory closure programme
18 July 2012
Witch-hunting Unison leadership "shabby" declares judge
Defend the Four: protesting
In a humiliating response to Unison's attempts to bully four witch-hunted Socialist Party members out of defending themselves in court, Lord Justice Elias has called Unison "shabby"
18 July 2012
Support striking Remploy workers!
For months the Con-Dem government have stated their intention to close 36 out of 54 Remploy factories across the UK, writes Rob Williams.
18 July 2012
Unenthusiastic reception for Miliband at Durham Miners' Gala
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband spoke at the Durham Miners' Gala, which is regarded as the largest working class event in Britain
18 July 2012
Olympics G4S scandal shows failure of privatisation
Westfield Stratford: Olympic Park security measures in operation
The government's insistence on outsourcing the Olympic Games security to private company G4S has backfired spectacularly...
18 July 2012
Exploitation: Olympics sponsor Adidas, whose workers make the uniforms for Britain's Olympics Team, is being investigated by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Locog) after it emerged that it pays its garment workers in Cambodia £10.00 for working a 48 hour week, writes Dave Younger.
18 July 2012
Record breakers: A recent survey of recruitment consultants found that the number of vacancies, both temporary and permanent, had declined at the sharpest rate in three years, writes Paul Callanan.
18 July 2012
Tolpuddle festival shows fightback needed today
Every year trade unionists make their way to the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset to mark the imprisonment and release of six agricultural labourers in the 1830s, writes Sean Brogan, Exeter Socialist Party.
18 July 2012
After marching for 19 days striking coal miners from Asturias and Leon arrived in Madrid on 11 July to demand that the right wing Popular Party government of prime minister Mariano Rajoy reverses his decision to slash subsidies to the industry and protect jobs...
18 July 2012
Solidarity picket of Turkish Airlines
On Saturday 14 July an international 'Day of Action' protest took place demanding the right to strike and reinstatement of 305 sacked Turkish aviation workers, writes Patrick Atkinson, Hackney Socialist Party and Unite-LE 1111 branch (personal capacity).
18 July 2012
There is - quite rightly - outrage when far-right thugs attack disabled people. Cameron and the media do just the same, using their wealth and power rather than their fists...
18 July 2012
Music review: Long live the struggle by The King Blues
In April The King Blues announced they would split up after their fourth and final album Long Live The Struggle released this month, writes Ryan Holmes, Newcastle Socialist Party.
18 July 2012
Teachers fight school privatisation
Over 100 new 'free schools', to open in September, were announced on 13 July, which will more than double the total number of free schools in England...
18 July 2012
Top-up fees: £50,000 debt leads to to 50,000 less students
'Education is a right not a privilege' was one of the main slogans of the tens of thousands of students who protested in 2010, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Students national organiser.
18 July 2012
Bosses bank in on corporate olympics - we get austerity!
A staggering £24 billion is expected to be spent on the Olympic Games, but young people face little enjoyment and no long term benefit from this costly outlay, writes Suzanne Beishon, London organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education.
18 July 2012
Miliband and Labour - no real alternative to Con-Dems
Ed Miliband became the first Labour leader since Neil Kinnock in 1989 to speak at the Durham Miners' Gala... Does this represent a break with the past? Has Ed become red?
18 July 2012
Wales NHS - Reject the Case for Cuts report
The Welsh government-commissioned report into NHS services in Wales is becoming increasingly discredited
18 July 2012
Tories stick the boot in on care funding
The Con-Dem government white paper on adult social care funding in England represents a further blow to elderly and disabled people requiring financial support
18 July 2012
Brazil: 'Miracle' economy slows
PSOL on demo in Brazil
Brazil, as part of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), has in recent years been seen as a 'hope' for the global economy, writes Marcus Kollbrunner, Liberdade Socialismo e Revolução (CWI, Brazil).
18 July 2012
Review: BBC TV documentary "When I get older"
BBC Documentary: When I Get Older: My time with Ivy, photo: screenshot from BBC
Acute poverty and loneliness face many pensioners in Britain. This programme asked four pensionable age 'celebrities' to stay with four `ordinary` pensioners in their homes
18 July 2012
March and strike against austerity
Pic: Paul Mattsson
Lobby the TUC to call a general strike: The cracks in the Coalition are becoming open splits. This is a weak government that can be defeated. However, left to its own devices, it will stagger on, unleashing the remaining 85% of the biggest austerity programme for 90 years.
18 July 2012
Reg Fitch was one of the Brighton Fitches - a family with a long, proud socialist tradition. His twin brother was the late Rod Fitch, a Militant supporter who stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown in 1983.
18 July 2012
Olympics: The greatest sporting, and money-making, show on earth
Protest at the Olympic Park
World records will not be the only things broken at this year's Olympic and Paralympic games. Promises for a lasting legacy - affordable housing, decent jobs, increased sports participation, and the rest - are being broken, too.
19 July 2012
Essex firefighters strike against 'big brother' regime
Hundreds of striking firefighters and their supporters paraded through Chelmsford on Wednesday 18 July in a show of defiance against the dictatorial attitudes and cuts of their Fire Authority
19 July 2012
North West NSSN supports lobby of TUC in September
At the North West AGM of the National Shop Stewards Network on 17th July, 30 trade unionists heard Steve Acheson, blacklisted electrician, speak on the recent Besna contract victory
20 July 2012
Reports and videos of the Remploy strike
Thirty Remploy workers formed a confident picket line across two entrances of the biggest Remploy factory in London
23 July 2012
John Lewis cleaners strike for a living wage
John Lewis cleaners organised in the International Workers of the World (IWW) took their second day of strike action on Friday 20 July
23 July 2012
RMT demo in Portsmouth against Condor's 'sweatships'
To the sounds of the Pompey chimes, over 40 trade unionists and socialists protested against exploitation of seafarers by Condor Ferries
24 July 2012
Support PCS Home Office group in battle against cuts
PCS and the Home Office group in particular are being attacked in relation to their possible strike this week...
24 July 2012
Further action needed against union-busting '2 Sisters'
Workers at RF Brookes of South Wigston, Leicester, are facing the possibility of closure of their factory in a vindictive act by the '2 Sisters' food group that owns it
24 July 2012
Austerity Games highlights plight of young people
As the world's eyes focus on the Olympics, young people from across the country arrived on Hackney Marshes, east London, to compete in the alternative Austerity Games.
25 July 2012
TV review: "What have the Olympics done for me?"
BBC Three's Free Speech series recently held a discussion on the Olympic Games. The main topic was on the question "what have the Olympics done for me?", writes Paul Callanan, Youth Fight for Jobs national organiser.
25 July 2012
Pre-emptive arrests: "straight out of 1984"
Straight out of 1984, on the morning of last year's Royal Wedding, protesters were pre-emptively arrested by the London Met police to prevent them organising anti-monarchy political activity or attending republican festivities on the day, writes Ian Pattison, East London Socialist Party.
25 July 2012
Slum living: One toilet between 25, one shower between 75, overcrowding and leaking roofs - these are the conditions facing the cleaners employed at the Olympic site...
25 July 2012
Not-guilty verdict in Ian Tomlinson case
End police violence: "Police officers pelted with bricks as they help dying man" read the Evening Standard's headline on 2 April 2009, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield.
25 July 2012
Council tax madness: Yet more attacks on housing for the poor are filling the headlines - this time it's cuts to council tax benefit...
25 July 2012
Solidarity with PCS members fighting to defend services
A dispute over job cuts and privatisation in the Home Office is likely to result in strike action on 26 July unless ministers begin meaningful negotiations...
25 July 2012
Epping Forest, Essex. Political discussions in a relaxed atmosphere, fun for children and adults: Walks in the woods • Deer park • Crèche • Cycling (bikes for hire or bring your own) • Games • Barbecues...
25 July 2012
Miners light up Madrid and show the way to struggle!
Thousands of coal miners arrived in Madrid on 10 July, completing another march on the capital as part of the struggle to defend their jobs, writes John Hird, CWI Spain.
25 July 2012
The Socialist Party has launched an appeal to raise £12,000 to enable us to buy a new computer server. We are getting a great response from Socialist Party members and readers of the Socialist, writes Ken Douglas.
25 July 2012
Save our factories!: On 19 July, workers at Remploy factories across the country came out on strike to defend their workplaces and their jobs...
25 July 2012
Socialist Party website: The Socialist is proud to get reports from workers in struggle around the country. We do our best to fit them into the paper but also post material on our website...
25 July 2012
Kirkby campaigners get support
Kirkby Hospital in Nottinghamshire provides valuable care to, among others, dementia and stroke patients. Now it is proposed that these and other services are moved to other nearby hospitals, writes Karen Seymour.
25 July 2012
Olympic protest as South London Healthcare trust forced into administration
Queen Elizabeth hospital (QEH) in Woolwich is one of three hospitals in the South London Healthcare Trust that has been sent into administration due to massive Private Finance Initiative (PFI) repayment charges...
25 July 2012
1972: dockers face down the Tory government
"Britain came within inches of a general strike": "Arise Ye Workers" read the banner as five London dockers were carried shoulder high from Pentonville Prison in London, writes Roger Thomas.
25 July 2012
Save our jobs: We need a 24-hour general strike
Lobby the TUC in Brighton on 9 September: Since I finished my training as a social worker in Sheffield I have been out of work. But I am not alone, 40% of newly qualified social workers are unemployed
25 July 2012
Spain's austerity government is facing revolt from below
Workers' organisations must build for a 48-hour general strike: Like the wildfires that are ripping across the mountains of Catalonia, 'Spanic' is spreading around the world's financial markets, writes Hannah Sell
25 July 2012
Commercialism vs politics: Newcastle Pride took place on Saturday 21 July. It soon became clear that the march was going to be bigger than last year.
25 July 2012
Leicester: Not one cut in the NHS
"My daughter wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the heart unit at Glenfield Hospital," Leicester Socialist Party members were told while campaigning against the closure of the local children's heart unit
25 July 2012
This issue of the Socialist, 728, will cover a two-week period, as will the following issue, 729. After that we will return to printing the Socialist weekly.
25 July 2012
On your marks.... Get set.... Fight back!
The Youth Fight for Jobs Austerity Games held in Hackney Marshes 24 July 2012 highlighted the plight of young people, photo Paul Mattsson
Olympic Britain - we're priced out: Make the super-rich pay for the crisis - not the 99%!...
25 July 2012
Home Office strike suspended as more than 1,000 new jobs announced
A planned strike tomorrow (26 July) by PCS members in the Home Office has been suspended after officials told the union last night there will be significant investment in the border force and passport service
25 July 2012
Lib Dems in Bristol inflicting care home privatisation
Bristol council has announced that eight care homes will close across the city, displacing over 200 residents and costing the jobs of over 300 dedicated staff.
25 July 2012
Pride march through City of York for the first time
Previously York Pride has never marched through the city of York, this year was different. People gathered outside the cathedral which had previously been home to a protest against Archbishop Sentamu's...
25 July 2012
£13 trillion hidden from tax by super-rich
YFJ Austerity Games
Take the wealth off the 1%!: A sum of money the size of the US and Japanese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) together is being held in offshore tax havens, writes Naomi Byron.
25 July 2012
Kazakhstan - Workers struggle against bloody, corrupt regime
Vadim Kuramshin
Despite massive repression in Kazakhstan, the ground is prepared for mass revolt against the bloody, corrupt regime of president Nursultan Nazarbayev. To the fore of this movement are the young Kazakh workers
25 July 2012
Kick private profiteers out of the NHS
Exposed - the real threat of privatisation: A leaked letter to doctors from a Coventry hospital chief executive has exposed the reality of allowing the private sector into the NHS
25 July 2012
Virgin vultures swoop on vulnerable people's services
Richard Branson's Virgin multinational won the bid to deliver NHS and social care services to young people in Devon
25 July 2012
Olympic victory for London bus workers
London bus workers have voted to accept the Olympics bonus deal offered by all companies operating Transport for London routes.
25 July 2012
Outsourcing fails again. For publicly owned and run services!
The Olympics G4S security debacle has further increased public opposition to privatisation. But for G4S at present, its failure to deliver on its contract will merely dent its massive profits
26 July 2012
Kazakhstan: Vadim Kuramshin on hunger strike
Vadim Kuramshin, a prison rights campaigner arrested six months ago on trumped-up charges, started a hunger strike on Monday of this week
26 July 2012
Sign petition to support NSSN lobby of TUC
Support the lobby of the TUC on Sunday 9 September organised by the National Shop Stewards Network...
26 July 2012
PCS transport workers continue strikes against cuts
Staff from the 39 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency offices threatened with closure will join other Department for Transport workers in a walkout tomorrow (27 July) in their ongoing dispute over cuts...
26 July 2012
YFJ protests against big business takeover of Cardiff
The 2012 Olympic games opened in Cardiff and anti-cuts campaigners were there to oppose the big business jamboree at a time when public services are being cut
26 July 2012
Second strike day at Remploy factories
The second day of strike action at the Leeds Remploy factory saw large numbers of pickets once again.
Posting updated 27.7.12
27 July 2012
National Gallery workers strike
National Gallery workers strike, 27.7.12, photo by Kevin Parlsow
PCS members at the National Gallery in London struck for two hours on Friday 27 July, in protest at redundancies to gallery assistants who help the public and protect the valuable collection
30 July 2012
Gove sneaking unqualified teachers into academies
The government has sneaked in a proposal to allow academies to use unqualified staff to teach children. This is overwhelmingly opposed by parents and teachers but people had their eyes on the Olympic opening ceremony while this measure was introduced
30 July 2012
Unite members vote to accept Portsmouth port deal
Quay assistants at the centre of the 'new contract' dispute at Portsmouth International Port have voted to accept a deal that will see all staff moved onto the superior 'old' contract and all overtime after midnight will be worked on a voluntary basis...
31 July 2012
Save Oaklands pool, Southampton
The stand taken by two Coxford councillors, to vote against the Labour council's budget cuts and its proposal to close Oaklands pool has received enormous support across the city
17 Jul Liverpool Socialist Party: The state machine, a Marxist anaylsis
17 Jul Birmingham South East Socialist Party: Europe in Crisis
17 Jul Cardiff West Socialist Party: Tories in Crisis - Force a General Election!
18 Jul Cardiff Central Socialist Party: Why capitalism cannot be reformed into something 'nicer'
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