Archive for July 2013
1 July 2013
NSSN conference - trade unionists discuss strategy to defeat government's austerity
The NSSN conference brought together 400 activists on 29 June. A key topic for discussion was how to make the demand for a 24-hour general strike a reality.
1 July 2013
Rochdale 'Future Directions' strike solid
Strike action by 115 care workers in Rochdale continues. 150 joined a noisy demonstration of support through Rochdale on 29th June
3 July 2013
I don't know how my TV has lasted so long given the first thing I turn on in the morning is the news, writes Ronnie Job.
3 July 2013
Burger blunder: Picture the scene - the day before Chancellor George Osborne announces more devastation to come our way in the Comprehensive Spending Review, he and his advisors desperately try to think of ways to get people to connect more with him
3 July 2013
St Petersburg Pride rally attacked
Pride in St Petersburg on 29 June was met with violence, both from anti-gay protestors and the police
3 July 2013
Impressive national youth organisers meeting
On Sunday 30 June young Socialist Party members from branches all over the country convened in London for a national youth organisers meeting, writes Jules Moore-Cook, London Socialist Party.
3 July 2013
RMT reaffirms support for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Transport union RMT delegates meeting at their national conference discussed the continued attacks on jobs, pay, pensions and the horrors of privatised and casualised transport industries, writes Nick Chaffey.
3 July 2013
Letter to student left groups to discuss joint call for a national demo
This letter has been sent by Socialist Students to other left student groups to begin discussions about calling a national demonstration in the new academic year
3 July 2013
Following a report from reps indicating scope for serious negotiations, a One Housing Group members' meeting agreed to postpone strike action planned for later this week
3 July 2013
The Year of the Paper - boosting the sales of the Socialist
A new sales quarter for the Socialist has now begun. We reached 74% of the national target in the April to June quarter and had some good successes, writes Sarah Wrack, the Socialist national sales organiser.
3 July 2013
Socialist Party members raised over £10,000 in the last two weeks of the March to June fighting fund campaign, smashing the national target and reaching the magnificent total of £28,207, writes Ken Douglas, Socialist Party national treasurer.
3 July 2013
Leeds: Building support for workers in South Africa
On 24 June the Socialist Party held a public meeting in Leeds on the struggles in South Africa.
3 July 2013
National Shop Stewards Network seventh annual conference
There has been no pause in the Con-Dems' vicious austerity drive. The spending review included a further £11.5 billion of cuts. Councils will face a 10% budget cut from 2015. Automatic annual pay progression
3 July 2013
Lobby of Scotland Yard - 9 July
Following the recent exposé of police spying on the family of Stephen Lawrence and infiltration of the YRE a lobby of Scotland Yard has been called
3 July 2013
65th anniversary of the NHS - How workers won the National Health Service
The history of healthcare and the struggle to win a national health service has vital lessons for today's health workers, trade unionists and all who use the NHS
3 July 2013
Tories - cuts, Lib Dems - cuts, Labour - cuts
Spending review shows they're all the same: What is the point of the Labour Party? Its leaders support many of the cuts being made by the Tories and Liberals. Labour councils are the transmission belts for government cuts
3 July 2013
On Thursday 27 June I stood as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in a byelection in Plymouth's Southway ward
3 July 2013
Fighting back against hated bedroom tax
Tenants and campaigners unite: Kevin Pattison reports on how anti-bedroom tax campaigners in Leeds are fighting back.
3 July 2013
'Sick Of Your Boss?' week of action 8-13 July
The profit-hungry, super-exploitative companies who employ the nation's 'precariat' will be targeted by young workers and campaigners in a national week of action from 8 to 13 July
3 July 2013
Mass street protests as Egypt is swept by revolution and counter-revolution
Mohammed Morsi's first anniversary as president of Egypt was marked by even bigger demonstrations than brought about the downfall of Hosni Mubarak
4 July, see new CWI article: Morsi removed - No trust in the generals
4 July 2013
Morsi removed - no trust in the generals
For independent action by Egypt's workers and poor: The removal and arrest of president Morsi by the military marked a new, potentially dangerous stage in the unfolding Egyptian revolution
4 July 2013
Dave Nellist: "Boring" or "Witty and highly political"?
Dave Nellist has sent the following letter to the Guardian in response to an article by Martin Kettle today
4 July 2013
Cameron and Blair's support for Kazakhstan regime
The following letter has been printed in the Guardian. It responds to an article about prime minister David Cameron's trade deals with the repressive regime in Kazakhstan
4 July 2013
Portugal - government collapsing
The Portuguese coalition government is on the brink of collapse. Following a colossal general strike on 27 June, the resignation of two high profile ministers - Vitor Gaspar, hated finance minister responsible
5 July 2013
Unite meets roadblock in New Labour
Time to discuss step of disaffiliation: The attack on Unite, the biggest trade union in the country, following New Labour's suspension of the selection process in Falkirk, is a decisive moment in the relationship between the unions and Labour. Unite's preferred candidate and the constituency chairperson have been suspended from party positions [Article updated 8.7.13]
8 July 2013
The dispute at Werrington Royal Mail (Peterborough North) was still ongoing on Saturday, 6 July, with enthusiastic support from a crowd of around 100 strikers on the green just down the road from the depot entrance
8 July 2013
Merseyside TUSC says: End disenfranchisement of working class
A press release from Merseyside Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
8 July 2013
Rent arrears grows in Scotland
The cruel, hated bedroom tax is leading to growing rent arrears
9 July 2013
Kinnock's "greatest" speech condemned anti-cuts councillors
Those of us who worked for Liverpool city council in the 1980s will be dumbfounded to learn that Neil Kinnock's 1985 speech was "one of the greatest political speeches of the postwar period" (Miliband steps up war of words with Unite, 6 July), writes Peter McKenna.
9 July 2013
Bob Crow calls for an alternative party
"When Tony Blair is wheeled out to underpin Ed Miliband's attack on the affiliated unions than you know that this is a panic move driven by the demands of big business and a right wing media who would prefer that the working class have no voice at all"
9 July 2013
Protesting against police spying
Youth against Racism in Europe supporters protested outside Scotland Yard today against the recent 'infiltration' scandal
10 July 2013
Unite and Labour - it's time for a rethink!
The leader of my union Unite, Len McCluskey, has spent years trying to save Labour for working people - to save it from irrelevance and political extinction, writes Andy Beadle.
10 July 2013
Class struggle, humour and more: The Pitmen Painters written by the creator of Billy Elliot, Lee Hall, is showing at five venues - Darlington, Harrogate, Oxford, Outer London and Swansea between July and August, writes Chris Fernandez.
10 July 2013
Strong support for fighting socialist alternative in CWU
Gary Clark, CWU assistant branch secretary, Scotland No.2 branch, recently stood for election as Scottish regional secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU)
10 July 2013
PCS Young Members Network forum
I was lucky enough to represent Youth Fight for Jobs by speaking at the civil service union PCS Young Members Network (YMN) annual forum, writes Ian Pattison.
10 July 2013
Birmingham Labour councillors' promises
On 3 July Erdington Anti-Bedroom Tax campaign held its second meeting. Labour councillors Penny Holbrook, Josh Jones and Mick Finnegan fielded questions from the 25-strong audience, writes Mark Caudery, Birmingham.
10 July 2013
Piper Alpha: The price of profit -167 workers' lives
Twenty five years ago, on 6 July 1988, the Piper Alpha North Sea oil platform was destroyed by a massive explosion and fire which killed 167 workers, writes Philip Stott, Socialist Party Scotland.
10 July 2013
Child benefit: Before MPs collect an anticipated £10,000 a year pay rise, our hard pressed politicians have been forced to claim expenses on their children
10 July 2013
Rebel councillor faces further suspension
'Rebel' anti-cuts Labour councillor Kevin Bennett in Warrington has been suspended from the Labour group for a further six months, writes Hugh Caffrey
10 July 2013
Egypt: Morsi removed - polarisation grows
For independent action by workers and poor: The stormy and bloody developments since the removal and arrest of President Morsi by the military mark a new, challenging and dangerous stage in the unfolding Egyptian revolution
10 July 2013
Portugal's government on the ropes again
For mass action to end rotten coalition and install a workers' alternative: In recent weeks Portugal has been plunged into possibly the deepest and most desperate episode of political turmoil since the onset of the economic crisis and intervention of the Troika over two years ago
10 July 2013
Lobby the TUC for 24-hour strike!
At a well-attended July branch meeting, Bracknell Unite supported the NSSN's call for a lobby of the TUC at Bournemouth on 8 September
10 July 2013
The chief executive of the salary-slashing firm Equinox Care, Bill Puddicombe, verbally abused Unite members leafleting a conference in Lewisham, south London on 2 July
10 July 2013
The costs of privatisation - to the workforce
Buses were deregulated and privatised in 1986 across the UK apart from London and Northern Ireland. Thatcher and her ministers were concerned about London for two reasons, writes a London bus driver...
10 July 2013
Privileged perks for Kate and Wills... Maternity cuts for us!
The Finland government has generously sent Kate and Wills one of the maternity 'boxes' given to all expectant mothers in Finland since the 1930s, writes Suzanne Beishon
10 July 2013
Stop Gove's school profits plans
The Independent has reported on leaked plans that only confirm what we already knew - that Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove wants to allow big business to make a profit out of running schools
10 July 2013
Fund the fight for a socialist alternative to capitalist austerity
The Socialist Party is asking all its members to consider increasing their membership subs. We need more resources to step up our campaigning work to defeat this vicious government
10 July 2013
Are you sick of... Low pay?... Zero hour contracts?... Job insecurity?... bullying bosses?...
Join the protests!
Young workers are fed up with poor working conditions, poverty pay, zero-hour contracts and the lack of security at work.
10 July 2013
I work for a bank. Well not a bank, a building society. Actually I don't work for them. I'm a contractor in an admin production line, and technically employed by a resourcing company, writes Wendy Thomas.
10 July 2013
Lifting the lid on the bedroom tax horror
Iain Duncan Smith recently declared the bedroom tax had proven to be "a great success"
10 July 2013
TUSC - Giving the working class a voice
Tea and sandwiches, pizza, and fairy cakes with the letters "TUSC" iced on them were offered to people as they arrived for the Waltham Forest TUSC 2014 local election campaign press launch
10 July 2013
The press roared their approval - "Labour takes on the unions" was typical - as Ed Miliband announced a fundamental review in the party's relationship with its affiliated trade unions. And first out of the box, describing the change as "transformational", was warmonger Tony Blair!
11 July 2013
Turkey - International solidarity request from Day-Mer
Police attacks and state terror by the Turkish government on its own people are continuing. On Monday 8th July 2013 members of the public wanted to enter the Gezi Park after it has reopened
11 July 2013
Firefighters having strike ballot over pension scheme
Firefighters will vote on strike action over an 'unworkable' pension scheme proposal that could lead to thousands facing the sack as they get older
13 July 2013
MPs' pay rise: BBC contrasts socialist MPs' approach
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire highlights that Socialist Party member Dave Nellist only took a worker's wage when he was an MP, and he condemns the rise being given to MPs now
15 July 2013
Campaigning against anti-LGBT bullying in schools
Bristol Pride was held on a very sunny Saturday 13th and had a very carnival feeling to it with music and drinking in the sunshine
15 July 2013
Packed meeting defends Chorley and South Ribble hospital
On a hot Friday evening, when most people would like to be outside enjoying the sunshine or having a pint, 200 people packed into Chorley town hall to defend their hospital
16 July 2013
Post Office strike and Westminster rally
Staff in the country's network of 372 Crown post offices will take an eighth round of strike action tomorrow (Wednesday 17 July)
16 July 2013
Fire cuts, pay cuts, pension cuts, job cuts
94% of the public oppose fire cuts in London - yet the majority of the cuts are to go ahead! Ten London fire stations remain under threat of closure and proposed jobs cuts have increased, from 520 to 560.
17 July 2013
'Black July' - Sri Lanka 1983 and the beginning of civil war
This month marks the anniversary of the 1983 'Black July' anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka organised by the United National Party (UNP) government of president JR Jayewardene
17 July 2013
Desperate poverty drives some people to desperate acts. The Hull Daily Mail reports that 40% more people seem to be stealing food for personal consumption in Hull than last year, writes Mike Whale.
17 July 2013
USA: Zimmerman, Trayvon and racism
It's the system that's guilty!: How many more Trayvons will be killed and how many more Zimmermans will walk free before something is done? The following is based on a leaflet and article by US supporters of the CWI and gives the background to the trial and its likely repercussions
17 July 2013
Lincolnshire - save our libraries
Legendary US broadcaster Walter Cronkite once said that "whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation", writes Nick Parker.
17 July 2013
The state has been withdrawing funds from higher education for over three decades. The cuts began in the 1980s with the new era of marketisation
17 July 2013
On 10 and 11 July, Unite members who are support workers at the Equinox housing charity in London took strike action
17 July 2013
Strike vote Scotland: Unison members in Scotland are being balloted for strike action over pay. This is after a 1% pay offer was rejected
17 July 2013
Fight Royal Mail privatisation!
Bankers' snouts in the trough: Some of the investment banks being used by the government for the privatisation of Royal Mail are the very banks that created the global financial meltdown, writes a Royal Mail worker.
17 July 2013
Up to £100 million has been stolen from the public purse by profit-hungry pharmaceutical companies according to the British Medical Association (BMA)
17 July 2013
No-go zones: A third of the country is now effectively a no-go zone for low-income families because of high rents
17 July 2013
Under capitalism the stereotypical representations of women which abound in the media, advertising and general culture have their roots in the rise of class society, wrote Christine Thomas in her book 'It doesn't have to be like this: women and the struggle for socialism'
17 July 2013
The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs
Theatre review: "Our play, set in 1834, follows George and Betsy Loveless' extraordinary story. He was a Methodist minister and leader of the six Dorset farm labourers tried, convicted and condemned to harsh transportation
17 July 2013
Lecturers in Wales expose working conditions
A Welsh Further Education college has hit the local headlines because of a story about a lecturer who has to deliver pizzas to make ends meet
17 July 2013
Durham Miners' Gala shows mood for new party
From the platform of the Durham Miners' Gala Davie Hopper, general secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, mentioned this was the first time in 115 years there hadn't been a Labour MP speaking
17 July 2013
Councils: Don't do the Con-Dems' dirty work!
Theo Blackwell calls anti-bedroom tax campaigners "irresponsible" for our "no evictions" call. He accuses protesters of "being more interested in attacking Labour-led councils trying to help people
17 July 2013
Bedroom tax non-payment soars in Scotland: Stop evictions
The majority of Scottish councils have reported a significant increase in rent arrears since the bedroom tax - a housing benefit cut for under occupancy of 'spare bedrooms' - was introduced in April, writes Matt Dobson, Socialist Party Scotland.
17 July 2013
MPs' pay to rise to £74,000...
BBC website points out how Socialist Party member Dave Nellist only took a worker's wage when he was an MP from 1983 until 1992
17 July 2013
Narrow vote against action in Kirklees Unison
In the industrial action ballot against compulsory redundancies in Kirklees Unison, a narrow majority has voted against strike action by 57% to 43% on a 30% turnout
17 July 2013
A week-long strike by GMB workers in the Cityclean depot was the background to a tightly fought Hanover and Elm Grove ward byelection
17 July 2013
'We've had enough' - All strike together!
The government has announced a stock market flotation of the majority of Royal Mail within nine months, the biggest privatisation since the dark days of Thatcher. It threatens a national service that's been in public ownership for 479 years.
17 July 2013
Urgent - trade unions must build a political voice for the working class
"If others want to stick around and be insulted by those whose only interest is our money and not our ideas then that's a matter for them", said Bob Crow, making it clear that the Labour leadership's attack on the unions, Unite in particular, should be a defining moment for working class political representation
17 July 2013
G4S tagging scandal: another failure of privatisation
The privatisation of public services has been a major disaster for the victims of this lust for profits
17 July 2013
Anti-bedroom tax campaign having impact
Last Monday our campaign group lobbied a Nottingham City Council meeting calling for a policy of no evictions for people facing 'bedroom tax arrears'
17 July 2013
Two weeks of strike action by Churchill cleaners
Churchill cleaners for the Tyne and Wear Metro have mounted a serious escalation in their industrial action
19 July 2013
Attack on Whipps Cross hospital Unison activist
Health workers and campaigners are outraged at the news that Barts Health Trust is threatening disciplinary action against a long standing trade union activist at Whipps Cross hospital
19 July 2013
Press statement from Warrington rebel councillor
Warrington's rebel Labour councillor Kevin Bennett has spoken of his disappointment at being suspended from the Labour Party for six months for "voting against the whip"
19 July 2013
Hull council Unison recommending action against cuts
An emergency Local Government committee of Hull council Unison branch voted unanimously to recommend to members the rejection of management's cuts
19 July 2013
Hundreds of firefighters marched through central London yesterday, from the Monument to the HQ of the London Fire Brigade where the London fire authority was meeting
19 July 2013
22 July 2013
Stop the destruction of the NHS in East London
Barts Health Trust, Britain's biggest NHS trust, has announced it is losing £2m a week
25 July 2013
One Housing support workers - more determined than ever!
Highly skilled and dedicated workers looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society staged a second 3-day strike against pay cuts
30 July 2013
Week of action from 29 August: disabled people's rights
This autumn, disabled people will be launching 'Reclaiming Our Futures' - a manifesto by and for disabled people setting out our vision of how the resources, structures and institutions of our society can be redesigned to empower disabled people to take part in our lives on our terms.
30 July 2013
CWI Summer School: "We stand on the eve of convulsive events, the greatest in world history"
30 July 2013
Protests outside zero-hour contract Sports Direct
Shockingly, but unsurprisingly, it has been exposed that all 20,000 part-time staff at Sports Direct, owned by billionaire tycoon Mike Ashley, are on zero-hour contracts.
30 July 2013
High turnout for the Tolpuddle march
This year's Tolpuddle martyrs festival took place in the extreme heat but that didn't dampen the spirits of those who attended
31 July 2013
Benefits shock: London family on state handouts avoids the benefit cap and bedroom tax
Royal birth deflects from campaigns to save maternity services across the UK
31 July 2013
One big blur: Senior civil servants, politicians, business people - they often seem to be just one big ugly blur swirling round parliament
31 July 2013
Lambeth byelection: TUSC beats Ukip and Tories
'Tough decisions' and 'hard choices' seem to be the stock replies by Labour in Lambeth, south London, when questioned about their diet of endless cuts
31 July 2013
Tamil Solidarity links with RMT
Tamil Solidarity's protest against the 2013 Commonwealth meeting, due to take place in November in Sri Lanka, received a boost from the London region executive council of the RMT transport workers union, writes Manny Thain.
31 July 2013
Neither the military nor Morsi... for a workers' government
The Egyptian state's bloody crackdown against Muslim Brotherhood (MB) supporters continues, leaving hundreds dead and injured, writes Niall Mulholland.
31 July 2013
Climate change accelerates... but capitalism sets the agenda
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main cause of global warming, has reached a critical level, writes Pete Dickenson.
31 July 2013
Strike to stop Royal Mail sell-off
CWU members in Royal Mail are meeting on 31 July and 1 August to discuss defending the service against privatisation, writes Gary Clark, Assistant branch secretary, Scotland No.2 branch CWU.
31 July 2013
We demand real jobs and a living wage: The scandal of Sports Direct employing their entire part-time workforce (90% of employees) on zero hours contracts has been exposed this week
31 July 2013
National Health Service in crisis!
Privatisation and cuts threaten Barts Health Trust, which includes Whipps Cross, Barts, Newham and the Royal London hospitals, forming Britain's biggest NHS hospital trust.
31 July 2013
Miliband's 'Clause Four moment'
Ed Miliband's decision to rush through the end of trade union bloc affiliation to the Labour Party at a special conference next spring has all the symbolism of Tony Blair's 'Clause Four moment' in 1995
31 July 2013
Following the scandalous referral from the Labour Party, the police will not be investigating any allegations surrounding the recruitment of Labour Party members in the Falkirk constituency or the selection process for a Labour candidate
31 July 2013
Atos misery: scrap work capability assessments!
The government recently announced that they will be bringing more private companies in to do work capability assessments alongside hated current provider Atos.
31 July 2013
The medical director of NHS England, Bruce Keogh, has said the NHS should be run like Dixons or PC World with a "more for less" mentality - he must mean more profits, less healthcare, poor service and closures (all Dixons shops closed in 2006!)
31 July 2013
Over 130 copies of the Socialist were sold at the 2013 Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset when petitioning for the TUC to call a 24-hour general strike against austerity
31 July 2013
The fortnightly schedule allows members of the editorial staff to attend the CWI Summer School and also take some holiday
31 July 2013
Tunisia: Political assassination provokes renewed workers' struggles
The assassination of Mohamed Brahmi, MP for El Shaab (People's Movement part of the Popular Front opposition), has triggered a new mass movement of workers and youth in Tunisia
31 July 2013
Fees for going to an Employment Tribunal have just been introduced. It will now cost £160 for relatively minor cases, or £250 for issues like unfair dismissal, to lodge a claim and a further charge of up to £950 if the case goes ahead.
31 July 2013
Book review: Karl Marx - How to change the world
In this book Jonathan Sperber says he aims to place the great revolutionary thinker and activist firmly in his times
31 July 2013
Anti-bedroom tax campaigning in Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham
The Greater Manchester Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation hit the ground running at an energetic rally
31 July 2013
The capitalist world in turmoil
"We stand on the eve of convulsive events, the greatest in world history, of which the mighty movements in these countries are the precursor."
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