1 June 2007

Protest at arrest and prosecution in Bolivia

Dear Sir,...

2 June 2007

Repression of Gay Pride in Moscow

Once again the world's media has been focused on the horrific breaking up of an attempted protest in Moscow....

7 June 2007

Fight Brown's agenda of war, cuts & privatisation

Gordon Brown, on the cover of Socialism Today, cartoon by Suz

Join the 24 June demo : GORDON BROWN is visiting Manchester for a special Labour conference as part of his "coronation" as prime minister. His cheerleaders claim: "Brown won't be like Blair". One such apologist recently said: "What shade of Brown we get depends on us".

We say any shade of New Labour's wars, cuts and privatisations is unacceptable!

7 June 2007

National Shop Stewards Network Founding conference

National Shop Stewards Network Founding conference

Saturday 7 July, 11am - 5pm

South Camden Community School, Charrington Street,

London NW1. (near Kings Cross/Euston stations)

7 June 2007

Campaign For A New Workers' Party Public meeting

Thursday 28th June, 7.00pm

Sandringham Hotel

St. Mary Street, Cardiff

Speakers:

Dave Nellist Leader of Socialist Group on Coventry City Council

Katrine Williams Chair, PCS (Public and Commercial Services union) Wales

Mark Evans Assistant Secretary,  Carmarthenshire County UNISON

Chair:

Ramon Corria Secretary, Cardiff TUC

All in a personal capacity

7 June 2007

Drowning in an ocean of debt

IT IS a telling sign of the scale of debt-related stress, when some people who have 'opted' for bankruptcy say they are relieved...

7 June 2007

Come to the Shop Stewards' Network conference

THE FOUNDING conference of the Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), to be held in London on 7 July, is gathering widespread support wherever it is raised....

7 June 2007

Ritzy - low-paid workers strike again

AFTER A one-day strike on 26 May, staff at Ritzy cinema in Brixton struck again on 1 June. Shop steward Jackie Brethold of the union BECTU spoke to Neil Cafferky.

7 June 2007

South Africa: Public sector workers in mass fightback

IN WHAT independent television channel, ETv, described as the biggest strike since 1994 (the year the ANC government came to power), the overwhelming majority of South Africa's one million public sector workers started an in...

7 June 2007

80,000 demonstrate against the G8 summit

G8 demonstration in Rostock, Germany, photo SAV

Rostock, Germany: For people watching the television news, the coverage of the anti-G8 protests has been dominated by reports of violent clashes between police and some protesters...

7 June 2007

Activists with ideas

HAVING SET up camp amongst the five thousand or so protesters at the international anti-G8 camp, members of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) made their way to the starting point for the demonstration...

7 June 2007

Young people: a bright future... or different shades of grey

What's facing young people today?: YOUNG PEOPLE today are more likely to be regarded by the government and the bosses' press as a threat and a nuisance, rather than the next generation that needs encouragement and development...

7 June 2007

Weekly bin collections AND recycling schemes

We need: OVER RECENT months several councils have announced their intention to move to fortnightly non-recyclable bin collections (from weekly) and to increase recycling bin collections to fortnightly too...

7 June 2007

Coventry says 'keep our Post Office open'

THE SOCIALIST Party's campaign to keep Coventry's main Post Office open is attracting wide support...

7 June 2007

Postal workers fight closure

As postal workers nationally voted overwhelmingly for national strike action, The Socialist received this report of strike action in Derbyshire.

7 June 2007

CWU delegates attack link with Labour

CWU conference: The Communication Workers' Union (CWU) general conference in Bournemouth this week was a platform for highlighting the frustration, anger and determination to fight back by postal workers, engineers and other communication w...

7 June 2007

Don't trust the Trust schools - organise!

Durham: LAST YEAR, New Labour forced through legislation that would allow 'high-achieving' schools to go from being a community school, under democratic control from the local education authority, to becoming a Trust School which w...

7 June 2007

Tony Blair "brings church into school"

NEW LABOUR'S academy schools are overwhelmingly state-funded but they are privately run - usually by millionaires or religious bodies...

7 June 2007

Bolivia: Release Adam Ziemkowski

Still from video of UK protest outside the Bolivian embassy

FOLLOWING ATTACKS on left-wing activists by right-wing thugs, working in collaboration with the right-wing Prefectura in Cochabamba, Bolivia, CWI member Adam Ziemkowski has been arrested. He will appear in court on 6 June charged with 'sedition and incitement to violence'.

7 June 2007

Remploy management squander opportunities

REMPLOY HAVE announced the closure of 43 factories. If this goes ahead, around 2,500 disabled people will lose their jobs. The danger will be that many...

7 June 2007

Tesco strikes show new mood

Nearly 150 drivers at the Tesco depot in Livingston, Scotland, are in dispute over the imposition of new contracts...

7 June 2007

The Arab-Israel 1967 war: repression and bloodshed continues

40 years since the Arab-Israel 1967 war: THE START of a six-day war on 5 June 1967 between Israel and its neighbouring Arab states resulted in an overwhelming military victory for Israel...

7 June 2007

PFI - a licence to print money

WHEN THE Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was first brought into the NHS, hospitals signed up to contracts lasting up to 60 years...

7 June 2007

The fat cat and the 'cleaning lady'

NICHOLAS FERGUSON is chairman of SVC Capital, the firm that built Europe's biggest private equity fund, "almost from scratch"...

7 June 2007

Take part in the 22-28 June Fighting Fund week of action

With four weeks to go until the end of the quarter on 6 July, most Socialist Party branches are making last minute plans for raising enough money to meet their fighting fund targets....

7 June 2007

Black and Asian group: Socialist ideas to unite all workers

The Socialist Party Black and Asian group in London met recently to discuss the work of the group and the difficulties facing black and Asian communities in Britain today...

7 June 2007

Labour cheats NHS

NHS demonstration March 3rd 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Stop cuts and closures: NHS WORKERS were outraged when they heard that there had been a £500 million under-spend in the NHS in England...

14 June 2007

Founding Conference of the National Shop Stewards Network

Founding Conference of the National Shop Stewards Network

Saturday 7 July, 11am-5pm, South Camden Community School, Carrington Street, London NW11RG

Speakers

Mark Serwotka, general secretary Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), Janice Godrich, president PCS, Bob Crow general secretary RMT

For more details see www.shopstewards.net or email info@shopstewards.net. Send £5 per delegate to NSSN c/o Unity House, 39 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD.

14 June 2007

Merger with GMB?

Eyebrows were raised at the NEC when General Secretary Dave Prentis announced that he had agreed a policy of close and joint working between UNISON and GMB....

14 June 2007

Come to the National Shop Stewards Network Founding Conference

Hundreds of shop stewards from across Britain gathered in London last October to found a grassroots network capable of mobilising trade unionists to fight for workers' rights...

14 June 2007

Stoke: Anger at postal privatisation

Defend the postal service: ON 4 June the fight to save Hanley post office was taken into WH Smith in the Potteries Shopping Centre, Stoke-on-Trent...

14 June 2007

United public sector struggle needed

What we think: ROYAL MAIL management has declared that it will not return to negotiations with the post workers' union, the CWU, over their pay claim, unless they call off the threatened national strike...

14 June 2007

Oil, profits, sleaze and hypocrisy

Saudi arms contract: THE FINANCIAL Times called it 'An arms deal that stinks of hypocrisy'. The FT does not normally rail against commercial deals that make super-profits...

14 June 2007

Fight attacks on the public sector

Unsion workers in blood processing on the NHS demonstration March 3rd 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Wherever you look in the public sector today, workers are under attack. The very concept of public service is being eroded by a Labour government whose...

14 June 2007

Members' discontent strengthens left in UNISON elections

UNISON elections: UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis and his right-wing allies have suffered a blow in the union's National Executive Council (NEC) elections...

14 June 2007

Swansea workers fight privatisation

Staff from Swansea council marched through the city centre last week to protest against plans to further privatise services...

14 June 2007

Campaign For A New Workers' Party public meeting

CNWP meeting Cardiff

Campaign For A New Workers' Party public meeting

Thursday 28 June 7pm

Sandringham Hotel, St. Mary Street, Cardiff

Speakers:

Dave Nellist, leader of Socialist Group on Coventry City council

Katrine Williams, chair, Public and Commercial Services union, Wales

Mark Evans, assistant secretary, Carmarthenshire County UNISON

Chair: Ramon Corria, secretary, Cardiff TUC

All in a personal capacity

14 June 2007

Amicus conference: Unite and New Labour

Amicus conference: The first conference of Unite, the new super union, kicks off with the Amicus section on 18 June...

14 June 2007

Prescription for profit

The pharmaceutical industry: IN 2005, the health service spent £11 billion on medicines. Most of these drugs were sold to the NHS by the few huge multinationals who dominate the pharmaceutical...

14 June 2007

Stem cell potential to break medicine bottleneck

Stem cell research: Roy Farrar looks into these possibilities, and the controversies around them....

14 June 2007

Fresh wave of protest in NHS

NHS demonstration March 3rd 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

"POLITICAL MEDDLING has brought the NHS to its knees... give us back the health service and we will rebuild it," said Jonathan Fielden of the British...

14 June 2007

Labour climbs down in Wales - but for how long?

NEW LABOUR'S strategy of closing or downgrading Welsh hospitals and replacing them with a vague commitment to care in the community has been withdrawn - for now...

14 June 2007

Coventry - Anger at NHS redundancy threat

LOCAL PEOPLE reacted angrily to news that Coventry University Hospital is considering making hundreds of workers redundant...

14 June 2007

Durham hospitals jobs threat

Forest of Dean demonstration: THIS MONTH, over 5,000 NHS workers - nurses, cleaners and administration staff - in County Durham received letters with their pay slips asking if they want to leave their jobs...

14 June 2007

Boycotts of Israel: Will they help the Palestinians?

THE UK National Union of Journalists (NUJ) conference recently passed a resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli goods...

14 June 2007

Western hypocrisy over 'democracy' utilised by Putin

US-Russia tensions heightened: NOT SINCE the height of the cold war have tensions between Russia and the western imperialist powers been so tense...

14 June 2007

What did the G8 summit achieve?

G8 demonstration in Rostock, Germany, photo Sarah Sachs-Eldridge

NERO'S FIDDLING comes to mind as the US faces its worst drought since the Great Depression and Bush dodges making a concrete commitment for carbon emission reduction...

14 June 2007

G8 protests: Determination wins through

DESPITE POLICE provocation, a successful demonstration for migrants' rights took place on Monday 4 June....

14 June 2007

Stop The War Coalition - demonstration

Stop The War Coalition - demonstration

Sunday 24 June. Assemble 12 noon.

Albert Square, central Manchester.

Join the protests at Gordon Brown's 'coronation' as prime minister.

Protest against the continuing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

14 June 2007

Anti-Bush day in Italy - A tale of two protests

GEORGE BUSH'S visit to Italy generated a huge protest by the anti-war and anti-globalisation movement...

14 June 2007

How Mittal makes millions

HOW DOES Britain's richest man - Lakshmi Mittal, Tony Blair's pal and the Labour Party's biggest financial backer - make his billions...

14 June 2007

Bosses' bonuses

TELECOMS GIANT Cable and Wireless (C&W) top bosses want to scrap a cap on executive bonuses imposed last year that 'limited' executive extras to £20 million...

14 June 2007

Fight for a living wage

77% 'yes' for action: Defend the postal service COMMUNICATION WORKERS' Union (CWU) members across the country have massively voted in favour of strike action to defend terms and conditions and the postal service...

21 June 2007

No UNISON witch-hunt!

AS WE go to press, ridiculous accusations are being made at UNISON conference that could be the start of a major witch hunt against Socialist Party members, particularly those on the UNISON executive...

21 June 2007

UNISON Leadership get a roasting from angry delegates

UNISON local government conference: UNISON local government conference erupted in rebellion against the leadership as soon as it opened...

21 June 2007

Why you should join ISR

War, low pay, top-up fees, climate change, racism; this is why you should join International Socialist Resistance (ISR). ...

21 June 2007

How Cadbury's keeps shareholders sweet...

CADBURY'S HAS announced a 15% cut (up to 7,500 jobs) in their global workforce by 2011...

21 June 2007

Brown stresses 'continuity' with Blair

Editorial: LONDON HAS become a tax haven for the world's billionaires. One British hedge fund manager put it clearly: "I think the super-rich want to have two homes..."

21 June 2007

Manchester council swings the axe

YET AGAIN Manchester city council are welcoming New Labour to the city for Brown's 'coronation'...

21 June 2007

Postal and post office workers demand action

Postal workers on strike in 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Royal Mail/Post Office: COMMUNICATION Workers' Union (CWU) members have voted overwhelmingly for strike action to defend the postal service, for a living wage and against cuts in working conditions....

21 June 2007

Stop Hatchet Hewitt's NHS plans now

REACHING INTO the history of health provision, health secretary Patricia Hewitt, rejected all that was effective.

21 June 2007

Blood centre workers fight job cuts plan

ON 15 June, protests took place outside blood centres, by trade unionists opposed to the proposed reorganisation...

21 June 2007

National shop stewards' network

Hundreds of shop stewards from across Britain gathered in London last October to found a grassroots network capable of mobilising trade unionists to fight for workers' rights...

21 June 2007

Withdraw occupation troops!

Iraq and Afghanistan: Many British people hope that, as prime minister, Gordon Brown will hasten the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq...

21 June 2007

Palestinian infighting blows apart 'national unity' government

AFTER BLOODY clashes with Fatah militias linked to Palestinian President Abbas, the Islamic organisation Hamas took control of the Gaza strip on Thursday 13 June....

21 June 2007

Workers must fight Ford sell-off plans

Land Rover/Jaguar: OVER 18,000 car workers directly employed in Jaguar and Land Rover are furious that their owner Ford is threatening their livelihoods by putting the businesses up for sale...

21 June 2007

Deskilling and destaffing - Tube bosses' dream

LONDON UNDERGROUND management have mounted an attack on the jobs and conditions of tube workers in London...

21 June 2007

Greenwich UNISON wins concessions

GREENWICH UNISON is continuing to fight the council's 'single status' proposals...

21 June 2007

PCS leadership recommends new deal to members

Civil service pensions: THE CIVIL service union PCS National Executive Committee (NEC) have agreed to recommend to members, in a ballot next month, the government's offer on pension arrangements for new staff starting from 30 July...

21 June 2007

Turning the tide for alternative energy

GOVERNMENT MINISTERS in Britain are supporting a controversial £14 billion scheme for harnessing the power of the tide...

21 June 2007

South Africa - third week for public-sector strike

A PUBLIC sector strike in South Africa has entered its third week, with workers remaining determined to maintain pressure on the government to substantially improve its pay offer.

21 June 2007

Have Scottish students got free education?

THE SCOTTISH National Party (SNP) has made its bid for popularity amongst students by announcing plans to scrap graduate endowments for Scottish students...

21 June 2007

Eye-witness from the G8

DESPITE POLICE brutality and provocation, the anti-G8 protests in Germany at the start of June were a success...

21 June 2007

Arise... Sir Stephen who?

THE 'BIRTHDAY honours list' is a big chance for the 'great and the good' to be given gongs...

21 June 2007

Something for everyone at the summer camp

Socialist Party summer camp

Last year I went along to the Socialist Party summer camp. At the time I knew little about socialism, or even politics in general. I decided however that a summer camp would be a pretty laid-back sort of environment for finding out about socialist ideas, so I decided to go along.

21 June 2007

New PM... same old Bosses' agenda

Gordon Brown, cartoon by Suz

Gordon Brown's 'coronation': The wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain has more than trebled under Brown's stewardship. They had an income between them of £360 billion in 2006...

26 June 2007

NUT miss opportunity on pay

The recent NUT National Executive meeting missed a real opportunity to announce national action on pay...

28 June 2007

Come to the National shop stewards' network Founding conference

National shop stewards' network: South Camden Community School, Charrington Street, London NW1.... By (near Kings Cross/Euston stations)

28 June 2007

'We're fighting back'

Gloucester: On Saturday 23 June, Gloucester postal workers showed their determination not to accept Royal Mail's plans to close the city's mail centre...

28 June 2007

Public anger at post office closure

Leicester: Anger was expressed at a public meeting in Leicester last week against the proposal to move our main post office - one of the largest branches in the country - to the basement of WH Smith...

28 June 2007

Heanor postal workers seven day strike

On 18 June, Heanor post sorting office CWU members went on a week-long strike following the closure of the sorting office with relocation to nearby Ilkeston...

28 June 2007

Save our NHS

NHS demonstration March 3rd 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Private equity firms, the vulture venture capitalists buying up large parts of the economy and paying virtually no tax, now control 70% of private hospitals, after their acquisition of BUPA's health services last week...

28 June 2007

It's business as usual as European summit ignores public opposition

French and Dutch voters defeated the 2004 draft European Union (EU) constitution when they voted No to it in 2005...

28 June 2007

World economy grows but workers lose out

IN 2006 the world economy grew by 5.4%. That annual rate is comparable with growth in the years of the post-war economic upswing of the 1960s. The ability...

28 June 2007

"Pottsamoney" put on the spot

Private equity: SOCIALIST PARTY deputy general secretary HANNAH SELL was on the Jeremy Vine show on BBC radio last week, debating the infamous 'private equity' schemes with Hank Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Private Clients...

28 June 2007

National Shop Stewards network: Rank and file getting organised

Bob Crow, General Secretary RMT

National Shop Stewards network: HUNDREDS OF trade union shop stewards and workplace reps will be attending the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference in London on Saturday 7 July...

28 June 2007

Outside Manchester's Gordonville 'bubble'

IN HIS acceptance speech to New Labour's special conference at his 'coronation' as party leader and prime minister, his majesty Gordon Brown said he stands for continuity. As part of this continuity, he wants to curb the role of the trade unions even further within the Labour Party.

28 June 2007

Harman's promotion

AS BROWN was anointed prime minister, Harriet Harman was elected to the post of deputy leader of the Labour party...

28 June 2007

Rail union backs postal strikers

THE RAIL union RMT's AGM (conference) in Edin-burgh revealed rail work-ers' discontent with Net-work Rail, the train operat-ing companies, London Under-ground and especially the Blair and Brown government...

28 June 2007

Unison leadership launches a witch-hunt

UNISON conference: AS UNISON conference began, delegates were stunned to hear the chair of the black members' group claim that a leaflet that had been given out that morning was "racist and offensive"...

28 June 2007

Missed opportunity at NUT executive

THE RECENT National Union of Teachers (NUT) national executive meeting missed a real opportunity to announce national action on pay. ...

28 June 2007

Pride not profit

The annual Pride event should be about the assertion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) demands for equality...

28 June 2007

London Pride 2007 Homophobia - it's so not over!

AS THE lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community celebrate Pride on 30 June, has equality arrived at last, as a headline in the gay press claimed recently...

28 June 2007

Rehabilitating Stalin?

Review by Peter Taaffe of Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore: "Lenin shot by Trotsky in drunken brawl". This was a headline, not from the gutter press but from a so-called 'quality' US capitalist newspaper in...

28 June 2007

Nigeria: Four-day general strike ends

THE LATEST general strike in Nigeria ended on 23 June when the trade union leaders accepted a government offer that granted most, but not all, of their demands....

28 June 2007

USA: Protesters demand military recruiters out of schools

Below is a report of an anti-war action against military recruiters in school, which Socialist Alternative (CWI in US) played an important role in organising....

28 June 2007

No to mergers, no to cuts

Bridgend schools: "THEY ANNOUNCED this decision in the Gazette, then three weeks later asked parents what they thought of the idea." "None of them care about what's best for my daughter - it's all about spending less...

28 June 2007

Save Ryeish Green school

PARENTS AT Ryeish Green school near Reading are fighting plans to close their school...

28 June 2007

Come to Socialism 2007

Sick of low pay and long hours? Angry at cuts, closures and privatisation? Had enough of war and poverty across the globe? Then come to Socialism 2007!

28 June 2007

Socialist Party summer camp

Contact Jane James for details: 020 8988 8762 or janejames@socialistparty.org.uk...

28 June 2007

Support postal workers

Postal workers on strike in 2007, photo Paul Mattsson

Fight low pay and job losses! Stop Post Office closures!
THE FIRST national postal strike for over eleven years is taking place on Friday 29 June...