Archive for March 2007
1 March 2007
SINCE BEFORE Christmas, postal bosses in North and Mid Staffordshire have attempted to replace full-time jobs with part-time ones...
1 March 2007
NHS: No more delays - for a mass demo!
WHILE NHS cuts and closures continue around the country, Patricia Hewitt, government health secretary, has announced the building of seven new hospitals...
1 March 2007
ON 22 February, a torch-lit procession marched through Liverpool city centre to "Save the NHS"...
1 March 2007
the socialist review: "Michael Mandelstam's analysis is unanswerable and his criticisms robust. His book should be studied by everyone concerned with how health care is delivered...
1 March 2007
Visteon victory for shop floor
THE SHOP stewards' committee in Visteon's Swansea plant have resisted the company's plans to stop brake disc production in the factory...
1 March 2007
Cumbria rail crash: Safety not profit
THE FAULT with a set of points that caused last week's train derailment in Cumbria, in which one person died, was almost identical to the one that caused the Potters Bar rail disaster in 2002....
1 March 2007
Make anti-war movement an unstoppable force
Demonstration against Trident Feb24 2007, photo Pedro |
1 March 2007
Italy: Political crisis grips Prodi government
But Prc lacks coherent alternative policies: ON 21 February, the Italian coalition government faced collapse when the Prime Minister, Romano Prodi tendered his resignation. ...
1 March 2007
South London shootings: The bitter effect of poverty and alienation
THE SHOOTINGS of three school age children in south London have caused great concern...
1 March 2007
SIXTY MINERS at Tower Colliery, in South Wales, have received redundancy notices...
1 March 2007
THERE'S BEEN good news and bad news for shareholders and bosses of Britain's high street banks...
1 March 2007
THE SACKED careworkers at Unique in Huddersfield held a lobby outside the offices of Kirklees council in advance of the full council meeting on 28 February...
1 March 2007
Protests make council back off
Bridgend: AROUND 25 young people protested this week outside Bridgend council offices against attacks on public services...
1 March 2007
Latin America: A continent in revolt
CWI world congress report (4): THE RECENT world congress of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI - the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) debated the explosive developments in Latin America where th...
1 March 2007
Congress to build the forces of socialism
Socialist Pary congress 2007, photo Paul Mattsson |
1 March 2007
Socialist Party congress appeal
The finance appeal at the Socialist Party congress was a great success, raising a total of £8,193...
1 March 2007
The pressures of life under capitalism, double standards which still leave women doing the vast majority of childcare and housework, and a lack of confidence are all barriers which women can face to joining the Socialist Part...
1 March 2007
Support the socialist with a May Day greeting
International Workers' Day, 1 May, is the time to show international solidarity with all workers and young people struggling against oppression and for decent living conditions...
1 March 2007
Huddersfield Campaign to defeat fees, photo Ian Slattery |
The action took place in over 40 colleges and universities, with more to follow this week when colleges come back from half term. Matt Dobson, Socialist Students national co-ordinator has compiled reports from the day of action.
1 March 2007
Unison: Build genuine opposition on the left
UNISON national executive elections: ONE OF the most important elections for a long time is due to take place in UNISON...
1 March 2007
UCU general secretary election: LAST YEAR saw the merger of the two main post-school education trade unions, the AUT and NATFHE into the University and College Union (UCU)...
1 March 2007
Jobs and services, not cuts and excuses!
DOZENS OF angry care workers lobbied Bolton council against a savage cuts programme at a full council meeting on 21 February. ...
1 March 2007
NHS crisis: clean out the profiteers
Calling for a national demonstration in 2006 - photo Paul Mattsson |
8 March 2007
Lambeth Students and Community unite
A huge cheer went up as from dozens of Lambeth college students as Wednesday's SOS demonstration (see above) reached Lambeth Town Hall...
8 March 2007
Lambeth Councils ruling Labour Group were forced into a retreat over its plans to for services to vulnerable adults last Wednesday when a demonstration nearly 500 strong marched through Brixton and descended on Lambeth Town H...
8 March 2007
Fighting low pay decades after the Equal Pay Act: TO MARK International Women's Day 2007 (8 March) the socialist carries below three articles by Socialist Party members on some key social issues facing women today...
8 March 2007
Socialist Party congress report (2)
Recruitment, membership & campaigning: The Socialist Party congress took place on 17-19 February. Following reports of the congress political sessions on world events and Britain in last week's...
8 March 2007
Young workers: Fight for your rights!
ISR conference 2006, photo Marc Vallee |
8 March 2007
Egypt: Strikewave shakes regime and state-run unions
Elite fear new social explosions: A HUGE strike wave has swept across Egypt in the past three months - a country where strikes are illegal and demonstrations of any sort face brutal, bloody repression...
8 March 2007
Secondary education becoming a lottery
NOT STOPPING at betting using mammoth hedge funds or the building of super-size gambling dens rather than factories, casino capitalism is now being applied to schools, with the decision by Brighton and Hove council to introdu...
8 March 2007
No divide and rule - save these hospitals
SOCIALIST PARTY members have been campaigning in Rhondda Cynon Taff and Merthyr against hospital cuts...
8 March 2007
NHS: First priority - a national demonstration
Unison and RCN lobby of parliament in 2006, photo Paul Mattsson |
8 March 2007
ON 28 February, hundreds of angry demonstrators tried to storm the council meeting at Camden Town Hall, as the Tory/ Lib-Dem led council was trying to axe £40 million from the council budget over three years...
8 March 2007
IN KIRKLEES council, the Tory administration's budget for next year included plans to close three children's nurseries in Huddersfield. ...
8 March 2007
Council workers ballot for city-wide strike
Southampton: IN SOUTHAMPTON, like many areas, the pain of council cuts is spread unevenly...
8 March 2007
Uniting the battle against cuts and privatisation
MANCHESTER UNITY Stewards and Activists Group (MUST) is being set up to fight for cross-service unity and action over pay, cuts, single status, privatisation and pensions....
8 March 2007
They are all the same - even the Greens!
Tales from the council chamber: THE 1 March meeting to set Lewisham council's budget for 2007-08 showed again that the establishment parties really are all the same. ...
8 March 2007
A crucial time for Royal Mail pensions
ROYAL MAIL'S "Financial Re-organisation and Investment Plan" is the biggest threat so far to postal workers' pensions. ...
8 March 2007
United action needed to defend Airbus jobs
AIRBUS, THE giant European plane manufacturer announced last week that they were to get rid of over 10,000 jobs from their plants in Germany, France, UK and Spain....
8 March 2007
What's Left? - not Nick Cohen!
PETER TAAFFE reviews What's Left? by Nick Cohen and replies to his accusation that the 'left' supported Saddam Hussein because it opposed the invasion...
8 March 2007
Scotland - Solidarity conference
THE FIRST policy conference of Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement on 3 March, was attended by 250 people, of whom 200 were registered delegates...
8 March 2007
Trade union action for decent pay and public services
"THIS IS the last straw - 1.9% is the final insult" a health visitor angrily told me last Friday.
On top of job losses, increased workloads, pension cuts and privatisation, public-sector workers were kicked in the teeth last week by New Labour's announcement of an effective pay cut.
Photo: Unison and RCN lobby of parliament in 2006, Paul Mattsson |
15 March 2007
THE 'GENEROUS' October increase in the adult minimum wage will be 17p an hour - effectively a pay cut for over a million low-paid workers. ...
15 March 2007
UNISON Health group votes for summer demo
NHS demonstration March 3rd 2007, photo Paul Mattsson |
15 March 2007
WATCHED BY local BBC and ITN camera crews, UNISON and RCN stewards/reps from across the East Midlands protested outside Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt's surgery on 3 March...
15 March 2007
Camden protest against cuts, photo A Cohen |
15 March 2007
Lambeth council attacks services for vulnerable people
IN SPITE of demonstrations and protests, south London Lambeth council voted through £700,000 worth of cuts to voluntary sector organisations at its meeting on 28 February....
15 March 2007
Barking BNP don't oppose council cuts
AROUND THE country, angry protesters are storming council chambers and socialist councillors are voting against cuts...
15 March 2007
Northern Ireland Assembly elections: Another sectarian headcount...
THE RESULT of the Northern Ireland Assembly election was yet another sectarian headcount...
15 March 2007
We Won't Pay Campaign conference success
Water charges: THE FIRST conference of the anti-water charges 'We Won't Pay Campaign' was held on Saturday 10 March...
15 March 2007
Solidarity builds party profile ahead of elections
Scotland: TWO HUNDRED members of 'Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement' attended the party's policy conference at the beginning of March...
15 March 2007
US continues threats over Iran's nuclear ambitions
TENSIONS BETWEEN the US and Iran became feverish as the United Nations (UN) security council resolution (insisted upon by the US) instructing Iran to suspend its nuclear programme, passed its 21 February deadline...
15 March 2007
Iraq war: Convicted Bush official is 'fall guy' over WMD scandal
IN THE most politically charged trial in the US since Irangate in the 1980s and Watergate in the 1970s, a senior official of the Bush administration - Lewis "scooter" Libby - was convicted of obstructing justice, perjury an...
15 March 2007
February revolution 1917 - what lessons for today?
23 FEBRUARY 1917 (8 March in the new style Gregorian calendar) marked the beginning of the socialist revolution in Russia that sparked a revolutionary wave that would travel around the world. PETER TAAFFE analyses the lessons of February for the working class today.
15 March 2007
Celebrating International Women's Day
Pictures of women in struggle and socialist demands from women comrades in India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Sweden were on display at the Socialist Party all-London public meeting to celebrate International Women's Day...
15 March 2007
Tenants vote no to council housing sell-off
COUNCIL TENANTS in Brighton and Hove have dealt a blow to New Labour's privatisation agenda...
15 March 2007
Market-driven 'social housing' threatens tenants
THE GOVERNMENT recently launched a new report into the future of social housing...
15 March 2007
Lewisham council's outrageous attack
Fat cat housing chiefs: A RECENT meeting of Lewisham council's con-stitutional working party discussed a Labour and Lib Dem-backed proposal to limit the number of motions a councillor could propose or second to one per council meeting...
15 March 2007
Will government plans stop climate change?
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) summit last week set targets on renewable energy use, energy efficiency and reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions...
15 March 2007
Build the campaign to defeat fees
LONDON SOCIALIST Students members lobbied the National Union of Students (NUS) headquarters on 9 March to hand over the Campaign to Defeat Fees (CDF) declaration to NUS president Gemma Tumelty and other NEC members....
15 March 2007
International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and Socialist Students conference
Tickets £3/£5. Send cheques to PO Box 858, London E11 1YD. Call 020 8558 7947 for more info...
15 March 2007
Trade Unions and the Labour Party: CWU branch asks some awkward questions
JUDY GRIFFITHS, the secretary of the Coventry branch of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) recently wrote to CWU general secretary Billy Hayes on behalf of her branch.
15 March 2007
Campaign for a New Workers' Party conference
The Campaign for a New Workers' Party was launched in March 2006. A CNWP conference will be held on 12 May. It is open to all signatories of the CNWP declaration.
15 March 2007
Kurdish asylum seekers living in fear
THE DAYS of worrying, of not feeling safe and secure, are starting again. News of Kurdish asylum seekers being arrested in their houses, workplaces and...
15 March 2007
UNISON leaders lead members into dead end
Local government pensions: ABOUT 900 UNISON members in local government met on 6 March to discuss the way forward on pensions...
15 March 2007
SOUTHAMPTON CITY council workers will be on strike for 24 hours on 20 March in a battle against privatisation of 1,000 jobs and £6 million cuts.
15 March 2007
PCS prepares for more struggles
THE LEFT Unity led National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PCS union met last week to make preparations for the next stage of the national industrial action campaign to defend jobs, pay and public services....
15 March 2007
Right wins lecturers' union leadership - on a 14% turnout
ON 9 March, the University and College Union, UCU, announced the results of the election for its first general secretary since its formation from the merger of AUT and NATFHE...
15 March 2007
staffs postal workers say: Postal workers at the Burslem depot in Stoke have taken one week's strike action to call for the reinstatement of sacked postal worker Dave Condliffe...
15 March 2007
£billions for rich... Pennies for us!
Picture:
Blair's Britain: BRITAIN IS now more unequal than at any time in living memory. If you are a low-paid worker on the minimum wage you're offered a pay rise way below the real inflation rate. It's the same 'offer' for many public-sector workers. If you are an out-of-work single parent, you're harassed by the government to get any job, no matter how low-paid. If you are one of the super-rich, however, this government will fawn on you.
Tony Blair - Bosses' puppet |
22 March 2007
AS EXPECTED, members of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) have voted overwhelmingly to support the merger of the two unions...
22 March 2007
How was the slave trade abolished?
Toussaint L'Ouverture led a successful uprising of black slaves |
22 March 2007
Blair (and Tories) get their Trident vote
WITH THE help of the Tories, Blair got his plans to start the 'renewal' of Trident, Britain's nuclear submarine system, passed through parliament on 14 March...
22 March 2007
"THE FAR-right BNP were there on the High Street, then this crowd gathered shouting 'racist pigs'...
22 March 2007
Keep the market out of education!
Lincolnshire: LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY council proposes to spend up to £50 million transforming three local schools into 'city academies'...
22 March 2007
Passenger protests force some improvements
Rail investment: THE GOVERNMENT ann-ouncement that 1,000 new rail carriages are to be provided to ease overcrowding is welcome news for rail travellers and rail workers who are frustrated that the service we provide fails our customers...
22 March 2007
Divisive forgery shocks health campaign
Kirklees: THE SAVE Huddersfield NHS campaign won a famous victory in last year's council elections in Kirklees council when local GP and Socialist Party member Jackie Grunsell was elected as a councillor for the Crosland Moor and Neth...
22 March 2007
Northern Ireland: SHOP STEWARDS and officials of the GMB union met Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain in Belfast on 20 March...
22 March 2007
Private equity deals - fight free-market vultures
Editorial: THERE IS a frenzy of takeovers by private equity firms, part of a world-wide surge of company mergers and takeovers by banks, hedge funds and big corporations...
22 March 2007
Budget: Who are the real scroungers?
You can tell when Budget Day is coming because the bosses step up their wailing for tax cuts...
22 March 2007
Latin America: YOU WOULD rarely have a bigger contrast between Presidents George Bush and Hugo Chavez on their recent tours around Latin America...
22 March 2007
"Bush out of Iraq and Lula out of Haiti"
IN BRAZIL, the biggest protest was on 8 March in S‹o Paulo, where President Lula received Bush...
22 March 2007
Greece: The struggle to defend free education
Greece: HUNDREDS OF occupied universities... striking university lecturers... demonstrations tens of thousands strong...; for ten months now Greek youth have fought...
22 March 2007
Bush and Poodle Blair: Get out of Iraq, photo Alan Hardman |
22 March 2007
ISR conference 2007, photo Paul Mattsson |
22 March 2007
Burslem postal workers continue the fight
Reinstate Dave Condliffe: POSTAL WORKERS in Burslem continue the fight to get Dave Condliffe reinstated...
22 March 2007
YUNUS BAKHSH, a long-standing UNISON health activist, is facing disciplinary action from his employers in the north east and from UNISON, at the same time....
22 March 2007
Greenwich single status scandal
OVER 600 Greenwich UNISON members attended a mass meeting on 14 March, following the council's latest proposals to attack pay and conditions under the guise of 'single status'....
22 March 2007
TUC try to cut conference childcare provision
Women's TUC: OVER 250 women attended the Women's TUC this year. But most of the motions contrasted sharply with the interviews with trade unionists from Ford and others...
22 March 2007
Socialist Party women's day school a success
A successful Socialist Party women's day school took place last Saturday. Former health worker, Liz Cowell introduced a discussion on the maternity crisis...
22 March 2007
JOB LOSSES at Manchester university are being resisted by "angry and affronted" staff...
22 March 2007
Lobby for migrant workers' rights
AMICUS IS organising a rally and lobby of parliament to protest against the exploitation of migrant workers in the UK and the undercutting of union-negotiated agreements on pay and conditions...
22 March 2007
May Day greetings - support the socialist
Surrey Unison deputy branch secretary Paul Couchman has raised £89 for a May Day greeting from individual donations given by members of his union branch....
22 March 2007
Labour's NHS plans: not what the doctors ordered!
Doctors demonstrate March 2007, photo Naomi Byron |
26 March 2007
Rifondazione Comunista - its future?
Italy: On A recent visit to Italy, Peter Taaffe, together with other CWI members, discussed perspectives with workers and activists in the Italian labour movement for the future of Rifondazione Comunista (Prc)....
26 March 2007
Iran: Alarm bells have been ringing, left and right. John Pilger, the radical journalist, wrote an article, Iran: The War Begins (New Statesman, 3 February),...
26 March 2007
Iran: Alarm bells have been ringing, left and right. John Pilger, the radical journalist, wrote an article, Iran: The War Begins (New Statesman, 3 February),...
26 March 2007
Victory for Glasgow's Council Workers in the Fight for Protection
Glasgow's New Labour council have been forced to retreat in the face of a massive strike over their plans to cut the pay of 4,500 council workers....
29 March 2007
Local government: TENS OF thousands of local government workers are up in arms as the results of the single status new pay and grading scheme are rolled out by their employers....
29 March 2007
Council unions reject 2% pay offer
UNISON AND the other unions representing local government workers have rejected the employers' pay offer of 2%...
29 March 2007
Fighting cuts and privatisation
"I LOST £5,000 working for that lot in my last job!" was the response from one council worker on the mass lobby of the latest council meeting in Southampton.
29 March 2007
For the millions, not the millionaires
Vote Socialist Alternative on 3 May
THE ELECTIONS on 3 May will be the last with Tony Blair as prime minister.Unfortunately, his policies of low pay, cuts in public services, privatisation and warmongering will continue after he goes, writes Hannah Sell.
Vote Socialist, photo Alan Hardman |
29 March 2007
Carmarthenshire: THREE UNIONS, UNISON, GMB and T&G are currently campaigning against Carmarthenshire county council's plans to privatise the in-house home carer's service...
29 March 2007
TUC rally in Westminster against cuts in public spending, photo Paul Mattsson |
29 March 2007
Edinburgh postal workers fight back
SCOTLAND NO 2 CWU branch officials have just negotiated a return to work of over 1,000 postal workers in the Edinburgh Mail centre, after a management climb-down....
29 March 2007
A simple conclusion from a 'simplification' budget
Editorial: THE DAILY Mirror declared triumphantly: "Historic 2p income tax cut that will make Gordon PM"...
29 March 2007
Northern Ireland: THE MEDIA had pictures on 26 March of 'old enemies' Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein reaching an agreement to return power sharing to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 8 May....
29 March 2007
We Won't Pay anti-water charges demo 31 March
WORKERS WILL have their first chance to give their own warnings to the new Assembly on 31 March when the We Won't Pay Campaign demonstrates against water charges in Belfast...
29 March 2007
ON A recent visit to Italy, PETER TAAFFE, together with other CWI members, discussed perspectives with workers and activists in the Italian labour movement for the future of Rifondazione Comunista (Prc)...
29 March 2007
Tenants defeat housing sell-off
Swansea: 'DEFEND COUNCIL Housing' (DCH) campaigners in Swansea are celebrating the defeat of the council's attempt to privatise its housing stock...
29 March 2007
Universities fail to accept state school pupils
THE FALL in applications to universities at the start of this year was mainly felt by Britain's least financially well-off people...
29 March 2007
ON 22 March, Suffolk county council voted to close 40 schools after deciding to change to a two-tier system and remove middle schools...
29 March 2007
Airbus walkout - joint action needed across Europe
THE VAST majority of the 7,000 strong workforce at the Airbus UK factory at Broughton in North Wales, walked out on strike on 23 March....
29 March 2007
Turkish state attacks Kurdish protestors
DESPITE THE Turkish government attacking and banning demonstrations on Newroz day, (21 March), hundreds of thousands of Kurdish people took to the streets, demonstrated and called for freedom...
29 March 2007
NHS demonstration March 3rd 2007, photo Paul Mattsson |
29 March 2007
Diamond geezer: IT'S ALWAYS a problem knowing what present to give someone who has got it all...
29 March 2007
London Olympics: Big business bonanza - and we pay
CULTURE SECRETARY Tessa Jowell recently announced that the 2012 Olympic games to be staged in east London, will cost an estimated £9.3 billion...
29 March 2007
Determined campaigners win reprieve
Kirklees nurseries: KIRKLEES COUNCIL in west Yorkshire has been threatening to close three nurseries, Tiddlywinks, Cambridge Road and Sankofa...
29 March 2007
Council workers fight pay cut scandal
TUC rally in Westminster against cuts in public spending, photo Paul Mattsson |
30 March 2007
Sacked electricians win tribunal ruling
TONY JONES, TGWU health and safety rep and fellow workers Steve Acheson and Graham Bowker, sacked from the Manchester Royal Infirmary site, have won their tribunal cases...
30 March 2007
Hants library workers fight cuts
ON 22 March, striking librarians from across Hampshire marched through Winchester to show their anger at the Conservative county council's plans to cut 27 jobs and slash the pay of another 17 librarians...
30 March 2007
Manchester Unity Stewards and activists group
A SUCCESFUL launch of Manchester Unity Stewards and activists group (MUST) took place on 12 March...
30 March 2007
NEW PAY proposals in the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) mean a court usher in Bootle will be paid £2,000 more than an usher in Southport...
30 March 2007
IN EALING, west London, 175 special educational need coach escorts, 90% of whom are women, were handed a letter recently telling them that their hours were to be recalculated...
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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