Archive for March 2010
1 March 2010
PCS: All Out to Defend Jobs and Services
PCS members have voted to take strike action and action short of a strike, including a national overtime ban. They are clearly determined to secure an acceptable settlement that defends their contractual rights under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, writes John McInally, national vice-president PCS, personal capacity.
3 March 2010
The savage implications of the cuts-cuts-cuts mantra of New Labour, Tories and the LibDems are clear even before the general election...
3 March 2010
Editorial: Attempts by the bosses and governments across Europe to make workers pay for the economic crisis are being met by a wave of anger and protest...
3 March 2010
Greece - millions take part in general strike
Greece's 24 February general strike was comprehensive, covering the whole of the public and private sectors of the economy...
3 March 2010
Where is the BA cabin crew dispute going?
For the third time in four months hundreds of British Airways cabin crew assembled for a joint branch meeting on 25 February at Kempton Park race course, writes Neil Cafferky.
3 March 2010
Legal ruling exposes hypocrisy of Unison leadership
A ruling by the Certification Officer, the government official who has powers to declare if a union has broken its own rules, has exposed the hypocrisy of Unison's right wing leadership...
3 March 2010
FBU general secretary speaks to The Socialist
Matt Wrack, FBU General secretary, speaks at Socialism 2005, photo Paul Mattsson
Preparing for more battles over jobs and services: Greg Maughan interviews Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary - another public sector union facing cuts to jobs and services in the coming months, writes How has the FBU changed since you were elected in 2005?.
3 March 2010
Comment: IMAGINE WORKERS raiding their firm's safe every week to bet on horses. They stick the money, plus any winnings, back in the safe but keep a large cut for themselves. Now, imagine the workers betting most...
3 March 2010
THE ENERGY companies are screwing workers by refusing to slash bills, even though wholesale prices have fallen in the last year, writes Yet the weak and inept Labour ministers cannot even comprehend that the announcement of a proposal to renationalise British Gas, Scottish Power and the rest of these modern highwaymen would send their poll ratings into the stratosphere..
3 March 2010
Taxing issue: AFTER YEARS of dodging the question, Tory grandee and fundraiser Lord Ashcroft, has revealed that he is indeed a tax-exempt 'non-dom'...
3 March 2010
The worldwide thievery of big business
FEW THINGS better display the underlying morality of capitalism than the scale and scope of 'offshore banking', 'off-balance-sheet' accounting and parasitical speculation - thievery by most people's definition, writes Steve Appleton.
3 March 2010
EMA inadequacy impacts badly on students
A MAJOR issue for a lot of students studying at college level is funding. At the moment, 16-18 year-olds living in low-income households are entitled to a maximum of £30 a week Educational Maintenance...
3 March 2010
The hounding of Tommy Sheridan
Need for public inquiry into activities of News International: THE MURDOCH empire's vendetta against prominent Scottish socialist and a leader of the mass anti-poll tax campaign of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tommy Sheridan, is well known...
3 March 2010
Savage cuts planned at the Beeb
The BBC Trust has ear-marked deep cuts in the corporation. It will mean slashing jobs and the budget of the BBC's online news service by 25%, closing digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network,...
3 March 2010
Cut the working hours, not the jobs!
IN 1982, the official unemployment figure topped three million for the first time since the 1930s. Then came almost a decade of redundancies and industrial battles as work shifted away from manufacturing...
3 March 2010
Supporters should own Pompey, not developers
THE COMPANY controlling Portsmouth Football Club (FC) has now gone into administration. This means that control over the club's finances has been taken out of the hands of the owner, writes David Maples.
3 March 2010
Walsgrave hospital Coventry: Stop the parking charges rip-off
A RECENT Socialist Party organised meeting in Coventry protested at rip-off car parking charges at Walsgrave Hospital, writes Clive Dunkley, Coventry Socialist Party.
3 March 2010
Brighton students say: Save our nursery
ON 22 February, around 70 parents, staff and students gathered outside Brighton University's board of governors' meeting in a Save Our Nursery campaign protest, writes Jack Poole, Brighton Socialist Students.
3 March 2010
Smash the bosses' construction blacklist!
On 5 March there will be another mass protest at Fiddlers Ferry power station, in support of blacklisted electrician Steve Acheson. Steve was unfairly dismissed from the site in December 2008, writes Adam Smart, Socialist Party, Warrington.
3 March 2010
Leeds lecturers win concessions - but cuts remain to be fought
After last minute ACAS talks and an emergency Leeds UCU meeting on 24 February, a series of three UCU strikes at Leeds University have been called off, writes Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Students organiser.
3 March 2010
Visteon pensioners: Former Visteon workers fighting for their pensions will lobby parliament on 31 March. When Visteon was 'spun-off' from Ford, workers were assured that their pensions would be protected. But this has...
3 March 2010
Portsmouth students and workers unite to fight cuts
Wednesday 24 February saw the first protest organised at Portsmouth University in opposition to the proposed cuts in education funding, writes Andy Waterman, Portsmouth Socialist Students.
3 March 2010
Invest in jobs, education & Training
Leeds Youth Fight For Jobs demo February 2010, photo Leeds Socialist Party
We don't want to see a 'lost generation': "We should try to work with the masters of globalisation" These were the words of Professor Don Nutbeam...
3 March 2010
TUSC: Activists launch socialist challenge
Onay Kasab
OVER 60 people attended a meeting in Greenwich, south east London, for a joint 'defend the four' and 'TUSC launch' meeting, writes Paul Callanan. 'Defend the four' is the campaign organised in defence of the four Unison members who have been politically witch-hunted by the union's right wing officials for the 'crime' of being Socialist Party members.
3 March 2010
Unison general secretary election: Nominate Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister, photo Paul Mattsson
The outcome of a BBC survey shows that at least 25,000 council jobs are at risk. A spokesperson from the London School of Economics has declared that: "Nothing like this has happened for a generation"...
3 March 2010
Women will be at the fore in the fightback!
Unison Local Government strike 16-17 July in London, photo Paul Mattsson
100th anniversary of International Women's Day: At the turn of the century some feminists celebrated a 'genderquake', the idea that women had finally achieved equality, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield, Sussex Socialist Students.
3 March 2010
Fighting for jobs, services and conditions
Civil servants on strike on 8 and 9 March: The government is going ahead with its plans to rip up the civil service compensation scheme (redundancy protection pay for civil servants), writes Nick Parker, a PCS member.
3 March 2010
Anti cuts protesters occupy key administration building at Sussex University
Police surround building, messages of solidarity poring in: After a protest of hundreds of students against cuts at the university following months of occupations and protests...
3 March 2010
Spain: Thousands join mass demonstrations
Mass protests took place in Spain last week against the PSOE government´s attacks on the country´s pension system...
3 March 2010
Global media monster News International condemned
Tommy Sheridan - hounded by News International, photo IS
RUPERT MURDOCH'S News International Ltd (a UK subsidiary of News Corporation) has been lacerated by a report from a House of Commons select committee into the News of the World's (NoW) phone hacking activities, writes Philip Stott, International Socialists, (CWI in Scotland) Dundee.
4 March 2010
Updated: Sussex anti cuts occupation ends after brutal police intimidation
Send protests to university management against the use of riot police on campus...
5 March 2010
Urgent: Dawn raids on Unison offices!
Defend the four newsletter: Following the mitigation hearings Glenn Kelly (Bromely), Suzanne Muna (Housing Association), Onay Kasab (Greenwich) and Brian Debus (Hackney) have all been banned from holding any office in Unison...
5 March 2010
Police clampdown on democratic rights of anti-EDL protesters (updated)
Updated 3.41pm: Peaceful anti-racist protestors and passers-by arrested outside parliament: Twenty people were arrested by the police outside the houses of parliament. They were detained in St James Gardens by the police for no reason, in a clampdown on democratic rights, but have now been released.
5 March 2010
Michael Foot - the end of an era
Many "Old Labour" workers and socialists will be saddened at the death of Michael Foot and will see it as signifying the death of an era. However the ideas of Michael Foot - of piecemeal socialist reform of society through successive 'progressive' Labour governments - died long before he physically passed away on 3 March. Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe writes.
8 March 2010
9 March 2010
Solid two-day civil service strike shows anger of PCS members
PCS members have demonstrated their anger at the attack on their Civil Service Compensation Scheme by staging a solid two-day strike that has affected courts, passport offices, jobcentres, tax offices and many other government services, writes John McInally, National Vice-President PCS, personal capacity.
10 March 2010
Trades Council demo unites Brighton fightback
Brighton trades Council demonstration against cuts, led by the save Our Nursery campaign, photo P. Knight
"THEY SAY cut back, we say fight back" was the chant that roared through the streets of Brighton on Saturday as over 600 working class trade union activists, socialists and campaigners brought the city's streets to a standstill, writes Peter Knight, Brighton Socialist Party.
10 March 2010
Riot cops attack peaceful Sussex students' protest
FOLLOWING A demonstration of hundreds at Sussex University against education cuts, 80 students occupied the main administration building on Wednesday 3 March, writes Sussex Socialist Students.
10 March 2010
Police clear path for racist EDL thugs
AROUND 400 protesters gathered for a counter-demonstration to the far-right English Defence League's (EDL) march from the Tate Britain to Parliament Square, London, on 5 March, writes Paul Callanan.
10 March 2010
Palestine: 'The Wall Must Fall!'
ONE THOUSAND people demonstrated on 19 February, in the Palestinian village Bil'in, in the occupied West Bank, writes Report from Socialist Struggle Movement, (CWI in Israel/Palestine).
10 March 2010
Chile earthquake: Natural disaster, state catastrophe
ON 27 February a powerful earthquake and the tsunami which followed, devastated the Chilean city of Concepcion and the surrounding area...
10 March 2010
Justice for the Shrewsbury pickets
In 1972, 31 pickets were arrested and put on trial in Shrewsbury, 24 were convicted. The Tory government was trying to wreak revenge on striking building workers, after being given a bloody nose by the...
10 March 2010
London Underground signals victory
On 5 February London Underground (LU) signal maintainers took 24 hour industrial action over management's attempts to impose rosters, breaches of framework agreements and outsourcing of work, writes London Underground Signal Maintainer.
10 March 2010
Around 100 trade unionists and students came to support the rally called by lecturers' union UCU on 4 March in Leeds, writes Alex Matthews, Leeds Socialist Students.
10 March 2010
CWU to put Royal Mail deal to ballot of members
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced that it has reached a deal with Royal Mail over pay and working conditions but the issue of pensions remains outstanding...
10 March 2010
Build solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils
On Wednesday 3 March Tamil Solidarity held a student meeting in Manchester University, with the help of the local Socialist Students society, writes Lawrence Arokianathan, Tamil Solidarity, Manchester.
10 March 2010
Waltham Forest day of action: Socialists and trade unionists make a stand
The Campaign2Campaign day of action to defend the right to campaign was a celebration of solidarity and struggle in Walthamstow on Saturday 6 March, writes Sarah Sachs-Eldridge, Walthamstow Socialist Party secretary.
10 March 2010
Solidarity with Yarl's Wood hunger strikers
A show of solidarity took place outside Holloway Prison in protest at five hunger striking asylum seekers being moved there from Yarl's Wood immigration centre, writes Alex Davis, Hackney Socialist Party.
10 March 2010
Canvassing for support for socialists in Lewisham
On the weekend of 6 and 7 March, 25 Socialist Party members campaigned in the Telegraph Hill ward of Lewisham against the £4.1 million of cuts that the council are making to jobs and services, writes Chris Newby.
10 March 2010
Civil Servants Strike reports (updated)
PCS workers on strike at the Passport Office, photo Socialist Party Wales
Members of the PCS civil servants' union took strike action today to oppose the changes to the civil service compensation scheme.
10 March 2010
Fight the cuts, not union members
Dawn raids on Unison branch offices: Fifteen unelected Unison trade union officials raided the Unison offices in Bromley and Greenwich in south London and the Tenant Services Authority in central London in the early morning of Friday 5 March, writes Paula Mitchell, London Socialist Party secretary.
10 March 2010
Anti-war campaigner Joe Glenton gets nine months
ANTI-AFGHANISTAN war campaigner Joe Glenton, a Lance-Corporal in the logistics corps, was found guilty of going absent without leave at a court martial and jailed for nine months...
10 March 2010
National Shop Stewards Network: For undivided rank and file organisation
The steering committee of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) met recently and discussed a number of important issues, including preparing for the national conference on 26 June, writes Bill Mullins.
10 March 2010
Review: The ivory tower of Westminster politics has seldom looked as far from the struggles of everyday life as it did in Channel 4's 'Tower House of Commons', where four MPs spent eight days living in Britain's most deprived council estates, displaying naivety, dismay, but most of all, a gaping chasm i, writes Ben Norman.
10 March 2010
Protest against Unison dawn raids 15th March
Don't let Unison democracy go up in smoke!
Join Unison members outside Congress House on Great Russell Street, London, Monday 15 March 6pm onwards - Unison members bring your letters from Unison HQ to burn!
10 March 2010
Privatisation vulture, photo Alan Hardman
TRADE UNIONISTS, health activists and local communities have been protesting in recent weeks at plans to close critical care and maternity services in general hospitals...
10 March 2010
Debate on women's oppression: Socialists propose solutions
PCS members were striking on International Women's Day, photo Paul Mattsson
Last week I addressed an International Women's Day anniversary meeting in the European Parliament. The meeting was called by the United Left group, of which Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins (CWI Ireland)...
10 March 2010
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coallition logo
Smug MPs fail to convince: Fifty-six percent of 17-24 year olds aren't registered to vote. Of those that are registered, many still do not vote come polling day. With this in mind, BBC3 hosted a 'first time voters' Question Time...
11 March 2010
600 rally in support of 'sussex six' suspended students
Occupation of 150 demands Vice Chancellor receives petitions personally: Students at Sussex University have occupied a lecture hall to demand an audience with the Vice Chancellor, following his unilateral decision to suspend six peaceful protestors...
12 March 2010
Youth Fight for Jobs demonstrates in Barking (London) and Manchester
Call for jobs and homes not racism put forward by unemployed and trade union youth: Youth Fight for Jobs are demonstrating in Barking, starting in Mayesbrook Park (Nearest tube Upney) at 12 noon, and central Manchester, 12 noon, All Saints Park, Oxford Road...
12 March 2010
British Airways strike dates set
In a press conference at 11 AM today Len McClusky, Deputy General Secretary of UNITE announced dates for strike action for British Airways cabin staff...
12 March 2010
The truth behind the British Airways cabin crew strike
The announcement of dates for strike action by British Airways (BA) cabin crew opens up a new chapter in the ongoing dispute between BA management and cabin crew...
14 March 2010
Youth Against Racism in Europe answers disgraceful Observer 'expose'
The disgraceful article in the Observer (14 March 2010) claims to 'expose' how "an officer from a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police" was "working undercover among anti-racist groups". Lois Austin and Hannah Sell reply...
14 March 2010
Video: Successful Youth Fight for Jobs demo in Barking, London
1 million young people. That's one in five of us who can't get a job, can't get into education. Bankers and the bosses, who caused the crisis in the economy, have been looked after by the government.
15 March 2010
Letter to The Observer: 'I remember Officer A well'
Dear Sir: As an activist with Youth Against Racism in Europe and Militant Labour in London in the mid-90s, and now with Militant's successor, the Socialist Party, I remember "Officer A" (your cover story, 14 March) well...
15 March 2010
With friends like these... Brown attacks BA cabin crew
New Labour revealed its true colours over the weekend. Senior figures queued up to take the side of British Airways management as cabin crew prepare for strike action on 20th March...
15 March 2010
A Hung Parliament? In substance, Britain’s general election campaign is a phoney war. The three main parties will attempt cuts in public services, pay and conditions. Socialist Party general secretary Peter Taaffe reports on the current political situation and the possibility of a hung parliament.
17 March 2010
'Winners' and losers in Royal Mail deal
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) leadership have agreed a deal with Royal Mail that they say "delivers on the major issues which postal workers have fought for", writes Gary Clark, assistant branch secretary, Scotland No.2 branch CWU.
17 March 2010
Another general strike brings Greece to a halt
ON THURSDAY 11 March, Greece was again brought to a standstill by the third general strike in a few weeks against the government's third draconian austerity package since the start of the year, writes Andreas Payiatsos, Xekinima (CWI Greece), Athens, and Niall Mulholland (CWI).
17 March 2010
THE JUGGERNAUT of cuts and closures is already being felt in Surrey, which people usually see as a place of leafy suburbs and stockbrokers, writes Paul Couchman, Save Our Services in Surrey (personal capacity).
17 March 2010
Cuts mean poorest people priced out of the legal system
Legal aid in crisis: "Do you think they'll evict me?" - this is the question I was asked recently at the County Court. I was the duty solicitor representing a housing association tenant who had £2,200 rent arrears. Usually...
17 March 2010
Defending public education in the USA
A NEW movement of students and education workers has erupted against vicious budget cuts in public education across the USA...
17 March 2010
Notting Hill Housing Group strike: Over 80 striking Notting Hill Housing Group (NHHG) workers picketed their head office in Hammersmith, west London on Monday 15 March, writes Kevin Simpson.
17 March 2010
Fighting the cuts at Leeds University
After several weeks of negotiations through ACAS, talks have once again broken down at Leeds university, writes Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Students organiser.
17 March 2010
'WE WILL not remain silent while Tamil refugees suffer out of the sight of the world's media'. That was the message to the Australian High Commission in London on Wednesday 10 March, writes Manny Thain, Tamil Solidarity national secretary.
17 March 2010
ANOTHER DISASTER for privatisation. Tube Lines, the company responsible for maintenance and upgrade work on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines of the London Underground has been branded as "ailing...
17 March 2010
Ethnic targeting: A REPORT by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the number of black and Asian people stopped and searched by police in England and Wales is 'disproportionately high'...
17 March 2010
Unite to save Northcott Theatre
EXETER NORTHCOTT Theatre is being placed in administration. The future of one of the South West's only producing theatre companies, and its 80 employees, is in doubt, writes Rob Edwards, Exeter Socialist Students.
17 March 2010
Youth Fight for Jobs day of action
Barking Youth Fight for Jobs demo, photo Paul Mattsson
On Saturday 13 March Youth Fight for Jobs organised demonstrations and campaigning activity against youth unemployment, cuts in education and the racist BNP in Manchester, Barking in East London and Yorkshire...
17 March 2010
Coventry: Voters need socialist fighters - not service cutters
Dave Nellist at the Campaign for a New Workers' Party discussion forum at Socialism 2008, photo Paul Mattsson
"You know Dave Nellist and the Socialists - they are the ones who stand up for people like us". This was the comment of a woman to her daughter at one of our recent campaign stalls, a sentiment that is more and more common among working class people across the city...
17 March 2010
Course closures, funding cuts, job losses, fees... The last 18 months, since the start of the economic crisis, have seen students and campus trade unions organising protest action in Britain on a scale not seen since the movement to oppose the introduction of tuition fees in 1997-1998...
17 March 2010
Following their well-supported two day strike on 8 and 9 March, up to 200,000 civil servants in the PCS union will be on strike again on budget day - Wednesday 24 March, writes John McInally, national vice-president PCS, personal capacity.
17 March 2010
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition General Election launch rally
TUSC logo
General Election launch rally: TUSC has been set up in opposition to public spending cuts and privatisation, for investment in publicly owned and controlled renewable energy, for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws, and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. www.tusc.org.uk.
17 March 2010
Support British Airways cabin crew
The planned seven days of strike action in two separate walkouts on 20-22 March and 27-30 March by British Airways (BA) cabin crew opens up a new chapter in their ongoing dispute with BA management, writes Neil Cafferky.
17 March 2010
State infiltration - a warning to the workers' movement
The state, cartoon by Alan Hardman, photo Alan Hardman
Last Sunday's Observer (14 March 2010) led with a scurrilous 'exposé' of how "an officer from a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police" was "working undercover among anti-racist groups in Britain, during which he routinely engaged in violence against members of the public and uniformed policemen... "
17 March 2010
Iceland: 93% reject bankers' bailout
Interview with Skúli Jón Kristinsson, CWI Iceland We have seen recently some angry protests and demonstrations on the streets of Reykjavik. What is this "parliament of the street"?...
17 March 2010
Thatcher's enemy within: 25 years after the end of the miners' strike
When the 1984-85 miners' strike ended, most of Britain's 180,000 miners had been on strike for a year in a battle to save their pits, their communities and trade unionism...
17 March 2010
Unison leadership's "scorched earth policy"
Defend the Four protest lobby against Unison outside Congress House, photo B. Severn
EIGHTY PEOPLE from Unison branches across London took part in a protest against the appalling actions of the union's leadership in the witch-hunt against four Socialist Party members.
Outside Congress House, where the London region of Unison has its offices, Unison members burned letters from the regional secretary, Linda Perks.
17 March 2010
BA workers, civil servants: Defending jobs and conditions
PCS demonstration through central London during two day strike, photo Paul Mattsson
The sickening bonanza for the rich goes on; last week the Forbes 'rich list' showed that the number of billionaires on the planet has increased significantly over the last year, and they have seen their incomes soar...
18 March 2010
Students protest across the country as HEFCE announces university cuts
HEFCE has announced cuts to university budgets today that are part of plans to cut 2.5 billion from higher education by 2013...
22 March 2010
British Airways cabin crew strike: report from the picket line
Cabin crew strikes at BA continued to make headlines across the globe yesterday, as the second day of strike action was as solid as the first...
22 March 2010
Militant union leaders to launch general election challenge
BA dispute leaves no doubt - New Labour is dead as vehicle for working class politics...
22 March 2010
Far-right EDL outnumbered in Bolton, police try to even the odds!
When the far-right English Defence League (EDL) brought their racist bandwagon to Bolton in Greater Manchester on 20th March they were significantly outnumbered by anti-EDL protesters...
23 March 2010
Byers, Hewitt & Hoon: inevitable outcome of the New Labour project
Ex-ministers suspended over cash for policy claims: TUSC press release:
* Big businesses interests have silenced any voice for working people at Westminster
* Militant union leaders to challenge 'big business' parties in general election as the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC)
24 March 2010
The strike action by British Airways cabin crew marks a further stage in private sector industrial struggle since the onset of the economic crisis...
24 March 2010
More parliamentary sleaze: "I'M A bit like a cab for hire," said former Blairite government minister Stephen Byers to an undercover reporter who was posing as a company lobbyist, writes Dave Carr.
24 March 2010
Hewitt's big business alliance
MANY MPs accept money from big companies. This is in addition to direct company donations to the main parties. Why do these companies give cash? It's obvious isn't it - to get influence over government...
24 March 2010
THE CAMPAIGN for a New Workers' Party (CNWP) has condemned more sleaze revelations on former PM, Tony Blair:...
24 March 2010
Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition
TUSC aims to challenge the three big business establishment parties in the general election. These parties act in the interests of the billionaires rather than those of working or middle class people...
24 March 2010
Salford: The growth of 'Hazel Must Go!'
LAST MONTH, an 80-strong public meeting of the Hazel Must Go campaign voted to affiliate to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), writes Steven North, Hazel Must Go Secretary.
24 March 2010
Stoke Central: Fighting for the millions not the millionaires
ON 15 March trade union reps, Stoke Socialist Party members and other supporters launched the TUSC general election challenge in Stoke Central...
24 March 2010
Far-right EDL outnumbered in Bolton, police try to even the odds!
When the far-right English Defence League (EDL) brought their racist bandwagon to Bolton in Greater Manchester on Saturday 20 March they were significantly outnumbered by anti-EDL protesters, writes Socialist Party members, Greater Manchester.
24 March 2010
EDL attend anti-racist meeting
A public meeting called by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) in Bristol was attended by local trade unionists and anti-racist activists...
24 March 2010
Nottingham anti-EDL anti-BNP conference
This conference has been called by Nottingham Unity committee, a group of anti-racist, anti-fascist trade unionists and community activists...
24 March 2010
Sussex: Students gain a victory - but fight must go on!
A week of protests and activity at Sussex University started with a 700-strong protest of staff and students on Thursday 11 March and culminated in a one-day strike by lecturers and the reinstatement of six suspended students on Thursday 18 March, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield, Sussex Socialist Students.
24 March 2010
Cuts to higher education announced: Students fight back
Newcastle: On Thursday 18 March the higher education funding body HEFCE announced a reduction of £573 million on the 2009-10 budget, writes Ian Pattison, Newcastle Socialist Students.
24 March 2010
Obama's neutered health bill limps through
AFTER MUCH horse trading Barack Obama's heavily diluted healthcare bill was passed by the US House of Rep-resentatives by 219 to 212 votes...
24 March 2010
Nottingham council targets the vulnerable
COMMUNITY GROUPS across Nottingham have been expressing their anger at the impact of council budget cuts on services, particularly those for vulnerable adults, writes Jean Thorpe, Nottingham East Socialist Party.
24 March 2010
March 1990 anti-poll tax demonstration
Anti-Poll Tax demonstration March 1990
The riot - what really happened: In 1989, one million Scots were not paying the poll tax. The All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation was also planning organised opposition south of the border. On 1 April 1990, 35 million people would get...
24 March 2010
Across the country, students and lecturers have been standing side by side in struggles against cuts, writes Ben Robinson.
24 March 2010
Thousands have been on Youth Fight for Jobs demos, Socialist Students have been leading protests and occupations, CWI sections are intervening in mass youth campaigns....
24 March 2010
HP workers take further action
Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members working for Hewlett Packard (HP) have announced a further four days of strike action in support of demands over pay, job security and collective bargaining rights, writes Ian Fitzpatrick.
24 March 2010
Rail union RMT signalling and supervisory members have voted to strike over safety and the imposition of new working conditions by Network Rail...
24 March 2010
Battling against school academies in Hastings
Plans to merge Filsham Valley school in Hastings with neighbouring Grove School, and to transform them into 'Academy West', with Hillcrest school becoming Academy East, received a blow recently with action by teachers and students, writes Jack Poole.
24 March 2010
Picket line on British Airways cabin crew strike, photo Paul Mattsson
Support grows for cabin crew: "We've been forced into going on strike because the terms and conditions have changed on board the aircraft, writes Neil Cafferky.
24 March 2010
Message of support for striking BA workers from Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins:
I am writing ahead of your scheduled strike to express my solidarity, as well as the solidarity of my party the Socialist Party and our sister party the Socialist Party of England and Wales, for your campaign to defend your pay and conditions in British Airways...
24 March 2010
Striking British Airways cabin crew pickets speak to The Socialist
It's been really heartening to get together like this with all your colleagues. The support has been great, horns are going all the time. The fire brigade beeped us. I believe the public support is there...
24 March 2010
FIVE THOUSAND pounds seems to be the favourite figure of Stephen Byers, who for the past five years has commanded this fee for regular speaking appearances and newspaper articles...
24 March 2010
Dickens is back: Implications of poverty revealed in London
"You don't expect this in modern-day London." These were the words of a police spokesperson when confirming that a baby's body had been dragged from a paupers' grave by a fox in the London Borough of Wandsworth, writes Keith Dickinson.
24 March 2010
Barking council: Late developers
THE LABOUR-run council in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham has - after more than 25 years - commissioned the building of 63 new council properties for rent...
24 March 2010
Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition general election launch rally
Thursday 25 March, 7.30 pm.
Friends Meeting House,
Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.
Speakers include: Bob Crow, Rail, Maritime and Transport union general secretary;...
24 March 2010
Support trade union and socialist alternative: Workers reject main parties
PCS demonstration through central London during two day strike, photo Paul Mattsson
BA CABIN crew, civil servants, railway workers... As the general election looms, trade unionists are voting for, and taking, action to defend their rights, conditions and pay against the onslaught from...
24 March 2010
Massive rejection of Sarkozy's policies presages a 'third round on the streets'
Workers and youth protest in Paris, France in May 2003, photo Paul Mattsson
France: Regional elections: LITTLE MORE than 24 hours after the second round of regional elections in France, strike action began on the railways, ushering in a day of action and protests in 80 cities across the country, writes Clare Doyle, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
24 March 2010
Civil Servants strike on budget day
Pickets were out in force for the second time, taking strike action to stop cuts in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, which would leave many PCS members tens of thousands of pounds worse off in the event of voluntary or compulsory redundancy. Reports from round the country.
26 March 2010
Radio Four Today programme covers TUSC launch
The launch of the Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition, which will contend the general election with more than 42 candidates in major cities of the UK, was covered by Newsnight and the Today programme on Radio Four...
29 March 2010
Video: Protest over proposed cuts at Ascham Homes
Ascham Homes workers marched to the town hall of the London Borough of Waltham Forest to protest over proposed cuts in jobs and services at Ascham Homes, which manages the council's housing stock, writes Video posted on youtube by indefilms333 (7 mins).
30 March 2010
Farcical trial of socialist Ainur Kurmanov
With the snow covered Kok Tobe Mountains sheering into the sky as a backdrop and temperatures souring to a summery +25, a crowd gathered outside the courthouse in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to protest the latest attempt to silence Ainur Kurmanov, leader of Socialist Resistance Kazakhstan (CWI).
31 March 2010
BA cabin crew strike: 'We shall not be moved'
British Airways cabin crew on the picket line, photo Paul Mattsson
AS THE second round of strikes by British Airways (BA) cabin crew comes to a conclusion no-one within a ten mile radius of Heathrow could possibly be unaware of what is happening, writes Neil Cafferky.
31 March 2010
Terror returns to Moscow For workers' unity against terror, repression, racism and capitalism
THIRTY NINE people died and over 70 were badly injured when two bombs exploded on the Moscow metro during the morning rush hour on Monday 29 March, writes Igor Yasin and Rob Jones, CWI Russia.
31 March 2010
PCS: Striking against government attacks
PCS workers on strike and protesting outside the Welsh Assembly, photo Cardiff Socialist Party
Following the tremendous civil service two-day strike on 8 and 9 March, PCS members once again demonstrated their anger at the government's attempt to rip up their contracts under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, writes John McInally, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) national vice-president, personal capacity.
31 March 2010
PCS budget day strike: Support grows across country
PCS pickets who work on security at the Houses of Parliament were out again in force. One of the pickets who has been working there for 20 years explained that during the last strike extra police were...
31 March 2010
Future Jobs scam: attacks on young unemployed
The Future Jobs Scheme is the government's new initiative aimed at getting young people back into work. But it appears to be more about driving the young unemployed off benefits, writes Vincent Leonard.
31 March 2010
Southampton University protest
Students and staff at the University of Southampton staged a protest on 25 March against the planned closure of several courses, writes Andrew Howe, Southampton Socialist Students.
31 March 2010
May Day march in Hull: Rebuilding traditions of struggle
Hull Youth Fight for Jobs will call a march through the city centre to mark May Day. It has been many years since May Day was last celebrated in Hull and the demonstration is the culmination of the efforts...
31 March 2010
When We Were Miners marks the 25th anniversary of the ending of the 1984/85 miners' strike, the greatest movement of workers in Britain since the 1926 general strike...
31 March 2010
Fight the decimation of London tube jobs
Anyone watching the news over the last week could not have failed to notice the saturation coverage depicting British Airways workers and RMT members as mad militants intent on destroying their companies and indeed threatening civilisation as we know it, writes Reg Johnstone.
31 March 2010
Council cuts: Grim Reaper moving to Surrey
"WE'VE REACHED a point now where fire crews are turning up at scenes of emergency and having to tell the public that we cannot make a rescue because we have to wait for more staff to turn up...
31 March 2010
Socialist elected to NUT executive
Martin Powell-Davies, editor of 'Classroom Teacher' and the convenor of Socialist Party Teachers, has been elected onto the NUT national executive...
31 March 2010
Shock for Unison bureaucracy: On 24 March Hampshire County Council Unison branch held a hustings for the Unison general secretary elections. All four candidates were invited. Three turned up and Dave Prentis sent a representative, writes A HCC Unison member.
31 March 2010
Cameron shows Tories still anti-gay
DAVID CAMERON looked flustered and awkward in a televised interview with Gay Times' Martin Popplewell last week, writes Dave Younger, LGBT organiser, Leeds Socialist Party.
31 March 2010
Network Rail dispute: RMT signalworker speaks to The Socialist
THE RAIL, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union planned strike action on 6-9 April by its signalling and supervisory members in Network Rail over the company's plan to axe 1,500 jobs and impose changes in working conditions...
31 March 2010
Eurozone crisis: Hanging together or hanging separately
THE WORST capitalist crisis since the 1930s has led to increasing crises, turbulence and change in the world, writes Danny Byrne.
31 March 2010
Outdoing Thatcher: FOR THOSE who continue to believe that Labour is the "lesser evil" to vote for in May's general election then Alistair Darling's post-budget comment should have them holding their heads in their hands in disbelief...
31 March 2010
Help fund Socialist Party campaigns
We have reached 71% of our quarterly fighting fund target with only eight days to go! The deadline is 9 April - we can still hit the target, but we need to pull out all the stops for the last week...
31 March 2010
Editorial: Stop the cuts, build a socialist alternative
Last week the Financial Times angrily dismissed the "absurd belief" of the 75% of the population who do not support cuts in public services...
31 March 2010
NUT conference: fight cuts and excessive workload
The annual conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) usually hits the headlines over the Easter weekend, writes Martin Powell-Davies, secretary Lewisham NUT.
31 March 2010
Lewisham Socialist News - Our record
The Telegraph Hill ward in the south east London borough of Lewisham has been represented by socialist councillors for 15 years.
Over the years the local party branch has produced regular editions of a newsletter, Socialist News, to keep local residents informed on what their councillors, Ian Page and Chris Flood, are doing.
Copies of the report are available for sale at £2 per copy.
31 March 2010
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition launch in Coventry
The Socialist Party in Coventry officially launched its election campaign on Sunday afternoon, with well over 100 people cramming in to the venue...
1 April 2010
Waltham Forest: on march against redundancies
EVEN BEFORE the election, the axe is already falling on public services in some areas - including housing services in Waltham Forest, east London, writes Sarah Sachs-Eldridge.
1 April 2010
Developing a strategy to defeat the far-right
Nottingham: ON 27 March a conference in Nottingham, called by Nottingham Unity Committee, brought together delegates from several independent anti-racist and anti-fascist groups as well as trades union organisations from around the country, writes Steve Score.
23 Apr Leeds Socialist Party: Lessons from Liverpool City Council 1983-7
24 Apr Coventry TUSC: Council cuts - how can we fight back?
25 Apr Lewisham & Southwark Socialist Party: A socialist perspective on antisemitism & the left
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