Archive for November 2009
3 November 2009
Reports from the postal workers' picket lines
Postal workers reported solid support for the strike across Southampton. At Bitterne the mood was particularly determined in the face of an ongoing dispute over drivers' hours that management want to reduce:...
3 November 2009
Time to plan for all-out postal strike
Editorial: The third week of national strike action at Royal Mail has seen the bosses on the run. They fear the disruption of mail in the pre-Christmas period when over two billion letters, cards and parcels are...
3 November 2009
BA cabin crews come out fighting
SANDOWN PARK has witnessed many dramatic moments in its time as one of England's premier race courses, writes Neil Cafferky.
3 November 2009
We want workers' MPs on a worker's wage
PITY THOSE poor hardworking, low-paid MPs! The independent auditor, Sir Thomas Legg, has been reporting on some of the expenses claims made by MPs on second houses, writes Kevin Parslow.
3 November 2009
RBS/Lloyds - Yet more bailouts and job cuts
DISGRACED EX-RBS boss, Fred 'the shred' Goodwin (notorious for sacking workers), must have produced a wry smile when the government instructed the largely nationalised bank to sell off 318 high street branches shedding a further 3,700 workers...
3 November 2009
Action needed to bring election coalition into shape
OVER RECENT months meetings have taken place of the participants in the 'No2EU-Yes to Democracy' European election coalition to see whether another alliance could be constructed to contest the forthcoming general election. Informal discussions have also been held with some left trade union leaders not involved in No2EU.
3 November 2009
Pakistan - New wave of terrorism as the guerrilla war escalates
In recent weeks attacks carried out by Taliban fighters and a new ground offensive by the Pakistani government in the Waziristan region on the Afghan border, have deepened Pakistan's social, political and ethnic fault lines...
3 November 2009
Leeds bins strike against management attacks still solid
Leeds bins - 9th week: The LibDem joint leader of Leeds city council, Richard Brett, further insulted striking refuse workers last week by saying you don't need a degree to be a rubbish collector, writes Alistair Tice.
3 November 2009
South Yorkshire firefighters and Sheffield First bus drivers
Unity of Sheffield strikers: Despite last minute talks and supposed 'offers', strikes by South Yorkshire firefighters and Sheffield First bus drivers went ahead on 31 October, joining postal delivery workers taking national industrial action on the same day...
3 November 2009
Workers in the unions Unite and the GPMU stopped production at Crown Aerosols UK in Sutton in Nottinghamshire on 19 October, writes Socialist Party reporters.
3 November 2009
Every million helps (2): SHOWING ALL the sensitivity of a large pair of hobnail boots, Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier pocketed nearly £1 million in pay and bonuses for 2008/09...
3 November 2009
'Modernisation' means cuts: Support the postal workers' fightback
On the picket line at Bitterne in Southampton, photo Rob Emery
This dispute and the reasons for these strikes go all the way back to 2002 and the appointment of Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier as chairman and chief executive of Royal Mail, a Coventry postal worker writes.
4 November 2009
Want to change the world? Join the Socialist Party!
No one today can doubt that capitalism is a system in crisis. The capitalist propaganda of the previous decades lies in tatters, writes Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary.
4 November 2009
Trade unionists must fight for decent benefits for all
Sick and disabled under attack: THE PRO-big business parties, New Labour, Tories and LibDems, vied with each other at their party conferences with zealous plans to make the working class pay for the economic and financial crisis, writes Jim Horton, welfare rights adviser, north London.
4 November 2009
Youth Fight For Jobs march 2 April 2009, photo Paul Mattsson
1,000,000 young unemployed: It is hard to imagine what was going through the heads of the producers of ITV's Tonight show when they decided the best person to 'advise' unemployed youth on how to improve their job prospects was... Lord Alan Sugar! Sean Figg, Youth Fight for Jobs national organiser, writes.
4 November 2009
Lock-out threatened in South Yorkshire firefighters dispute
Chief fire officer Mark Smitherman has sent every striking firefighter a letter threatening to effectively lock them out if they participate in the 17 short walk-outs planned over the nine days from 6 November...
10 November 2009
Indonesia: Refugees on boat in desperate situation
Bombard embassies with protests:
11 November 2009
RMT conference on political representation
The RMT transport union hosted an open-to-all conference on the crisis in working class political representation on Saturday 7 November. This followed the overwhelming backing given at the RMT's annual general meeting in July to the union's participation in the 'No2EU, Yes to Democracy' European election coalition, and a decision at that meeting to continue the discussion on the lack of working class political representation.
11 November 2009
Postal workers force management back
What we think The postal strike interim agreement between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail contains a number of concessions forced out of the bosses...
11 November 2009
Socialism 2009 - an excellent weekend!
Socialism 2009, photo by Rob Emery
A thousand people came to Socialism 2009 over the weekend to participate in the various discussions and to be inspired by the two rallies. From long-standing Socialist Party activists to those attending their first ever meeting, everyone got something out of it.
"This event allowed me to really understand what the Socialist Party is actually about," said Jessica from Peckham in south London. "I joined the Socialist Party at the event."
11 November 2009
End the war in Afghanistan: Bring the troops back now!
Anti-war demonstration September 2005, photo Alison Hill
THE WAR in Afghanistan is bringing more and more bloodshed. About 1,500 Afghan civilians were killed between January and August this year and the numbers are still rising. The 110,000 Nato-led troops sent...
11 November 2009
20 years after fall of Berlin Wall, capitalist triumphalism turns rotten
Socialism Today, November 2009
THE WORLD'S leading politicians, past and present, gathered in Berlin this week to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, writes Dave Carr.
11 November 2009
Ireland: 90,000 march against government cuts
AROUND 90,000 people took part in a trade union national day of action on Friday 6 November in opposition to the plans of the Irish government to cut €4 billion in pay, services and jobs in its December budget...
11 November 2009
General Motors - no to 'divide and rule' in Germany
THOUSANDS OF General Motors (GM) car workers walked out across Germany on 5 November after the company pulled out of the sale of Opel/Vauxhall to Magna-Sberbank, the Austrian/Canadian/Russian consortium, writes Stephan Kimmerle, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
11 November 2009
United Socialist Party congress delegates defy difficult conditions in Sri Lanka
The United Socialist Party (USP), the Sri Lankan section of the Committee for a Workers' International, held its eleventh national congress from 31 October to 1 November 2009 in Colombo, writes Siritunga Jayasuriya, secretary, United Socialist Party.
11 November 2009
East London Bus Group workers, organised by Unite, held a 24-hour strike on 9 November. East London Bus Group (ELBG) bosses are trying to implement a pay freeze and attack pensions and holiday entitlement...
11 November 2009
Despite completely made-up media reports of 100 strikers returning to work, resolve amongst Leeds refuse and street cleaning workers remains high going into the tenth week of all-out strike action, writes Alistair Tice.
11 November 2009
Six days of strike action by 700 South Yorkshire Fire Brigade Union (FBU) members have forced major concessions from the Chief Fire Officer and Labour-controlled fire authority, writes Alistair Tice.
11 November 2009
Steelworkers get organised and score a victory over bonus payments
At the end of November Corus steelworkers will harvest the fruits of victory when they receive two bonus payments in one pay packet, writes By a steelworker.
11 November 2009
Members of Unite and PCS working at Fujitsu, will be on strike on 12, 13 and 16 November. This is the first national strike in the IT sector in the UK. The strike is over the threat of 1,200 redundancies,...
11 November 2009
UCU members at Barnsley college are fighting pay cuts and increased workload. Strike action took place on 3 and 5 November, writes Kirsty Morris Welsh.
11 November 2009
Big business fights for fees: Students must fight back
The higher education funding review that will look at university fees levels began on 9 November. On the same day a Compass/YouGov poll showed that only 12% of the public believe the review should even...
11 November 2009
Internationally young people fight for their rights
Austria: United action: The last months of raging capitalist crisis have seen devastating attacks begin on the living standards of workers and youth around the world, writes Laura Rafetseder, Socialist Left Party (SLP, CWI in Austria).
11 November 2009
Unison witch-hunt: Defend the Four campaign gets a boost
Brian Debus (centre) with supporters outside the latest Unison disciplinary hearing, photo Alison Hill
Four Socialist Party members - Onay Kasab, Glenn Kelly, Brian Debus and Suzanne Muna - are facing bans from holding office in Unison, ranging from three to five years. This was as a result of a leaflet distributed at Unison conference over two years ago!
11 November 2009
Review: John Reid's eighth edition of Reclaim the Game updates and develops his critique of the "greed is good" culture of British football, writes Jared Wood.
11 November 2009
Fight for real jobs and free education
Huddersfield Youth Fight for Jobs march, photo Huddersfield YFFJ
Demonstrate 28 November: New Labour and the Conservatives are determined to make young people and workers pay for this crisis, writes Ben Robinson, Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign national chair.
13 November 2009
Anti-fascists tactics - What happened in Newport?
ON 24 October, Newport Communities Against Racism (NCAR) organised a rally of 600 local people against the far-right English/Welsh Defence League (E/WDL) that shut the League out of Newport...
17 November 2009
The Socialist Party's demands include:
We won't pay for their crisis: Nationalise all the banks on the basis of democratic public ownership - run by representatives of banking workers and trade unions, the wider working class, as well as the government...
17 November 2009
While socialist ideas are beginning to resurge, the political representatives of capitalism have suffered an enormous ideological blow...
17 November 2009
The current crisis is not just caused by the greed of the City financiers or even the domination of finance capitalism...
17 November 2009
The deregulated 'free market' associated with Thatcherism is discredited. For many workers this will mean turning towards socialist ideas. For the representatives of capitalism, however, it is a question...
17 November 2009
A global crisis, and the particular crisis in Britain
This is a truly global crisis. Virtually no country has escaped its effects. Globally it is the poorest people in the poorest countries who are suffering the most. However, the OECD correctly predicted...
17 November 2009
Half a million, one in five, young people were unemployed even before economic crisis hit. As it has developed they have been disproportionately affected, along with women and migrant workers...
17 November 2009
Capitalism expects workers to rely on private pensions; a living state pension is considered out of the question...
17 November 2009
In New Labour Britain, privatisation rules. New Labour's sudden support for nationalisation of the banks will not prevent it continuing to try and sell off other public services, although in some cases...
17 November 2009
Unemployment and the working week
As unemployment soars Britain will still have the longest working week in the European Union. New Labour has consistently fought for the right to opt out of EU laws limiting the working week to a maximum...
17 November 2009
The nationalisations, part-nationalisations and state interventions being undertaken by the world's governments bear no resemblance to genuine socialist nationalisation...
17 November 2009
Time for a new mass workers' party
A particularly important factor is the absence of a mass political voice for the working class. Since 1997 the trade unions have given over £100 million of their members' money to New Labour. And what...
17 November 2009
Capitalism in crisis: The profound crisis that global capitalism entered in 2008 is resulting in increased hardship for the majority, in Britain and internationally...
18 November 2009
Save Ashford further education
Students and staff at Brooklands college Ashford site in Surrey, previously Spelthorne college, received the shocking news last week that the Ashford college is to close next year...
18 November 2009
Saturday 28 November 2009
Assemble 12 noon, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY, nearest tube Euston or Russell Square.
The government has been patting itself on the back, claiming that the latest unemployment figures show that the UK labour market is performing better than most major economies...
18 November 2009
More evidence of climate change: Socialist planning needed
Melting ice caps can indirectly lead to flooding: Flooding in Gloucester, photo Chris Moore
Climate change is accelerating. On 4 November the North Sea arctic ice cap fell below the record lows for November set during 2007. Updated daily, the National Snow and Ice Data centre's website shows...
18 November 2009
USSR 1989 - the collapse of Stalinism
Leon Trotsky
Clare Doyle - of the Committee for a Workers' International - was an eyewitness to the tumultuous events in 1989, and for five years (1990-95) lived in Russia as the USSR collapsed...
18 November 2009
British Airways merger plan poses new threat to workers
FRIDAY 13TH was the date BA and Iberia announced the details of their proposed merger. While the potential pay-off of a successful merger will prove very lucky for the bank balances of bosses at BA and...
18 November 2009
Tamil refugees in desperate situation
TAMIL-SPEAKING refugees remain on a boat in the Indonesian harbour of Merak, denied their fundamental human rights, writes Senan, Tamil Solidarity.
18 November 2009
THE GOVERNMENT has fast-tracked the building of ten new nuclear stations - riding roughshod over the objections of local communities, and ignoring cost and safety concerns...
18 November 2009
War legacy: A HUGE number of chronic infant deformities have been recorded in Falluja, Iraq. The city was flattened by US-led forces over a two month period in 2004 to suppress a Sunni-based insurgency...
18 November 2009
Glasgow North East by-election: Mass abstentions in Labour's 'surprise win'
LABOUR'S VICTORY in the Glasgow North East by-election last week by more than 8,000 votes over the Scottish National Party (SNP) seems, on the face of it, to be a surprise, writes Philip Stott, International Socialists (CWI Scotland).
18 November 2009
Far right SDL driven out of Glasgow city centre
OVER 3,000 anti-racist protesters achieved their stated aim of keeping the far right-wing Scottish Defence League (SDL) from marching in Glasgow on 14 November...
18 November 2009
Interview with Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary
Mark Serwotka at Socialism 2007, photo Paul Mattsson
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) is standing for re-election in the next few weeks.
Mark spoke to The Socialist about the challenges facing the union and its members.
18 November 2009
Brighton bin workers score quick victory
Brighton bin workers GMB picket line , photo Sean Figg
"Don't mess with the best!" Is what one worker quipped to sellers of The Socialist the morning that the Brighton bin workers returned to work after less than two days of solid strike action, writes Sean Figg.
18 November 2009
Leeds council delays talks to end bin dispute
Now into week 11, the bin strike in Leeds has been the most significant piece of industrial action in Yorkshire since the miners' strike, writes A Leeds Unison steward.
18 November 2009
Third week of Superdrug strike
Superdrug workers at the company's distribution centre in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire, were in defiant mood as their strike entered its third week, writes Steve Faulkner, South Elmsall.
18 November 2009
Sheffield First bus drivers beat back bullying management
The dispute between 700 bus drivers, members of Unite, and First Bus in Sheffield has been in force for a few months, writes An Olive Grove depot bus driver.
18 November 2009
Steve Bell of Aylesbury Socialist Party recently interviewed a car worker at the BMW plant in Oxford, writes What is your working life like at the moment?.
18 November 2009
Ericsson closure condemned by Coventry socialist councillor
Ericsson announced on 10 November the axing of 700 workers and the closure of its research and development facility at Ansty, near Coventry...
18 November 2009
Service with a snarl: Robert Service refuses to answer questions
Leon Trotsky reading The Militant newspaper in 1931
HISTORIAN ROBERT Service recently wrote a well-publicised and widely distributed book Trotsky - a biography...
18 November 2009
London trade unionists meet to build workers' solidarity
At the instigation of the London Shop Stewards Network, an important meeting took place on 16 November, writes Greg Maughan.
18 November 2009
Socialism 2009, photo Rob Emery
Scourge of mass youth unemployment: Youth unemployment is at a record high and what does the government do? It plans to slash funding for youth training schemes.
What do the bosses do? They cut jobs, pay and conditions.
22 November 2009
1 million unemployed young people: Demonstrate this saturday!
Youth Fight for Jobs - for real jobs Assemble 12 noon, Malet Street, central london, WC1E. Nearest tube Euston / Russell Square.
24 November 2009
How could full youth employment be achieved?
Editorial: Instead of throwing millions on the scrap heap, the available work should be shared out. In Britain the working week is one of the longest in Europe. The average working week for full-time workers is 41...
24 November 2009
Lessons of struggle: If you fight, you can win!
Liverpool City Councillors hold press conference at House of Lords 26 Jan 1987, photo Dave Sinclair
Liverpool Council 1983 - 1987: Young people face enormous attacks on their right to a future - unemployment, low pay, ever-increasing university fees and slashed public services.
Here, Socialist Party activists provide a small taste of some of the past battles they have been involved in where victories were won by working and young people.
24 November 2009
ONLY FOUR years after devastating floods forced thousands from their homes across the county, the heaviest rainfall on record brought rivers crashing over their banks and through people's homes, writes A Cumbrian resident.
24 November 2009
Main parties plan cutbacks: It's time for a fightback!
THERE MUST be an election coming. All of a sudden, New Labour want us to believe that they're different to the Conservatives. After over 12 years of carrying out Tory policies, Gordon Brown and Co. used...
24 November 2009
Youth Fight For Jobs march 2 April 2009, photo Paul Mattsson
Young people fight for a future: All parents hope that their children will have better opportunities than were available to them. Today, for millions of working and middle class families, those hopes lie in ruins. The bleak and insecure...
24 November 2009
Afghanistan: Brown and Obama scrabbling for an exit strategy
Anti-war demo October 2009, photo Bob Severn
THE CORONATION of Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai offers no solution to the long suffering workers and poor peasants of Afghanistan, writes Nick Chaffey.
25 November 2009
Socialist Party candidate increases vote in NUT election
Lewisham National Union of Teachers (NUT) secretary and Socialist Party member Martin Powell-Davies received over three thousand first preference votes in the election for NUT vice-president, coming fourth out of six candidates, writes Report from Socialist Party Teachers.
25 November 2009
As the axe of council cuts looms and falls, with public services paying the price for the recession, school support staff are directly in the firing line, writes An education worker, Huddersfield.
25 November 2009
Leeds bin workers received marvellous support, photo Leeds Socialist Party
As the bin strike in Leeds entered its twelfth week, an agreement was reached between refuse collectors and Streetscene workers, and the council, writes A Leeds Unison steward.
25 November 2009
Unison has been hearing the appeals of four Socialist Party members and Unison activists who face bans from union office for up to five years in a vicious witch-hunt orchestrated by the Unison bureaucracy...
25 November 2009
Attacks begin at Bangor University
Earlier in the year, Bangor university vice-chancellor, Merfyn Jones, announced £5 million in cuts to be made at the same time as receiving a 9%, above inflation, pay rise, writes Iain Dalton.
25 November 2009
News of 127 job losses among support staff has been met with outrage by the staff and their trade unions at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), writes Hugh Caffrey and Socialist Party supporters at MMU.
25 November 2009
Bristol Youth Fight for Jobs challenges council leader
On Tuesday 17 November a delegation from the Bristol Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign met with the Liberal Democrat leader of Bristol city council, councillor Barbara Janke, to discuss the council's response to the present crisis of youth unemployment, writes Andrew Taggart, Bristol YFJ.
25 November 2009
Postal dispute: Bosses still on the attack
The London divisional committee of the postal workers' union, CWU, have unanimously voted to call on the CWU's national postal executive to reinstate the national strike, writes Bill Mullins.
25 November 2009
In driving rain, hundreds of bus drivers formed picket lines across East London on 20 and 21 November, writes Paula Mitchell.
25 November 2009
Axiom railworkers' strike remains solid
Stoke: After four 24-hour strikes at Axiom in Stoke, the workforce, Unite members, has become even more determined to win this dispute for a decent pay increase, writes Andy Bentley, Stoke Socialist Party.
25 November 2009
Successful Manchester Tamil Solidarity meeting
TAMIL SOLIDARITY, an international campaigning network, is building up its forces in Greater Manchester against the Sri Lankan government's repression of Tamil speaking people, writes Lawrence Arokianathan, Tamil Solidarity, Manchester.
25 November 2009
Flipping cheek: 'Vampires in charge of the blood bank' comes to mind with news that two MPs on the parliamentary standards and privileges committee have made dubious expenses claims...
25 November 2009
Cuts crisis on the Isle of Man
THE ISLE of Man (IoM) public sector faces massive cuts after the UK government imposed a new UK-IoM value added tax sharing agreement without any prior discussion between the two governments, writes Christian Daugherty, Isle of Man.
25 November 2009
Guadeloupe - End the profiteering and exploitation
THE SOCIAL situation in the "French West Indies", and particularly in Guadeloupe, is boiling over once again, writes Virginie Prégny, Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI in France).
25 November 2009
The 1970s, mainly viewed from the top
Review: DAVE GORTON reviews When The Lights Went Out; Britain in the Seventies by Andy Beckett...
25 November 2009
People's Charter - a step towards workers' political representation?
The first convention of the People's Charter took place on Saturday 21 November. Speakers included Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, and John McDonnell...
25 November 2009
Education: 'Try your best' is not enough
Going to school may not be the most enjoyable experience for most. And it is getting more stressful with the pressure to excel in GCSE examinations, whilst being disappointed to find that even the most...
25 November 2009
Superdrug workers show industrial action can win victories
Workers from the Superdrug distribution centre in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire voted to go back to work this week after almost four weeks of strike action, writes Steve Faulkner, South Elmsall.
25 November 2009
THE RMT transport trade union, at short notice, called a protest outside Upney tube station in east London against BNP leader Nick Griffin, writes Suzanne Beishon, Hackney Socialist Party.
25 November 2009
Racists - stay out of Wrexham!
Opposing the racist EDL in Wrexham town centre, photo SP Wales
ON SATURDAY 21 November, the racist English Defence League, masquerading as the Welsh Defence League, held a demonstration outside a pub in Wrexham town centre, writes Dylan Roberts, Wrexham.
It comprised of 30 football hooligans from Bolton and a mere half a dozen local racists who chanted slogans such as "kill the Muslims".
25 November 2009
The battle for state education
Lewisham edutcation protest, photo Paul Mattsson
When Labour came to power with a mission to sort out education, they bulldozed ahead with the mantra of "whatever works", writes Linda Taaffe.
27 November 2009
Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration Sat. 28 Nov
Press Release for immediate use 26/11/2009: Young people from across the country to demonstrate for real jobs and free education...
27 November 2009
Statement from the CWI in Russia
Vital debates for socialists on the Russia/Georgia War, the capitalist crisis and the workers' movement...
27 November 2009
British Marxist debates Stalin and Trotsky
CWI represented in Moscow debate: It's certainly the first time that the first speaker at a meeting in which the CWI participated was a Russian orthodox priest in full robe speaking through video link from St Petersburg...
28 November 2009
More than a thousand youth march for jobs (updated 30 Nov 2.20pm )
Youth Fight for Jobs led more than thousand young marchers through London, as reported on BBC London news tonight, stopping to present a petition to Downing Street...
23/03/20 Usdaw - the Activist
2 Apr West London Socialist Party: Globalisation/deglobalisation and the world economy
2 Apr East London Socialist Party: Can the US's healthcare cope with coronavirus?
2 Apr Waltham Forest Socialist Party: How can we organise to defend our safety and rights?
6 Apr Nottingham Socialist Party: After the Labour leadership result - Do we need a new workers' party?
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