Archive for October 2015
6 October 2015
'No time to lose' to organise against austerity
Right wing step up campaign against Corbyn: There is a concerted attempt by Labour's right, cheered on by the poisonous capitalist media, to completely undermine the effects of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership victory and what it represents.
7 October 2015
Anger after violent youth deaths
Hundreds of angry residents packed into the Honor Oak Community Centre to discuss the recent violent deaths of two teenagers
7 October 2015
100,000 march against Tory cuts
100,000 people marched through Manchester on Sunday against the Tories
7 October 2015
Emotional and inspiring strikers secure victory
At a packed PCS union meeting, National Gallery strikers unanimously voted to back a deal
7 October 2015
The Tories call themselves the "workers' party" while desecrating jobs. Let's put them out of work.
7 October 2015
NHS cutters pay doctors not to refer sick patients to hospitals
General practitioners (GPs) are being paid to reduce referrals to hospital in some areas.
7 October 2015
Tories: let pensioners freeze to death, they can't vote us out then
Smug Tories discussed letting pensioners die of cold to save cash at their Manchester conference.
7 October 2015
It's one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us. #PrivetDrive housing outrage, Tory online democracy hypocrisy, Cameron's Jamaican jail insult.
7 October 2015
No wage cuts! Fund equal pay in Derby
After years of failing to pay women equally, Derby City Labour council's pay review will see many women and some male council workers lose thousands of pounds from their annual pay.
7 October 2015
RMT president election: back Sean Hoyle
In this year's election, Portsmouth RMT member and TUSC supporter Sean Hoyle has emerged as the strongest left candidate, receiving 37 branch nominations, making him best placed to continue building a fighting, democratic, socialist trade union.
7 October 2015
Steely anger in Redcar as plant is mothballed
The last steel plant on Teesside, the second largest in Europe, is to be mothballed resulting in the loss of up 2,200 jobs.
7 October 2015
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles. Traffic wardens' sick pay, victimised CWU rep John Vasey, 'Kill the Bill' lobby, junior doctors protest.
7 October 2015
Enthusiasm for socialism at freshers fairs
Inspired by Jeremy Corbyn, students have rallied to Socialist Students at freshers' fairs.
7 October 2015
Leeds to get 'ethical' letting agency
The council intends to create a service for "property owners who have only one property". While this would be a step forward, it is quite a limited letting service.
7 October 2015
Cuts to school crossing supervision in Derbyshire
Labour-controlled Derbyshire County Council has failed its first post-Corbyn test. Despite the council leader publicly declaring her support for Corbyn, the council voted to back its decision to decimate its school crossing patrol service, part of a £157 million cuts onslaught.
7 October 2015
Catalan elections on 27 September revealed a society virtually split down the middle on the question of independence from the Spanish state.
7 October 2015
Short stories on workers' struggles around the world. Refugee solidarity in Austria and Greece, water protests in Brazil.
7 October 2015
The housing crisis - a crisis of the profit system
The ever-dwindling numbers of affordable homes to buy or rent is behind the deepening housing crisis in the UK.
7 October 2015
As we go to press nearly 90,000 people have signed an online petition supporting industrial action by the British Medical Association, which is balloting junior doctors over changes to their contracts.
7 October 2015
Jeremy must give genuine socialists in the Labour Party the mechanisms to kick the Tory entryists out once and for all!
7 October 2015
Jeremy Hunt, the hated Tory health secretary, is under attack from the medical profession. He plans to exhaust and demoralise junior doctors with "unsafe and unfair" contract changes. Meanwhile, a survey says around half of nurses are considering quitting. And the government plans to make trainee nurses pay to work!
9 October 2015
School support staff: Furious response to pay cut threat
"No ifs, No buts, No more pay cuts!" chanted 400 school staff
12 October 2015
Bomb attack on Ankara peace demo
Trade unions' general strike must be first step to building mass, united movement against murderous regime of Erdoğan
14 October 2015
Organise to fight endless austerity
Resist the Tories and the Blairites: The majority of ordinary people will have cheered when they saw that shadow chancellor John McDonnell reversed his position and pledged that Labour will vote against the Tories' charter for fiscal responsibility.
14 October 2015
Health service: condition critical
Our NHS is ill. Its health is worsening. Like someone with cancer, symptoms appear in different parts of its body although it just gets by day to day.
14 October 2015
Should trade unions be re-affiliating to the Labour Party?
In light of Jeremy Corbyn's victory, is the issue of non-affiliated unions affiliating to Labour now on the agenda?
14 October 2015
Syria: Western governments' interventionist strategy in tatters
After four and a half long, bloody years of civil war in Syria - with over a quarter of a million dead and eleven million displaced - there is still no end in sight
14 October 2015
Thousands cram 'the People's Post' rally to hear Corbyn
The privatisation of Royal Mail is deeply unpopular but clearly the biggest draw to this rally was the main speaker, Jeremy Corbyn.
14 October 2015
TUSC groups writing to Labour councillors
Several councillors have responded positively about starting a discussion, though many express concerns about the practicalities of setting no-cuts budgets.
14 October 2015
Living wage victory for Hackney traffic wardens
The five day strike by traffic wardens in Hackney, a bid to get proper sick pay, has been suspended to allow talks.
14 October 2015
Unison general secretary election: Roger Bannister wins place on ballot paper
Rank-and-file socialist Roger Bannister has received the 25 branch nominations needed to run for general secretary of Unison, Britain's largest public sector union.
14 October 2015
Glasgow's trade unions demand 'no-cuts' budget from council
Trade unions in Glasgow City Council call on all elected politicians in the city to use all available financial mechanisms to hold off any further cuts while leading a fight to win more money for the city.
14 October 2015
College cuts and funding chaos
It is clear that austerity measures to state education services do not affect us all equally, and further education colleges are bearing the biggest brunt of cuts to education.
14 October 2015
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles. Redcar steel plant closure, campaigning to stop the Trade Union Bill, junior doctors protest against contract changes.
14 October 2015
Probation and family courts workers - gathering in Eastbourne for their union Napo's conference - face an uncertain future as the full scale of cuts and privatisation comes into view.
14 October 2015
List of upcoming protests against changes to junior doctors' contracts.
14 October 2015
Socialist Party members worked tirelessly to raise over £15,000 in September to smash our quarterly fighting fund target, reaching 110%.
14 October 2015
Workers on Tory 'living' wage can't afford Tory 'starter homes'
There are only three places in England the homes would be cheap enough to buy on the new £9 'National Living (minimum) Wage': Barrow-in-Furness, Southport, and Hull.
14 October 2015
Fat-cat Facebook pays less UK tax than couple earning national average wage
The social media multinational paid just £4,327 in UK corporation tax. This is compared to the total £4,800 income tax paid by a couple each earning the median wage of £22,000.
14 October 2015
Tory government plans to increase junior doctors' hours and cut pay - as part of its '24/7' NHS service - have incensed staff who already work long hours, including weekends.
14 October 2015
Daily Mail cake bake race hate debate
Right-wing rag the Daily Mail has featured the Bake Off winner on their front page every year since the series began. Until last week.
14 October 2015
Tory tax credit thieves take up to £1,700 a year from workers
It was with overwhelming shock that I learnt my family stands to lose around £140 a month. Tory cuts to tax credits will hit us hard when implemented in 2016. Some families stand to lose up to £1,700 a year.
14 October 2015
80 ambulance calls in two years for exhausted Sports Direct staff
At the headquarters of infamous retailer Sports Direct, ambulances were called more than 80 times over two years.
14 October 2015
It's one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us. Tories want us to 'work like Chinese', Royals have flight paths redirected away from their home, yuppie cafe mocks the poor.
14 October 2015
Under-25s: productive, passionate and underpaid
Tory treasury minister Matt Hancock (right) said under-25s are not "productive" enough to deserve the minimum wage. The government's new 'national living wage' - which is not actually a living wage - is only for workers over 25.
14 October 2015
Reading launches new Socialist Students group
Students at Reading have formed the university's first branch of Socialist Students.
14 October 2015
Boozers of the world unite! London Marx pub crawl
Even productive under-25s need to take a break! London Socialist Students went on its annual Karl Marx pub crawl on 8 October.
14 October 2015
Bradshaw supports MP de-selection when he benefits
A headline screamed: One senior MP (Ben Bradshaw) stormed out of a heated session of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) addressed by Jeremy Corbyn
20 October 2015
Crown Packaging Unite convener: "Fight to keep this plant open"
250 workers at Crown Packaging in South Wales were dropped a bombshell last week with the announcement that the plant, which has been a landmark in Neath for almost 80 years, is to close due to alleged 'overcapacity'
20 October 2015
TUSC Cllr Bennett calls for needs-based budgets
Warrington TUSC councillor Kevin Bennett has written an open letter to all Labour members of Warrington Borough Council asking whether they support Jeremy Corbyn's call for councils to stand together and refuse to implement government cuts
21 October 2015
Political thriller Homeland was targeted by graffiti artists hired to help with set dressing, subversively daubing "Homeland is racist" in Arabic on the walls.
21 October 2015
World economy: 'biggest danger to capitalism is capitalism'
Redcar steel plant to close after a century of production, raw material prices collapsing, China's economy slowing, the ongoing euro crisis...
21 October 2015
Germany: refugee crisis and the fight against the racist right
More than 800,000 refugees are officially expected to come to Germany this year. The government has announced budget cuts 'because of the refugees' and commentators demand scrapping the minimum wage of €8.50 an hour for refugees.
21 October 2015
Short stories on workers' struggles around the world. Iberian political school, Hong Kong socialist election campaign, Kshama Sawant's birthday.
21 October 2015
David Cameron announced at the Tory Party conference his "all-out war on poverty". It's clear that what he meant was an "all-out war on the poor".
21 October 2015
Former war hero fighting for the future: a pensioner speaks out
Older people are hard hit by the bosses' cuts and sell-offs. Sue Powell spoke to Claude Mickleson, National Pensioners Convention activist and member of Gloucestershire Socialist Party.
21 October 2015
'Britain First' - tiny and violent
TV review: We Want Our Country Back. Tiny far-right group 'Britain First' has attracted disproportionate levels of media coverage over the last year.
21 October 2015
It's one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us. Housing crisis versus landlords' profits, extortionate cost of football.
21 October 2015
Organising to defend Corbyn's anti-cuts mandate
Around the country campaigns are establishing networks to defend Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity politics. Socialist Party members are enthusiastically taking part.
21 October 2015
Determined mood at Napo conference
Probation and family court workers organised in Napo left their AGM last week with a new mood of determination to rebuild their union.
21 October 2015
1% owns more than half the world's wealth
We now live in a world where the richest 1% of the population owns more than half the wealth. And the poorest half owns less than 1% - according to the latest Credit Suisse Wealth Report.
21 October 2015
Corbyn campaign: Opportunity for raising socialist ideas
The Socialist Party was recently approached by New Statesman magazine to respond to the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. Unfortunately our answers were not used in the resulting article.
21 October 2015
Welsh Government should think outside 'the Box'
250 workers at Crown Packaging in South Wales face redundancy. The plant - known locally as 'the Box' - is to close due to alleged 'overcapacity'.
21 October 2015
Rally opposes the Tory trade union bill
The Trade Union Co-ordinating Group hosted a rally at parliament on 12 October to oppose the Tories' new anti-union bill.
21 October 2015
Damning report on NHS staffing levels delayed by Tories
Inspectors at two-thirds of NHS hospitals have identified low staffing as a problem.
21 October 2015
Labour MP refuses to back strike
Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Limehouse and Poplar, refused to back striking cleaners. His reason? In 1968, some dockers walked out against the sacking of racist Tory minister Enoch Powell.
21 October 2015
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles. Unison Scotland calls for no-cuts budgets, London DLR cleaners dispute, Arriva Wales train strikes, Alfreton Grange Arts College walkout.
21 October 2015
Huge support for the Wales March for Homes
A major event in the Cardiff Housing Action campaign took place on 17 October: the 'Wales March for Homes'.
21 October 2015
Sports Direct action over sacking
As a Sports Direct employee you not only slave in workhouse conditions, you can also be illegally sacked with 15 minutes notice.
21 October 2015
Help fund the fight for socialism
Can you increase your membership subs (regular donation)? This is the question the Socialist Party is asking all our members.
21 October 2015
20,000 doctors and health workers marched in London against Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt's vicious attacks on pay and conditions on 17 October. The marchers were angry and determined. Thousands more demonstrated in Nottingham and Belfast
21 October 2015
How can workers resist capitalist cuts and closures?
A stuttering world economy has jeopardised steel making in the UK. But workers do not have to accept the inevitability of closures and job losses
21 October 2015
For a fighting, socialist general secretary
Unison members need a general secretary who will put their interests first.
21 October 2015
Hull council's aggressive bid to remove union convenors
Hull council, run by Labour, is pre-empting the Tories' trade union bill. It is issuing redundancy notices to all five full-time council union organisers.
22 October 2015
YFJ to join 'free education' demo
On Saturday students will take to the streets in Leeds
26 October 2015
Morrisons workers deserve fair pay and conditions
Usdaw is recommending a pay offer that goes with ending Sunday, overtime, late and early premiums
27 October 2015
The Get Corbyn plot and how to combat it
There are formidable forces mobilising to unseat Jeremy Corbyn, argues Clive Heemskerk, and the likelihood that the outcome of that struggle will pose the need for a new party must be discussed
27 October 2015
'Momentum' must mobilise for real and lasting change
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The launch of Momentum is an attempt to give a political and organisational framework to Jeremy Corbyn's agenda for change
29 October 2015
Steel industry and the battle for jobs
Workers and communities don't have to accept massive cuts and closures as inevitable.
29 October 2015
First new grammar school in 50 years bolsters elitism
Labour attempted to ban new grammar schools in 1998. The Tories have allowed one in Kent - by labelling it an 'expansion' of an existing school.
29 October 2015
What better way to communicate with adults about pensions than with a multi-million-pound computer-generated soft toy?
29 October 2015
How can we help students excel? In schools up and down the country, teacher training sessions are taking place on 'growth mindset'.
29 October 2015
Townsend Productions presents two critically acclaimed pieces of socialist theatre
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists / United We Stand
29 October 2015
Hull council in aggressive attack on union convenors
Hull City Council, run by Labour, is pre-empting the Tories' trade union bill by issuing a redundancy notice known as a '188 notice' which threatens the council's five full time union convenors.
29 October 2015
For a fighting and democratic Unison general secretary, vote Roger Bannister
Socialist Party member Roger Bannister is standing for election as general secretary of Unison.
29 October 2015
What are the lessons of the 2010 student movement?
Five years ago, Britain's streets erupted in mass student protests. Now, as thousands are again preparing to march in defence of education, the shadow of 2010 looms large.
29 October 2015
The TUC lobby of Parliament on 2 November needs to mark a major change in the fight against the Tory anti-trade union bill.
29 October 2015
Fund the fight for socialism at home and internationally
Can you make a donation to the Socialism 2015 finance appeal? We are aiming to raise £25,000 and set a record total for our annual fighting fund.
29 October 2015
Housing crisis on the agenda for Socialist Party in Reading
Reading and Bracknell Socialist Party held a well-attended public meeting on 21 October on the housing crisis.
29 October 2015
TUSC councillor calls for local Labour to back Corbyn's anti-cuts stance
Warrington TUSC councillor Kevin Bennett has called on the town's Labour-controlled council to back Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity stance and vote against new cuts to council services.
29 October 2015
New film Suffragette is a partial view of working class women's fight for the vote.
29 October 2015
Hinkley deal - no point in nuclear
The recent visit of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping seems to have sealed the deal on the Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor - a deal which is disastrous in every aspect.
29 October 2015
Israeli government fans the flames of conflict
This has been the deadliest month in the national conflict since the war on Gaza in summer 2014.
29 October 2015
High street retail group Monsoon Accessorize was caught paying more than a quarter of its UK store staff below the minimum wage
29 October 2015
On 24 October the homes of several members of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI, Sweden) as well as a party office in Gothenburg were fire bombed
29 October 2015
5,000 junior doctors descended on Newcastle from across the North East on 24 October.
29 October 2015
Sugar tax debate misses real causes of poor diet
After weeks of criticism, Tory health minister Jeremy Hunt released the report 'Sugar reduction: the evidence for action' on 22 October.
29 October 2015
South African student solidarity demo
The power of protest was clear on 23 October. Angry students gave orders to a senior diplomat and prevented the arrest of a peaceful demonstrator.
29 October 2015
Students march in Leeds for free education
Around 100 Leeds students stopped city centre traffic on 24 October as we marched for free education, writes Amy Cousens, Leeds Fight for Free Education.
29 October 2015
Brutal tax credits attack halted for now
Unite to fight divided Tories: Tory plans to cut tax credits have caused uproar, but divisions at the top show the government's weakness
19 Feb Manchester Socialist Party: British Perspectives & our tasks
19 Feb Bristol North Socialist Party: Socialism - Utopian & Scientific
20 Feb Hackney & Islington Socialist Party: The 1978-79 Winter of Discontent
21 Feb Caerphilly Socialist Party: How councils can fight the cuts
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