Archive for April 2008
1 April 2008
France 1968 - Month of revolution
Speaking tour: 10 million French workers on strike May 1968.
1 April 2008
10 million workers occupied the factories. Can it happen today?
France 1968 - month of revolution. Brutal police repression of student demonstrations. Within days, 10 million French workers are on strike.
1 April 2008
France 1968 - month of revolution. Brutal police repression of student demonstrations. Within days, 10 million French workers are on strike. Factories...
2 April 2008
Victory shows campaigning can save out NHS!
YEARS OF battling by health campaigners at Horton Hospital, Banbury, to save maternity and children's services threatened with downgrading, have won the hospital a reprieve...
2 April 2008
Tube workers strike to defend network safety
Bob Crow, rail union RMT general secretary, announced at a press conference on 29 March that RMT and TSSA London Underground members would take 72 hours of continuous strike action from 6:30pm on Sunday 6 April, writes Greg Maughan.
2 April 2008
Shelter staff are still in dispute with management over cuts to pay and conditions...
2 April 2008
USA elections: Break with the two parties of big business!
ON 24 February, Ralph Nader declared he was running for President to challenge the corporate stranglehold over US politics, writes Philip Locker, Socialist Alternative, USA.
2 April 2008
"Halve your expenses and save our post offices"
SAVE OUR Post Offices (SOPO) campaigners have scored a first-stage victory by forcing Gloucestershire county council (GCC) to consider an 'Essex type' rescue plan for the 27 post offices facing closure in the county, writes Chris Moore, Save Our Post Offices campaign.
2 April 2008
Capitalism gambles with our lives
FSA Northern Rock report: WHEN NORTHERN Rock collapsed last year, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) set up an internal review of its regulation of the bank, writes Kevin Parslow.
2 April 2008
Jaguar/Land Rover: Uncertain future for workers
INDIAN CONGLOMERATE Tata has bought Jaguar & Land Rover from Ford for £1.15 billion - half the price Ford originally paid for the businesses, writes Rob Williams, Convenor, Swansea Visteon Plant.
2 April 2008
Editorial: For a 35-hour week with no loss of pay
WITH 2,000 job losses projected out of a total workforce of 6,000 at Northern Rock, together with one third of all jobs in the financial sector going, the shadow of unemployment returns once more to haunt working-class areas...
2 April 2008
Fight back against the Unison witch-hunt!
Four members of Unison who are also Socialist Party members are to face a Unison disciplinary hearing following the distribution of a leaflet at last year's Unison conference, writes Jane James.
2 April 2008
...and publication of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." This ringing battle cry was issued 160 years ago by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto.
2 April 2008
ID cards: No to students being used as guinea pigs!
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently announced plans for ID cards to be introduced on a 'voluntary' basis for certain groups, including students, writes Steve Sweeney, Cambridge Socialist Students.
2 April 2008
Airports: Expanding profits at our expense
TWO HUNDRED flights cancelled in three days, 20,000 bags left behind and a three-hour wait to re-claim baggage on arrival, writes Mark Pickersgill.
2 April 2008
The devastating effects of biofuels
Heavily promoted by Bush and Blair as a carbon neutral alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels are now being questioned over their environmental impact on rain forests and on food supplies...
2 April 2008
Kazakhstan socialist jailed for protesting
AINUR KURMANOV, a well-known leader of Kazakhstan Socialist Resistance, has again been sent to jail for ten days on an administrative charge...
2 April 2008
National Union of Students rejects constitutional changes
IN A welcome development, the National Union of Students has rejected (by 20 votes) a proposed new constitution, which would have slashed democratic representation in the NUS...
2 April 2008
NUJ Members fight attacks on jobs and conditions
National Union of Journalists conference: The problems being faced by journalists at work and possibly within the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) appear to be intensifying. An NUJ member writes.
2 April 2008
In brief: Teachers' union NUT members have voted 3:1 to strike on 24 April over pay. The government are trying to force through a below-inflation pay rise, angering...
2 April 2008
National Shop Stewards Network second conference
Saturday 28 June, 11.30-4.30 Speakers include: Bob Crow RMT, Mark Serwotka PCS, Brian Caton POA, plus shop stewards from disputes around the country. Delegates' fee: £5.
2 April 2008
From Russia: French and Russian master paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg
Review: Henri Matisse's painting The Dance, 1910 adorns tube stations and advertising billboards across London...
2 April 2008
End Labour's 'them and us' society
You could not make it up. Disgraced former Northern Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth will get a payout of £760,000!
8 April 2008
Support the campaign to defend the 4
Defend democracy
Public meeting
Tuesday 15 April 7.30pm
Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London WC1
Lobby of the disciplinary hearing
Show your opposition to these attacks and give support to the four as the hearings begin
Tuesday 22 April 8.30am
Holiday Inn, Regents Park, Carburton Street, London W1 5EE
8 April 2008
London elections: working class alternative needed
On Thursday 1 May, Londoners will be voting for the Mayor of London and Greater London Assembly (GLA). London Socialist Party secretary, Paula Mitchell, explains the political ideas on offer.
8 April 2008
Socialist Party: a clear difference from 'free market' policies
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Lewisham Socialist Party campaigning against health cuts, photo Chris Newby |
Lewisham/Greenwich: LAST MONTH Socialist Party members in Lewisham and Greenwich went on a demonstration against cutbacks at Queen Mary hospital, Sidcup, writes James Kerr, Lewisham Socialist Party.
8 April 2008
Exposing daylight robbery in Lincoln!
AROUND 50 people attended a meeting in Lincoln where Lincolnshire Police Authority tried to justify the increase in their council tax precept by a massive 78.9%, (see The Socialist 526), writes Marc Glasscoe, Socialist Party Lincoln.
8 April 2008
24 April strikes: National Union of Teachers (NUT) members across England and Wales will be joining the first national teachers' strike for twenty years on 24 April, writes Martin Powell-Davies, convenor Socialist Party Teachers.
8 April 2008
Unison health conference: Reject the pay sell-out!
Delegates to the Unison health conference will be meeting from 14-16 April, at a time when the union is consulting on a three-year pay deal...
8 April 2008
Defend the 4: Defend democracy in Unison
Four members of the trade union, Unison, all members of the Socialist Party, are facing disciplinary charges from their union with disciplinary hearings taking place from 22 to 24 April, writes Jane James.
8 April 2008
Zimbabwe: Mugabe plans to steal election
ZIMBABWE'S RULING Zanu-PF party has called for a recount of the votes from the 29 March presidential election - even though the electoral commission has still, after more than one week, to release the figures! Dave Carr writes.
8 April 2008
Olympic Games: Chinese regime fans the flames of protest
PRO-TIBETAN demonstrators disrupted the procession of the Olympic torch through London (above) , last Sunday, despite a huge police and security presence...
8 April 2008
Perks for MPs - Bonuses for the bosses - Cutbacks for us!
LAST WEEK 'Stormin' Gordon' Brown hit the streets of Coventry, strutting around talking about crime, writes Rob Windsor, Coventry Socialist Party councillor.
8 April 2008
UNITE seeks injunction to remove protesting sacked Belfast airport workers from Transport House
Press Release - for immediate use
9 April 2008
Alec Thraves spoke to Darren Williams, campaigns officer for PCS in Wales, on the picket line of the Waterfront Museum in Swansea, on 3 April...
9 April 2008
Journalists met for their union's Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) as the first national newspaper strike in decades took place in Preston and London, writes Christian Bunke, Manchester NUJ.
9 April 2008
Tube strike called off after winning concessions
Rail unions RMT and TSSA have called off their proposed three-day strike on London Underground after winning a number of concessions from management on health and safety issues, writes Reg Johnstone, RMT.
9 April 2008
Winchester: 'We need our post office'
ON 5 April, Socialist Party members gathered near WH Smiths in Winchester in a demonstration showing our disgust at the local post office's move to a cramped space in the back of that shop...
9 April 2008
CIVIL SERVANTS union PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka has called for trade unionists to pile pressure on the Labour government later this month, writes Rob Rooney.
9 April 2008
Why should workers pay for the crisis?
JCB is the world's third largest manufacturer of earthmovers and other machines for the construction and agriculture industry, writes A JCB worker.
9 April 2008
Portsmouth Activists Academy: This academic year has seen students protesting against fees around the country on 21 February, against anti-democratic attacks on students in Nottingham and Sussex, against privatisation of services in Exeter, saying no to m...
9 April 2008
NUS conference report: Newly elected National Union of Students (NUS) president Wes Streeting, claims students will lose influence on the government if they protest and demand free education, writes Matt Dobson.
9 April 2008
Israel - Palestinian Land Day demonstration
ON 30 March, Palestinians commemorate Land Day by holding protest rallies and demonstrations all over the world, writes Maavak Sozialisti reporters,.
9 April 2008
Ireland: \"The most cunning and devious of them all\" finally goes
AFTER 11 years as Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern has announced his resignation for 6 May this year, writes Paul Murphy.
16 April 2008
Birmingham council have imposed a new pay and grading system onto their 40,000-strong workforce, under the guise of the 'single status' scheme, writes Dave Griffiths, West Midlands Socialist Party.
16 April 2008
Editorial: 24 April strikes: step forward in pay battle
THE NATIONAL Union of Teachers (NUT) was the first public-sector union to decide to take strike action on Thursday 24 April over the government's pay limit policy, and now nearly 400,000 public-sector workers are due to strike...
16 April 2008
Global food prices: anger erupts in mass protests
HUNGER AND malnutrition are getting far worse due to rising food prices. Even those fortresses of global capitalism, the World Bank and the International, writes Jon Dale and Jan Rybak.
16 April 2008
A FOOD crisis is developing in Britain, though obviously not so severe as the impending catastrophe in the world's poorest countries...
16 April 2008
Italian election: new Berlusconi victory will provoke mass opposition
The election in Italy, which came after just 20 months of a weak centre-left government under Romano Prodi, has seen a 'comfortable' victory for Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party...
16 April 2008
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: why all the controversy?
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill going through parliament at the moment is causing controversy...
16 April 2008
Rising class struggles across Europe
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French workers demonstrate in 2003, photo Paul Mattsson |
16 April 2008
France 1968: 10 million workers occupied factories
Can it happen today? Speaking tour details: Virginie is a member of Gauche Révolutionnaire (CWI France). She is a socialist activist and is a trade union representative.
16 April 2008
France 1968: month of revolution by Clare Doyle
With a new introduction. Originally published in 1988. Brutal police repression of student demonstrations. Within days, 10 million French workers were on strike. Socialist Books, PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD, www.socialistbooks.co.uk
or ring 020 8988 8789.
16 April 2008
Portsmouth Activists Academy day of debate
On Saturday 12 April, Portsmouth students union, aided by Socialist Students members, held its inaugural Activist Academy, which brought together around 30 campaigners during the course of the day from groups across the south. Will Schafer-Peek, Southampton Socialist Students reports.
16 April 2008
The radical life of Martin Luther King
THIS YEAR marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, who was assassinated on 4 April 1968 while supporting striking Memphis sanitation workers. Will Soto, from Socialist Alternative in the USA, writes.
16 April 2008
Unison witch-hunt: Defend 'the four'
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Onay Kasab, photo Paul Mattsson |
Greenwich Unison branch secretary Onay Kasab is one of four Unison officers currently facing a disciplinary hearing as part of a witch hunt being carried out by the union bureaucracy, writes Susan Wilson.
16 April 2008
Unison elections: Workers are facing a concerted onslaught on their pay, terms and conditions by health trusts, local authorities and Gordon Brown's Labour government...
16 April 2008
National Shop Stewards Network
South Camden Community School, Charrington Street, London (near Kings Cross/Euston stations), writes Speakers include: Bob Crow RMT, Mark Serwotka PCS, Brian Caton POA, plus shop stewards from disputes around the country..
16 April 2008
Re-elect a fighting PCS leadership
The elections for the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union have just started, writes Katrine Williams, PCS Wales chair, personal capacity.
16 April 2008
Lecturers join 24 April strike; Shelter staff vote to strike again; Belfast Airport workers win concessions
16 April 2008
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Lynn Worthington (left), photo Alison Hill |
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE election canvassers are being well received on the doorsteps in Wythenshawe in Manchester, writes Lynn Worthington, Socialist Alternative candidate for Baguley ward, Manchester.
16 April 2008
Health campaigners fight council cuts
Huddersfield: THE SOCIALIST Party in Huddersfield is now deep into its third straight year of election campaigning, writes A Huddersfield Socialist Party member.
16 April 2008
Standing up for socialism: candidate list
Where SOCIALIST PARTY members are standing in local council and Greater London Assembly elections on Thursday 1 May
16 April 2008
Campaign for a New Workers Party - conference 2008
Sunday 29 June 10am - 5pm. South Camden Community School, Charrington Street, London NW1 (nearest Rail/Tube stations - Kings Cross/St Pancras, Euston, Mornington Crescent)
16 April 2008
Housing crisis: Britain's house of cards
AS THE US economy moves sharply downwards, the threat of a crash in the British housing market is becoming ever more real, writes Marc Glasscoe, Socialist Party Lincoln.
16 April 2008
Tax attack hits low paid workers
GORDON BROWN and New Labour are carrying out daylight robbery against the lowest paid workers, writes Tom Penman, CWU member and call centre worker, Dundee.
16 April 2008
Water 'regulators' hide real prices
ONE OF the many myths about privatisation is that privatised industries are 'regulated' to stop them carrying out anti-social activities...
16 April 2008
'We're striking against low pay'
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Birmingham council workers strike on 5 February 2008. PCS and teachers will join them on 24 April. Photo S O'Neill |
On 24 April almost half a million public-sector workers will strike a blow against the government's policy of public-sector pay restraint, writes Jane Aitchison, civil service union PCS, Department for Work and Pensions group president, personal capacity.
22 April 2008
Editorial: Brown's government lurching from pillar to post
Over £50 billion is being handed to fat cat bankers while five million low-paid workers are losing out from the abolition of the 10p tax band...
22 April 2008
Zimbabwe: Workers' strength stops arms shipment
WITH SOUTH Africa's ANC (African National Congress) government split over its attitude towards the Mugabe regime in neighbouring Zimbabwe, South African trade unionists used their strength decisively to act against the regim, writes Keith Dickinson.
22 April 2008
TEACHERS ACROSS England and Wales are out on the streets on 24 April, many on strike for the first time in their lives, writes Linda Taaffe, Waltham Forest NUT.
23 April 2008
"Socialist councillors are the only ones who've ever stood up for this area and taken the time to listen to us, I'll definitely be voting for Dave" - this was typical of the responses received by Socialist Party supporter, writes Richard Groves, Coventry West Socialist Party.
23 April 2008
Shelter workers escalate action
SHELTER MANAGEMENT'S recent derisory offer to its workforce has got the answer it deserved. A Shelter worker writes.
23 April 2008
I'M ON strike on 24 April with hundreds of thousands of other workers across the public sector, writes By a DWP worker.
23 April 2008
Oil workers to strike back at pensions threat
Grangemouth refinery: FUEL STRIKE 'will bleed pumps dry' and 'Panic at the pumps,' were some of the sensation-seeking headlines in Scotland's newspapers on 20 April, writes Philip Stott, Dundee.
23 April 2008
Why drug firms should be nationalised
Seroxat scandal: IN MAY 2003, Britain's biggest drug company Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK) handed a document to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), writes Alan Manley, nurse and Unison member Dundee.
23 April 2008
Jersey - Growing anger against elite of secrets
GARY MATTHEWS, who was a Jersey Left Green MP from 1993-96, spoke to Jon Dale. Now living in Derbyshire, Gary is still active in the Time for Change group on Jersey, which has a founding conference on 27 April.
23 April 2008
How can we defeat the far right?
The far-right, racist British National Party (BNP) is hoping to gain a seat on the Greater London Assembly on 1 May, as well as more councillors round the country. The Socialist outlines Socialist answers to the far-right.
23 April 2008
Campaign to unionise migrant workers
Usdaw conference: HOW DO we recruit migrant workers into the trade unions? Their recruitment is a major challenge facing the unions today. An Usdaw member writes.
23 April 2008
'The Conscience of a Liberal' by Paul Krugman
Reviewed by Peter Taaffe: As the pace of the intractable crisis of world capitalism speeds up and deepens, so the frantic rush to find solutions gathers pace...
23 April 2008
Italy: Left leaders opened way for Berlusconi victory
A victory for the right led by Silvio Berlusconi and an electoral 'bloodbath' for the Sinistra arcobaleno (Rainbow Left). Christine Thomas, Lotta, cwi Italy, writes.
23 April 2008
Gloucester says... 'save our post offices'
ON 19 April a Save Our Post Offices (SOPO) rally in Gloucester's shopping centre attracted 50 local campaigners...
23 April 2008
The rich get richer... and we foot the bill!
Tax cuts for the rich: Big business has received a corporation tax cut from 30p to 28p this month, down from 33p when New Labour was elected in 1997...
23 April 2008
28 April 2008
Shelter workers step up strike action - update
A Shelter worker: Last Thursday and Friday, Shelter workers in England and Scotland once again showed their determination by striking to defeat management attacks on their terms and conditions...
29 April 2008
Grangemouth oil refinery strike
At 6am on 27 April the night shift at Grangemouth oil refinery walked out on strike, writes Ian Leech.
29 April 2008
A week of strikes shakes government
Editorial: The strike on 24 April by hundreds of thousands of teachers, civil servants and college lecturers shook the government...
30 April 2008
At the Child Support Agency site in Hastings, managers have given staff member Frank Swaine (aka Swayne) permission to stand for the BNP in the local elections, writes A CSA worker.
30 April 2008
The four Unison members under attack from their own union leaders have now had their disciplinary hearings postponed...
30 April 2008
Corus Trostre, further job losses
At the Corus steel plant in Trostre, Llanelli, a further 300 jobs will be lost due to a claimed 'global overcapacity'...
30 April 2008
Lincoln rejects insulting pay offer
With bills rising, council tax hikes and petrol going through the roof it's little wonder that council workers in Lincoln feel as if they are getting poorer, writes Marc Glasscoe, branch secretary, Lincoln City Unison, personal capacity.
30 April 2008
Bolivia - right-wing coup threat
BOLIVIA IS awash with rumours about an impending right-wing coup against the elected government of president Evo Morales, writes Karl Debbaut.
30 April 2008
Tales from the council chambers: PROTESTS CAN change things - but are even more effective when there are socialist councillors to direct public pressure onto the establishment parties, writes Clive Heemskerk.
30 April 2008
Socialist councillors back teachers
LEWISHAM'S COUNCIL meeting was on the eve of the teachers' strike. The Socialist Party councillors proposed a motion, arguing that education was threatened...
30 April 2008
"Why I am standing against Labour"
PHIL JORDAN, South West Regional chair of the FBU (Fire Brigades Union) and Gloucester trades council president, is standing in Tuffley for the Gloucester city elections on 1 May as an independent...
30 April 2008
Manchester University: At 4pm on Tuesday 22 April, around 300 University of Manchester students gathered for a campus demonstration to express their anger at the way the university is run, writes Abby Taylor, Manchester University Socialist Students.
30 April 2008
Fighting the far right: ON A wet Sunday afternoon tens of thousands of people turned out for the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival (LMHR) in east London's Victoria Park...
30 April 2008
ON 26 April, for the third time within a few weeks, Nazis demonstrated in Stolberg, near Aachen...
30 April 2008
Stop PFI pirates wrecking our NHS
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Coventry Councillor Dave Nellist on NHS demonstration 1st November 2006, photo Paul Mattsson |
30 April 2008
Public sector strike shows fightback has begun!
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Teachers on strike on 24 April 2008 in Lewisham, photo Martin Powell-Davies |
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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