Archive for December 2001

7 December 2001

Save The NHS: No to private sector vultures

DID YOU vote Labour at the general election in June? Would you back them again now? A new opinion poll by the GMB union says that half of those voters who supported New Labour then won't do so again unless...

7 December 2001

Afghanistan - A future of conflict and instability

Capitalism Offers No Solution: ON THE same weekend that un-elected, unrepresentative delegates were meeting in Bonn to try and stitch up a political settlement for Afghanistan, US bombs slaughtered up to 300 Afghan civilians...

7 December 2001

Brown's Budget Won't End NHS Underfunding

GORDON BROWN'S budget promise of £1 billion more for the NHS next year seems at first glance to be a positive move in improving a desperately under-funded health service, writes Jackie Grunsell.

7 December 2001

Private finance initiative: Why Our MP Changed His Mind

WAKEFIELD SOCIALIST Party has been campaigning for six years against PFI in the new Wakefield hospital development and in the NHS nationally, writes Mick Griffiths, Wakefield and Pontefract Hospitals UNISON and Wakefield Socialist Party.

7 December 2001

March Against The Bosses' EU: Fight for socialism

Tens of thousands of people will be marching in Brussels on 14 December against poverty and cuts, and against the war in Afghanistan...

7 December 2001

Socialist Alliance conference setback

THE SOCIALIST Alliance (SA) conference on 1 December was a setback for socialist unity. With a narrow overall majority, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and a handful of allies pushed through a new constitution...

7 December 2001

Global Crisis: Fight for a socialist world

War, terror, recession, poverty... NOOR MOHAMMED, aged ten, lies fighting for his life in an ill-equipped Afghan hospital. Agham, the village where he lived in Eastern Afghanistan, was reduced to rubble at the weekend by US B52 bombers.

7 December 2001

Building The Forces Of International Socialism

THE Executive Committee of the CWI (Committee for a Workers' International - the international socialist organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) recently met in Belgium...

14 December 2001

Hands Off The Health Service!

CRITICAL REPORTS about Coventry's hospitals have piled up relentlessly almost daily the local press reveals yet another failure, writes Karen McKay, Socialist Party councillor, Coventry city council.

14 December 2001

No To The Bosses' EU

THE BIGGEST currency union in history will become a reality when the euro is introduced into 12 European states on 1 January 2002, writes Manny Thain.

14 December 2001

Imperialism - Wars Without End

SOCIALISTS SAY that the world's mightiest power, the USA, has been fighting a war in Afghanistan to defend imperialist interests...

14 December 2001

Tory Cuts But Better Packaging

NEW LABOUR wants an American-style welfare system in this country. In some ways although they are continuing the Tory cuts they are more astute at packaging the attacks than the Tories, writes Katrine Williams, Cardiff.

14 December 2001

Fight for socialism

Build The Resistance: ON 13 and 14 December thousands of young people and workers will be marching on the streets of Brussels, writes Samuel.

14 December 2001

New Labour's attacks on the benefits system: Workers Fight For Safety

THE HEALTH and safety dispute in Benefits Agency and Employment Service escalates this week with national strike action on 12 and 13 December, writes A PCS member.

14 December 2001

International Socialist Resistance

INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST Resistance (ISR) is a new youth organisation which has been initiated by Socialist Party members in England and Wales...

14 December 2001

Homeless Headcount Farce

IT'S CHRISTMAS so once again well-heeled politicians are scrambling for that photo opportunity with the homeless, writes Steve Nally, London homelessness worker.

14 December 2001

Fight Housing Privatisation

WALTHAM FOREST council in east London have been promoting the transfer of the whole council housing stock (at present 13,44l properties) to an 'arms-length' company or to a housing association, not even discussing the option of staying with the council, writes Louise Thompson, chair of Waltham Forest Council Tenants' Panel and chair of the Investment Working Group.

14 December 2001

Racist Blunkett Blames The Victims

HOME SECRETARY David Blunkett has turned aside from devising new draconian "anti-terrorist laws" to making crass, racist comments about Britain's ethnic minorities...

14 December 2001

War in Afghanistan leaves conflict and chaos

"VICTORY TODAY can look a lot like defeat tomorrow". This quote from Time magazine (3 December) aptly sums up the situation in Afghanistan. Tony Blair has said that the "future is bright"; that the...