Archive for December 2016
1 December 2016
Protest against Glasgow Labour's scab workforce plan to defeat Unison strike
An appeal for solidarity with strike action
7 December 2016
No more concessions to Labour right!
Fight for an anti-austerity, socialist party - readmit expelled socialists: In recent weeks the strategy of the pro-capitalist Blairites - to surround Jeremy Corbyn and gradually strangle him - has clearly been stepped up
7 December 2016
An admin error robbed thousands of families with disabled kids of up to £4,400 a year
7 December 2016
Hundreds protest the decimation of Devon NHS
Hundreds protested in the centre of Exeter on 3 December against the decimation and degrading of Devon's NHS. Coming from all points of the compass and forming 'red lines' of marchers from different parts of the city, they cheered and clapped speakers from the community and the labour and trade union movement.
7 December 2016
Massive support in Stoke for action to save the NHS
We sold 100 copies of the Socialist on our campaign stall in Hanley in just three hours on 26 November. We were building support for the 4 March 2017 national march to defend our NHS from privatisation.
7 December 2016
Health campaigners in Yorkshire protest "slash and trash plans"
"Slash and trash plans" is how campaigners from Health Campaigns Together renamed the government's Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs), the latest vehicle for cuts to the NHS.
7 December 2016
"A tsunami of opposition to the establishment has travelled the world." This description was used by a BBC presenter after the referendum result in Italy on 4 December that forced out their prime minister, Renzi.
7 December 2016
Slump in unfair dismissal cases - scrap tribunal fees!
Workers took 73% less unfair dismissal cases to employment tribunal last year than before the government introduced fees.
7 December 2016
Workers can fight Uber-style care
A new, Uber-style care service has been launched in Britain.
7 December 2016
It's one world for the super-rich, and another one for the rest of us featuring banking warnings and Tesco toffs
7 December 2016
Victory at Standing Rock: US authorities agree to re-route oil pipeline
US authorities (subject to possible appeal) have agreed to abandon the planned oil pipeline through Standing Rock, North Dakota, after a months-long standoff between protesters and armed police.
7 December 2016
Spain: Government forced back by Student Union mobilisations
Just days after the last general strike that was called by the Sindicato de Estudiantes against the "Revalidas Fanquistas" (introduction of matriculation), we have been proved correct in what we always said - struggle works.
7 December 2016
Portugal: No to witch-hunts - fight the capitalists not socialists
Socialismo Revolucionįrio (SR - CWI in Portugal) is being targeted by the leadership of the Left Bloc, with threats of expulsions and exclusions. An Inquiry Committee has been opened against our members.
7 December 2016
Austria: Far right temporarily halted
Austria's far-right Freedom Party presidential candidate Norbert Hofer failed to win the re-run election against former Green leader Alexander Van der Bellen.
7 December 2016
Sudan: General strike in defiance of regime
A three-day strike between 27-29 November shook the regime in Sudan. According to reports from activists and supporters of the CWI in Sudan, universities, schools, market places, public transport and many private businesses, cafes, shops and restaurants were closed.
7 December 2016
Crossrail action in defence of victimised union rep
In response to a campaign by Unite to demand a second tier productivity bonus for electricians on Crossrail in London, which included an unofficial walkout on 25 November, notorious blacklisters Laing O'Rourke/Crown House has issued the Unite rep on the site a transfer to another job off the project.
7 December 2016
Unison members barely earning the living wage in some universities
As terms and conditions throughout the UK are being chipped away, incomes are tightening and security in the workplace is in jeopardy, Unison members voted in September to decide whether or not to strike over the 1.1% pay offer that was made to most members.
7 December 2016
Sacked bakers' union rep Kumaran Bose calls for living wage 'protection'
On 6 December, Kumaran Bose will be meeting a number of MPs (including shadow ministers) to discuss his recent sacking by Samworth Brothers, a company known for its famous household brands, such as Ginsters and Soreen.
7 December 2016
Short reports on some of the latest trade union struggles including Paul Reilly elected to the RMT EC and the introduction of the Trade Union Act.
7 December 2016
Reading TUSC writes to Labour councillors to demand cuts fight
The following letter was sent to councillors by Neil Adams from Reading Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) to raise questions related to proposed budget cuts to local services.
7 December 2016
Newham council to sack up to 1,300
The all-Labour council in Newham, east London, is threatening to sack up to 1,300 of its workforce.
7 December 2016
Obituary: John Sharpe: 1953-2016
John died of heart disease very suddenly, at a too early age.
7 December 2016
TAs force Labour to suspend pay cuts
Durham teaching assistants have won a significant battle in their campaign against pay cuts
7 December 2016
Bolton council gives £300k to solicitors while making swingeing cuts
Bolton Socialist Party is backing mounting calls for the leader of the Labour council, Cliff Morris, to resign over the use of emergency powers to hand over £300,000 to an ambulance chasing solicitor, Asons.
7 December 2016
Conservatives humiliated in Richmond
Zac Goldsmith's humiliating defeat in the Richmond Park byelection was equally a defeat for Theresa May and the Tories. Her already weak government has seen its majority cut to 13.
7 December 2016
Food banks and the real Daniel Blakes
Hundreds of thousands of people are surviving and feeding themselves by using foodbanks in Britain today
7 December 2016
Italy: Establishment routed - workers alternative needed
In January 2014, on the day that Matteo Renzi took office, Contro Corrente wrote that it was the beginning of the end for him
7 December 2016
The Tory plan to privatise the NHS via the back door has given way to smashing in via the main entrance. Their next attack is NHS England's shadowy 'STPs'. Under these, the government aims to make a further £22 billion of NHS cuts by 2020
8 December 2016
Victory for UPS parcel workers
Unite the Union members at UPS Parcels in Camden have won a long-running battle against bullying and racism.
9 December 2016
Nationalise Tata Steel to save jobs and pensions
Tata Steel and steel union leaders have announced an agreement. However, it comes with a poisonous sting in the tail.
12 December 2016
Bin workers strike against draconian management
130 Doncaster waste transfer workers struck on 12 December over a 'draconian' management style and the victimisation and sacking of two colleagues.
14 December 2016
Derby TAs to strike against pay cut
Derby teaching assistants are to take a further six days of strike action in their dispute with the Labour-led city council. The TAs have already taken several days of strike action over massive cuts to pay.
14 December 2016
It's the bumper Socialist 2016 quiz!
Here's the editors' test of our readers' knowledge. All the questions are themed from articles which appeared in the Socialist this year. You don't have to resort to using a search engine - the answers are below!
14 December 2016
Labour: Corbyn supporters need not apply
Birmingham Labour Party is reported to be excluding members who joined on or after July 2015 from selecting Labour candidates for the 2018 elections.
14 December 2016
Letters to the Socialist's editors. Scrooge bosses; local lotteries; liberal confusion.
14 December 2016
Scrooge Tory council confronted over treatment of homeless
While Medway council celebrates Dickens, poverty and homelessness go unnoticed - with an estimated 200 people sleeping roug,h and many more 'sofa surfing'.
14 December 2016
Doncaster: cuts give rise to 'tent city'
Homelessness in the UK has reached epidemic proportions. Homelessness in Doncaster is no worse than other towns but a few enterprising folk have set up a tent city to protect the town's homeless.
14 December 2016
The Socialist Party and fighting women's oppression
Following the Leicester Reclaim the Night march, the local Socialist Party invited the University of Leicester Feminist Society to speak at a meeting on rape and sexual violence. The society declined and said some "FemSoc committee and members... felt that the [Socialist Party] were trying to take over women's issues with socialism."
14 December 2016
Pfizer drug extortion - nationalise big pharma!
Drugs company Pfizer has been fined a record £84.2 million for excessive and unfair pricing of an anti-epilepsy drug. The choice is simple: cheap, high-quality, nationalised drug manufacturing - or a system that continues to allow corporate raiding of the NHS.
14 December 2016
No to home seizures for care bills
Councils may start seizing the homes of elderly people after death to pay care bills. Ministers are also considering letting local authorities charge more council tax to cover them. Councils should instead fight for more funding, and for care to be nationalised.
14 December 2016
Amazon workers living in tents
In the latest shocking revelations about online retail giant Amazon, accused of "intolerable working conditions," workers were apparently found sleeping in tents near its Glasgow depot.
14 December 2016
Trust in politicians reaches all-time low
According to this year's 'veracity' survey from polling agency Ipsos Mori, faith in British politicians to tell the truth is lower than ever before.
14 December 2016
It's one wold for the super-rich and another for the rest of us. What might the super-rich pick up as stocking fillers this Christmas? Meanwhile, child homelessness and in-work poverty continue to rise.
14 December 2016
End the Tories' war on the working poor
55% of poor people now live in working households - for the first time on record.
14 December 2016
Teacher trade unionists have been engaged in a bitter struggle to defend education. As socialists, though, we don't simply see our role as a defensive one, but to offer a way out of the chaos: a socialist education programme.
14 December 2016
Education for all - not exam factories
It is without doubt that our children are the most tested in the world.
14 December 2016
Southern: back the strike, nationalise the railways!
Members of train drivers' unions Aslef and RMT are taking three days of strike action on Southern Rail on 13, 14 and 16 December in the long-running dispute over the removal of guards.
14 December 2016
Establishment EU crisis deepens - fight for a socialist Brexit
Corbyn's Labour has to push for a working class alternative in the move towards Brexit.
14 December 2016
CWI: opportunities for substantial growth
90 CWI members and co-thinkers from over 35 countries attended an inspiring meeting
14 December 2016
NHS crisis: we're fighting back!
Health workers are bracing themselves for a winter crisis. A tipping point has been reached in recent years. Is it any wonder that around the country a mood of anger and rebellion is rapidly developing?
14 December 2016
Glasgow Labour leaders deluged with protests
The attempted scabbing operation by Glasgow Labour council in an effort to undermine Unison's strike action against privatisation of ICT services has been pushed back.
14 December 2016
The political tremors of 2016 stretched into music with multiple deaths of well-loved figures. But there was a wonderful array of new music in 2016.
15 December 2016
Picket against coal project in Bangladesh
Socialist Party members joined a picket protest outside the annual general meeting (AGM) of Global Coal Management Resources (GCM), on 15 December near Hyde Park Corner
15 December 2016
Solidarity with Athens bus cleaners!
Athens bus cleaners are once again out in struggle.
16 December 2016
Post Office workers striking against cuts
Up to 3,500 Communication Workers Union members across 300 Post Offices took five days of strike action over Christmas.
16 December 2016
Unite election - fight the Blairites, vote Len McCluskey
The Unite general secretary election has been brought forward. The Socialist Party is supporting Len McCluskey. Under his leadership, the union has taken a more militant stance.
19 December 2016
Letter from blacklisted construction workers
We the undersigned, are writing this open letter in the spirit of fraternal debate amongst members of the newly merged UCATT/UNITE construction union
19 December 2016
CWU members strike against post office closures and pension cuts
Striking workers were in an angry mood outside St John's Centre Post Office in Leeds
19 December 2016
It's clear from the off that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a spin-off from the main saga, is a little bit different. The whole scenario is an allegory for American imperialism and intervention in the Middle East, and the insurgency it has created.
19 December 2016
Support mounts for Picturehouse strikers
The young workers at the Picturehouse cinema in Hackney struck over the launch of the new Star Wars film, 'Rogue One'.
19 December 2016
Fifth anniversary of Zhanaozen massacre
The anniversary on Friday 16th December of the Zhanaozen massacre in Kazakhstan in 2011 was marked around the world by protests to embassies and within Kazakhstan itself by groups of activists coming onto the squares and being surrounded by anxious police
20 December 2016
Fire service cuts: "a betrayal of the people of Spelthorne"
Such was the feeling of the 40+ people gathered in the Staines Hub
20 December 2016
Defending Xmas strikes: NSSN on Sky News
Chair of the National Shop Stewards Network, Rob Williams, was interviewed on Sky News
20 December 2016
NSSN proud to support Christmas strikes
In preparation for the strikes this week, the NSSN has been attacked by the media from the BBC to the Sunday Times and Daily Mail
22 December 2016
Why prison officers rejected pay and pensions deal
A prison officer explains the truth surrounding the deal. The guaranteed three year pay deal of 0.5-1% a year is a fallacy: neither the government or the national offender management service have the power to implement this.
22 December 2016
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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