Archive for February 2019
1 February 2019
Chris Baugh condemns Universal Credit social catastrophe
On Thursday 24th January, a public meeting by Stop & Scrap Universal Credit Haringey (SSUCH) was attended by about 100 people
3 February 2019
Imminent eviction sparks urgent defence campaign
A social housing landlord initiated proceedings against a single mother
5 February 2019
'Shac' campaign fights for housing
On a freezing wet evening, an impressive range of tenant and resident activists met at a Social Housing Action Campaign (Shac) open meeting on 29 January
6 February 2019
Billionaires avoid paying and even talking about tax! Take the wealth off the 1%
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman went viral by putting the cat among the pigeons at billionaires get together Davos in Switzerland recently
6 February 2019
United States: strike ends federal shutdown
Unofficial action by airport workers has forced Donald Trump to end the longest unpaid 'furlough' of government employees in history
6 February 2019
Tory Brexit farce, Corbyn and unions: Call mass action now
For all those of us living in the real world, the pantomime season is long since over. But, as the Tory Brexit crisis plays itself out daily in parliament, it can just seem like a toffs' slanging match stuck on a loop.
6 February 2019
Struggling unis account for bulk of unconditional offers - end education marketisation!
It has been revealed that 20 universities are responsible for the massive spike in unconditional offers to students.
6 February 2019
Lords and the homeless - its one world for the super-rich and another for the rest of us
6 February 2019
Worcestershire: save the libraries, reverse all the cuts
Worcestershire's Tory county council wants to close nine community libraries, and sack workers and reduce opening hours in at least six others. We say no! Enough is enough!
6 February 2019
40 years since the Iranian revolution: Learning the lessons for today's new working-class struggles
Forty years ago a great revolution against a dictatorial monarchy was in progress in Iran. Recalling those days still inspires us: scenes of comradeship despite the shortages due to long days of nationwide strikes, initiatives by ordinary people to run their communities and workplaces
6 February 2019
Film: Vice - Dick Cheney - a cold and calculating opportunist
"So?" is Dick Che-ney's response to the fact that two-thirds of Americans said the 2003 Iraq war was not worth fighting. 'Vice' closes with this.
6 February 2019
Letters to the Socialist's editors including probation service failures and Venezuela.
6 February 2019
Cash-starved health service ripped off by big pharma - fund our NHS now!
The NHS has been priced out of buying a life-saving drug by pharmaceutical company Vertex. The cystic fibrosis drug, which can extend the life of children, costs £105,000 a year - a price which the NHS says is "unaffordable".
6 February 2019
United States: LA teachers' strike defeats privatisers
After a six-day strike, the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union ratified a new contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District in California on 22 January.
6 February 2019
France gilets jaunes' backed by mass strike action
The 'gilets jaunes' (yellow vests) movement in France is by no means over. Saturday 2 February saw 'Act 13' of the series of weekend demonstrations, swelled by anger at the blinding by rubber bullets of gilets jaunes protesters including a prominent member of the movement, Jerome Rodrigues.
6 February 2019
Sweden: dock strikes test new government
Dock workers in Sweden are striking for their trade union rights. The employers have closed down their union offices and stopped recognising elected representatives of their main union.
6 February 2019
Unison: Democracy and the right to speak out are under threat
Three members of public sector union Unison's national executive council (NEC), including two Socialist Party supporters, have received a letter from the union stating that there have been complaints made that they "breached collective responsibility" at the NEC meeting on 6 December and that they are now under investigation.
6 February 2019
'Stansted 15' deportation protesters could face jail
At the time of going to press, 15 young people will be anxiously facing the judge at Chelmsford Crown Court, waiting to be sentenced. Many fear it will be jail.
6 February 2019
College lecturers strike for a pay rise
Reports of college strikes around the country for better pay.
6 February 2019
Traffic wardens' strike is just the ticket
London traffic warden strikes for better pay.
6 February 2019
Historic strike of nurses in Ireland
Nearly 40,000 nurses and other health workers in Ireland started a 24-hour strike on 30 January to demand a pay rise. Their union, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, has more strike days planned in February.
6 February 2019
Backing for the Birmingham homecarers
Birmingham's homecare workers could lose up to £4,100 if the Labour council cuts their hours. Over 80 people attended the Trade Union Congress solidarity rally for the striking workers on 29 January.
6 February 2019
New pamphlet: 1919 - Red Flag over the Clyde
On 31 January 1919, tens of thousands of workers gathered in Glasgow as their struggle for a 40-hour week came to a climax
6 February 2019
Theatre: Ballad of Johnny Longstaff
Three times BBC Radio 2 folk award winners, The Young'uns began their Ballad of Johnny Longstaff tour at Hull University on 28 January and Hull Socialist Party branch was there to see it.
6 February 2019
Sheffield tree campaigners' legal win
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has ruled that seven Sheffield Trees Action Group campaigners were wrongly arrested in 2016 and 2017.
6 February 2019
University and College Union elections
16 further education colleges just took strike action over pay and conditions. In higher education, we are fighting to beat the Tories' anti-union laws in the equality and pay ballot.
6 February 2019
North West Socialist Party conference
The Socialist Party's North West region held a very successful conference on Saturday 2 February, with nearly 50 members attending from across the region
6 February 2019
Socialist Party no-cuts stand finds support
It has been a busy week campaigning in Coxford ward in Southampton.
6 February 2019
Campaign for Chris Baugh for AGS
Chris has widespread support from lay reps and members.
6 February 2019
Celebrating Robert Burns 1759-1796
For the 7th year running Carlisle Socialist Party held a very successful Alternative Burns Night
6 February 2019
Victory! Campaign reverses fire cuts
After sustained pressure the fire authority axed its plans to reduce fire cover
6 February 2019
'Corbyn council' must fight borough regeneration
Haringey's 'Corbyn council' is becoming increasingly similar to its Blairite predecessor.
6 February 2019
Corbyn must prepare for a general election
Remove the pro-capitalist saboteurs - fight for the socialist alternative!
Talk of a split from the Labour Party by some Blairite Remainer MPs has increased
7 February 2019
Mass pressure wins light sentence for 'Stansted 15'
The workers' movement must not let this attempt to intimidate protesters set a precedent
13 February 2019
Corbyn must launch struggle to kick out Blairites and fight for socialist policies
photo rwendland/CC
Labour right plotters must go: Getting rid of this rotten Tory government is not the priority for the Blairites
13 February 2019
Universal Credit out - Tories out!
Corbyn should call on Labour councils to set no-cuts budgets now to protect working-class people from the effects of Universal Credit
13 February 2019
Marx memorial attack shows socialist ideas are on the rise
The real answer to poverty, division and despair is a new society based on public ownership and democratic socialist planning of resources
13 February 2019
Victory to Birmingham bin workers
Deselect the Blairites! Bin strikers have caough Brum council red-handed at blacklisting
13 February 2019
Heroic RMT guards beat back Northern rail in fight against dangerous driver-only operation
47 days of determined industrial action have won a significant breakthrough
13 February 2019
Fight for a socialist-led PCS - fight to win the national pay campaign
The strike ballot's key demand is a 10% pay rise -and we need a socialist leadership to deliver it
13 February 2019
Glasgow: nationalise the threatened 'Caley' railway depot
Over 200 skilled jobs are threatened by the possible closure of the St Rollox 'Caley' historic railway yard in Springburn
13 February 2019
Leicester college workers refuse to accept cut in terms and conditions
"Management has attempted to appeal directly to staff rather than negotiating with elected workplace representatives"
13 February 2019
Enfield: striking against academisation - fighting for a no-cuts budget
Big picket lines, lots of support from parents, lots of solidarity visits from other trade unionists - four days of action
13 February 2019
Workplace and union news in brief
Glasgow strike victory; Bradford bus victory; union action in Hackney; oil tanker strike; Irish nurses strike; home care doorstepping; Woolwich ferry walkout
13 February 2019
Southampton: Labour plans £15m cuts - vote Socialist in Coxford by-election
We want our £136 million stolen by the government back, and the council must link up with the unions to mobilise a fight for it
13 February 2019
Newham: women's refuge funds halved - Labour must use the £500m reserves
We call on Rokhsana Fiaz to set a real "people's budget" - one which uses reserves and borrowing to end austerity
13 February 2019
Arrest Brigadier Fernando - defend the right to protest
Tamil Solidarity and Socialist Party members will be protesting again outside the court - join us
13 February 2019
Why I joined: "why is their life so different from mine?"
Why can't we have this for everyone? Why do some people have more than others, and why is their life so different from mine?
13 February 2019
300 turn out for Corbyn in Nottingham marginal
The meeting was friendly, and we sold 19 copies of the Socialist
13 February 2019
Liverpool: 200 march to commemorate Robert Tressell
The event remembered the celebrated author of 'The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists'
13 February 2019
'Spot' conference opposes authoritarianism in Turkey
London Socialist Party members participated in the annual 'Solidarity with the People of Turkey' conference
13 February 2019
'Green Book' film: a timely reminder of racism in the USA
It's been called a buddy/road trip film in the tradition of 'Driving Miss Daisy' - it is much more than that and yet, perhaps, less than it could be
13 February 2019
'Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor': comedy and tragedy judiciously mixed
Non-fiction: 'This is Going to Hurt': Adam Kay defends the NHS against the privatisers and he does it in a witty and engaging way
13 February 2019
Do you have something to say? Letters to the Socialist's editors. Democracy and trains.
13 February 2019
To end climate change we need to fight for socialist change!
15 February youth strike for climate: We welcome this youth strike - mass collective action is what is required
13 February 2019
France: striking workers confront Macron
photo Aeroceanaute/CC
The gilets jaunes have awoken, on the part of millions, a deep will to revolt - even to make a revolution
13 February 2019
Ten years since Lindsey strike: when militant action stopped the 'race to the bottom'
On the basis of class struggle, workers democratically negotiated solutions to supposedly conflicting interests
15 February 2019
For a Catalan republic of workers and the people
The trial against political prisoners accused of organising the 1 October referendum once again highlights the anti-democratic and reactionary nature of the Spanish state
15 February 2019
Youth strike for the climate: "There's no planet B"
Students walked out of school on Friday 15th February to demonstrate
20 February 2019
Nationalise Airbus and other manufacturing plants to save jobs now!
Thousands of jobs at plane manufacturer Airbus are under threat after the company announced it is ending production of its A380 passenger jet after failing to secure orders from the Emirates airline and others
20 February 2019
Blairite Leslie won't be missed: Nottingham's now ex-Labour MP Chris Leslie has been a problem for a while now, writes A Nottingham East Labour Party member.
20 February 2019
"Socialism is storming back" declares the Economist magazine. It points out that 51% of 'millennials' in the US aged 18-29 have a positive view of socialism
20 February 2019
Unite union London council workers back Enfield Labour no-cuts call
London local government workers' representatives have agreed to support Enfield North Constituency Labour Party's no-cuts campaign
20 February 2019
Local NHS bosses plan to reorganise acute hospital services in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR), costing around £370 million
20 February 2019
Nationalise to save jobs at Honda!
Car manufacturer Honda has said it will close its Swindon plant in 2021. If the closure goes ahead it will devastate the town as 3,500 jobs will be destroyed
20 February 2019
Cardiff Uni: urgent action needed to stop job cuts
Cardiff University plans to cut 380 posts over five years
20 February 2019
Hackney: Unite fights racism and victimisation
Hackney Council Unite the Union is preparing to consult members on industrial action following the dismissal of the branch equalities officer, Natasha Johnson
20 February 2019
Leicester college pay strike goes on
After their successful one-day strike on 6 February, staff from both sites at WQE college in Leicester struck again on 13-14 February.
20 February 2019
Spanish state: social polarisation and budget defeat force snap election
Defeat the right in the ballot boxes and in the streets!: Pedro Sánchez's term is over. A government of the social democratic 'PSOE' party, formed eight months ago after the vote of no confidence against Rajoy of the traditional right-wing 'PP' party, has been brought down by a vote in parliament
20 February 2019
Harrowing accounts of austerity at Unison women's conference
Delegates at the women's conference of public sector union Unison gave harrowing accounts of living their lives in debt, and how they have been reduced to choosing between eating and heating while trying to put food on the table for their families.
20 February 2019
PCS Left Unity must unite on pay and elections
Forty years of union activists' work, building the broad left of the civil servants' union PCS Left Unity - and democratising the union, is being put at risk by the divisive and sectarian antics of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and Socialist View group.
20 February 2019
Universal Credit staff ballot for action
The possibility of strike action on 11-12 March is on the cards at Walsall and Wolverhampton Universal Credit service centres. The ballot finishes on 25 February.
20 February 2019
Annoyed?! I'm annoyed to be on poverty wages
There was another lively picket outside the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London on 13 February. The staff, PCS members, are outsourced on contracts that pay poverty wages. They want to be brought back in-house and paid a living wage.
20 February 2019
"There's no planet B": Thousands of youth strike against climate change - we need socialist change!
On 15 February, tens of thousands of school and college students walked out of their lessons to join protests across the country to demand action over climate change and environmental destruction.
20 February 2019
New recession fear stalks the world economy
2018 marked ten years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank which plunged the world economy into the deepest economic recession since the 1930s.
20 February 2019
NHS crisis deepens: Workers' and community action can save our health service
The news that A&E waiting times have hit the worst level since records began is yet further proof of the ongoing crisis in our NHS.
20 February 2019
Lincoln students back UCU ballot
On the evening of the 28 January, Lincoln Socialist Students organised a meeting on the University and College Union ballot currently underway.
20 February 2019
Claimants and union slam Universal Credit
On 24 January, a public meeting by Haringey Against Universal Credit was attended by about 100 people.
20 February 2019
Energy retail firm collapse hits Tyneside
Already reeling from numerous national and local collapses of businesses today fresh blows were rained down on Tyneside's struggling workforce.
20 February 2019
Letters to the Socialist's editors including Luciana Berger and Wavertree CLP and villainous Winston Churchill
20 February 2019
TV: Les Misérables - Hugo's novel and this adaptation both offer a message of hope
Les Misérables started life as a three-volume novel by Victor Hugo written during his political exile from France.
20 February 2019
Eight Blairites split - Now kick out the rest
Corbyn and unions must call mass action - for a general election now!
The Tory party is split down the middle. Theresa May's government is on the brink of collapse
20 February 2019
Unite the Union has launched a pay campaign targeting GLL. The company, operating under brand name 'Better', competes for leisure and library contracts around the country.
20 February 2019
Former Militant editor Peter Taaffe on Derek Hatton re-joining Labour
The re-admittance of Derek Hatton, Liverpool deputy council leader 1983-86, to the Labour Party poses the need to transform the Labour Party into a 100% anti-austerity party
20 February 2019
Defending the city that dared to fight
Peter Taaffe responds to the Guardian's Hannah Jane Parkinson on the record of Liverpool City Council and the Militant Tendency in the 1980s.
20 February 2019
Socialists stand against Blairite mayor
Leicester Socialist Party has announced it has selected Steve Score, local campaigner, to stand in May's mayoral elections
20 February 2019
Bin strike against 'blacklisting'
Hundreds of Birmingham bin workers took strike action to protest against secret payments to workers who did not take part in the 2017 bin strike.
20 February 2019
Conference shows potential for fighting leadership
Around 90 delegates and visitors from Socialist Students groups debated the student movement and its socialist potential
20 February 2019
Spanish State: Early election announced
Click here to go to an article by Revolutionary Left in the Spanish State, posted on socialistworld.net, the website of the Committee for a Workers' International
20 February 2019
Leeds TUC presents a no-cuts alternative budget
The anti-austerity committee of Leeds Trade Union Council (TUC) - which brings together the city's unions - presented its alternative city budget at a special public meeting on 12 February.
20 February 2019
Birmingham Uni: Standing up to racism is not harassment!
On 1 February, the Guild of the University of Birmingham formally de-recognised the University of Birmingham Socialist Students society in an attack on democracy and free speech on campus, writes Socialist Student Statement on de-recognition.
20 February 2019
London housing campaigners disrupt auction
Socialist Party members joined campaigners - including the Social Housing Action Campaign (Shac), which links housing workers with residents - to protest at a Savills auction
21 February 2019
26 February 2019
International Women's Day meetings and other events
Just some of the events fighting for women's liberation, and an end to domestic violence service cuts, austerity and capitalism, with the Socialist Party and the Women's Lives Matter campaign...
27 February 2019
Kick out austerity politicians
Tories, Blairites, Independents:
The MPs who resigned from Labour aren't the only politicians who have, in Corbyn's words, "no problem with austerity"
27 February 2019
From anger to action to save Honda plant
Unite the Union needs to put its national resources behind this fight, linking with the local shop stewards and mobilising the entire community and labour movement
27 February 2019
Supermarket giants merger: protect jobs and fight price hikes
For democratic public ownership: There should be joint meetings between Usdaw, Unite and GMB shop stewards for a joint campaign to improve wages and conditions
27 February 2019
University and College Union: anti-union laws frustrate strike ballot again
We cannot be discouraged, but should continue to put forward local demands
27 February 2019
Manchester posties strike against bullying
The company "needs to realise that it will be easier to replace the small management 'regime' than it will be to replace the entire workforce"
27 February 2019
PCS union: help us win the elections and pay campaign
We must unite to maximise the vote for the whole Left Unity slate in the elections which start on 16 April, and secure a threshold-busting vote in the pay ballot
27 February 2019
South East Unison annual general meeting votes for no-cuts budgets
A motion calling on all councils to pass no-cuts budgets should be on the agenda at the conference of public service union Unison
27 February 2019
Kirklees: Labour and Green councillors refuse to fight the cuts
At the time of its last accounts in April, Kirklees had useable reserves of £185 million
27 February 2019
Leicester: cuts passed in record time - use the £100m reserves!
Leicester Socialist Party is contesting May's elections on a platform of using the reserves to set a legal no-cuts budget
27 February 2019
Worcestershire: save the nine libraries
The local library in St Johns, Worcester, is under threat of job losses, shorter hours and possible closure, along with another eight across Worcestershire
27 February 2019
E-subscribe to the Socialist today!
The Socialist Party is launching an e-reader version of the Socialist newspaper
27 February 2019
Tommy Robinson BBC demo: socialist fightback needed to undermine far right
In the vacuum left by Corbyn and the union leaders failing to lead a fight to end Tory and Blairite austerity, the far right is trying to regroup
27 February 2019
PCS union branch opposes cuts to women's services
These union members work with people escaping domestic violence - they can see austerity and government policy have put women in a worse position
27 February 2019
Five years on - and still no justice for Zane
Like Hillsborough, the campaign for truth and justice for Zane Gbangbola is proving to be a long haul
27 February 2019
Do you have something to say? Letters to the Socialist's editors. Climate strikes; Independent Group
27 February 2019
Cuts councils massage homelessness figures
How should councils deal with the deepening housing crisis and the homelessness and desperation it creates?
27 February 2019
Blairite traitor Ian Austin - byelection now!
Austin should never have been allowed to leave Labour's ranks at a time of his choosing - he should have faced having the whip withdrawn
27 February 2019
Socialist change, not climate change!
Young people realise that capitalist hoarding and reckless disregard for the planet can't last
27 February 2019
Corbyn must pledge nationalisation to save jobs - which would transform the fight at Honda
27 February 2019
The recent indicative strike ballot by the National Education Union should prepare the ground for a serious confrontation with the government
27 February 2019
US: "Launch a mass, working-class fightback"
Seattle Socialist councillor Kshama Sawant: Working-class people need our own party, independent of corporate money and power, that fights alongside us rather than against us
27 February 2019
Non-fiction: 'Unhealthy Profits: PFI in the NHS'
This is a useful book for any trade unionist fighting the consequences of their own local PFI scheme
27 February 2019
Nottingham Labour Corbyn rally
This is no time for timidity - but there was no call from the platform for mandatory reselection to boot out the rest of the Blairites
28 February 2019
Chris Williamson suspension: No more succumbing to the Blairite saboteurs!
The Tory PM demanded that Labour take action against the left-wing Labour MP, and hours later Labour's leadership shamefully obliged
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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