Archive for January 2009
2 January 2009
Tommy Sheridan in Celebrity Big Brother
The appearance of Tommy Sheridan in Celebrity Big Brother will have disappointed many people who know of his role as an uncompromising fighter for the interests of the working class over the past 25 years.
5 January 2009
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Stop the Slaughter in Gaza demonstration, photo Socialist Party |
More than 1.5 million people live in the 'open air prison camp' that is Gaza.
For the last 16 months the blockade of the Israeli regime has intensified the nightmare - a majority of the population are unemployed and suffering from malnutrition.
Now the horror has reached its nadir with the Israeli invasion of Gaza - resulting in the deaths of many hundreds of Palestinians, including children.
6 January 2009
7 January 2009
Thousands protest against the Israeli onslaught
IN MANY cities throughout the country, last weekend, thousands of people attended demonstrations and vigils against the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
7 January 2009
2009 - putting socialism back on the agenda
"GOODBYE AND good riddance to all that," declared the Financial Times, the big business mouthpiece, as it said farewell to 2008, writes Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary.
7 January 2009
Fight for your future! Piles of cash so huge they're barely comprehensible are thrown at the fat cat financiers and bankers to bail them out of a crisis of their own making, writes Sarah Sachs-Eldridge.
7 January 2009
PRIVATE RAIL operating companies in the UK have announced huge fares increases, way above the rate of inflation, for 'peak' and 'off-peak' journeys...
7 January 2009
WORSHIPPED BY financiers as the 'guru' of hedge funds, it turns out that wealthy New York socialite Bernard Madoff is nothing more than a fraudster, writes Dave Carr.
7 January 2009
No festive joy for shop workers
CHRISTMAS IS finally staggering to a close at the lingerie company I work for. After 23 December, I was able to take four days off for Christmas. To be allowed this luxury I worked almost continuously...
7 January 2009
For a fighting Usdaw leadership
Vote Robbie for a fighting, campaigning Usdaw.: Socialist Party member Robbie Segal is standing for election as president of the shopworkers' union Usdaw...
7 January 2009
USA: Chicago factory workers occupation wins concessions
BY OCCUPYING their plant, and refusing to budge, workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago have provided an inspirational example to workers around the country of how workers can fight and win their demands, writes Bryan Koulouris, Socialist Alternative (CWI, USA).
7 January 2009
South Wales: Workers vow to fight job losses
There was strong media interest in a Swansea public meeting called on 16 December by the Linamar (ex Visteon car component plant) shop stewards' committee, writes Alec Thraves, secretary Socialist Party Wales, Swansea trade union council..
7 January 2009
Labour ministers' unsocial fund
NOT SATISFIED with attacking the benefits entitlements of the unemployed in the recent Welfare Reform Bill, the government proposed charging up to 27% interest on emergency state loans to claimants, writes Simon Carter.
7 January 2009
BT: reluctant vote for pension cuts
By a margin of two to one BT workers have reluctantly voted to accept the attacks on their pensions recommended by both their union, the CWU and the employer, writes Clive Walder, CWU Birmingham, Black Country and Worcs branch, personal capacity.
7 January 2009
WHAT'S THE world coming to, when you buy an island and then the ungrateful peasants vote against you?...
7 January 2009
WHO SHOULD pay for the economic recession? Unsurprisingly, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) says it should be the low paid...
7 January 2009
IN CONJUNCTION with Devon County Council, North Devon Council has approved in principle the plan to build a rubbish incinerator as part of the redevelopment of a stretch of land by the river Taw in Barnstaple, writes Jim Lowe, North Devon Socialist Party.
7 January 2009
GSK (Glaxo Smith Klein) is adding to the growing ranks of the unemployed. GSK made over £6 billion last year but that is not enough, they want more, transferring high paid jobs here for cheap wages in...
7 January 2009
Salford council: Equal pay, not pay cuts!
Trade Union members in Salford have made it clear to our employer, Salford city council that we will fight their attempt to use equal pay legislation to cut pay, writes Steven North, Central Manchester and Salford Socialist Party.
7 January 2009
Mass struggle needed for liberation: Missiles from F-16 fighter planes screaming down on children sleeping or cowering in crowded homes and basements; this is state terrorism of the most brutal kind, raining terror onto a trapped population that doesn't even have enough fuel, water and medicines to treat the injured...
7 January 2009
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London protest against war on Gaza, photo by Paul Mattsson |
13 January 2009
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Stop the Slaughter in Gaza: London demo, photo Paul Mattsson |
13 January 2009
British economy heads deeper into crisis
The Socialist Editorial: Gordon Brown promised that New Labour would end the cycle of 'boom and bust'. He claimed that his government is a "rock of stability". Yet the government is being battered by forces of economic recession which become stronger every week...
13 January 2009
Daylight murder in Colombo - protest
Protest message sent from Committee for a Workers' International: We condemn the daylight murder in Colombo on Thursday, 8 January,of Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of the Sunday Leader a well-known critic of the Rajapakse government...
14 January 2009
The mass demonstration on 10 January against the attacks on Gaza showed an escalation in size and anger, writes Matt Dobson.
14 January 2009
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Robbie Segal |
I am standing for election to become president of Usdaw because our union needs to be a fighting union. We should be building a mass campaign against job losses but also demanding a minimum wage of £8 an hour without exemptions. The union should be taking workers' wages and conditions forward, not watching them go backwards.
14 January 2009
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ISR on the march, photo Paul Mattsson |
14 January 2009
"THIS IS not about a company that's in trouble. This is about greed, corporate greed. They're going to Poland because apparently they can make an extra 3%.", writes Stephen Boyd, Cork.
14 January 2009
Last week on a bitterly cold winter's evening 150 people packed into the ballroom of Wynn's Hotel in central Dublin for the Socialist Party public meeting: " Capitalism in crisis - The Socialist Alternative", writes Cillian Gillespie and Joe Higgins, Dublin.
14 January 2009
Bosses at Nissan's Sunderland car plant have announced they are axing 1,200 jobs, around a quarter of the workforce...
14 January 2009
The NHS today - can it meet everyone's health needs?
Desperately ill patients are being denied expensive drugs that could treat their conditions. Local NHS trusts claim they don't have the money and that treating one person with a drug costing thousands...
14 January 2009
Defend threatened Saudi Arabian trade unionist
EXILED SAUDI Arabian trade unionist, Yahya Al Faifi, has had his application for asylum for himself, his wife and children refused by the Home Secretary and they have been ordered to return to Saudi Arabia, writes Dave Reid, Cardiff.
14 January 2009
Conference: 'The crisis in working class political representation'
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RMT protests against privatisation on the London underground , photo Paul Mattsson |
14 January 2009
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Che Guevara in military fatigues, 2 June 1959 |
TONY SAUNOIS, secretary of the Committee for a Workers' International, looks at how the film deals with the important political questions raised.
14 January 2009
Over Christmas many students were working long hours to get cash together to meet the soaring costs of student life, writes Matt Dobson, Socialist Students national organiser.
14 January 2009
Building ISR and Socialist Students in 2009
On Sunday 11 January youth activists from Socialist Students and International Socialist Resistance (ISR) from across England and Wales converged for a joint national meeting in central London, writes Stephen Burrell.
14 January 2009
Fight for your future: what ISR campaigns for
Brown and Co want to make young people pay for the economic crisis. That means higher education fees, low pay and unemployment. International Socialist Resistance launched the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign...
14 January 2009
GlaxoSmithKline: The fightback starts here
A handful of workers were present at the second National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) meeting for GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK) workers on 10 January, writes Mark Pickersgill.
14 January 2009
Tube cleaners protest against victimisation
On 8 January, about 40 people turned up to protest outside the headquarters in Greenwich of the cleaning company ISS, writes Chris Newby.
14 January 2009
WHAT WILL be left when the Olympic games leaves town? That was the question debated by over a hundred people at Stratford Circus, east London, last week. Called by a loose coalition of interested groups...
14 January 2009
Wirral: Marching to stop the cuts
ON SATURDAY 10 January, despite the freezing weather, around 350 Wirral residents, trade unionists, youth and community campaigners stepped up their protest in opposition to Wirral council's proposed cuts in jobs and services by marching from Wallasey town hall to Birkenhead town hall...
14 January 2009
ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNERS staged a peaceful protest in Heathrow's Terminal One building on 12 January - part of ongoing opposition to the airport's proposed expansion...
14 January 2009
Sri Lanka -: Vicious attacks on media and killing of newspaper editor
ON 8 January, in broad daylight in Colombo, the prominent and respected editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was hit in the head by gunfire through his windscreen as his vehicle was stationary in traffic...
14 January 2009
Bangladesh: Protesters denounce global mining corporation
A PEACEFUL and powerful demonstration against Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc and its destructive open coal mining activities in Phulbari, northern Bangladesh, took place in London outside GCM's annual general meeting on 16 December* 2008, writes Rumana Hashem.
14 January 2009
Lovingly sacked...: THE FINEST writing paper, using only the finest ink, lovingly folded into an immaculate white envelope... This is no ordinary P45, this is a Marks and Spencer P45!...
14 January 2009
Why Manchester rejected the congestion charge
Greater Manchester residents have thrown out proposals threatening to bring in a "congestion charge" in return for some limited investment in public transport, writes Hugh Caffrey, Manchester.
21 January 2009
Obama takes power: What change will the Democrats bring?
OBAMA'S VICTORY in the 2008 election was historic. It signified a clear rejection of the Bush administration and its war on Iraq and ultra-free market policies. Voters also made history by electing the first black president in a country that was built on slavery and racism, writes Ramy Khalil, Socialist Alternative, USA
21 January 2009
Egypt: Gaza conflict fuels anti-Mubarak opposition
THE HORRIFIC events in Gaza have caused fury throughout the Middle East. Fuelling this is the collaboration of the ruling classes with US and Israeli big business, writes Jon Dale.
21 January 2009
Protesting against Gaza attacks
Joining the demos across Wales: In the last week there have been meetings, protests and demonstrations all over the country against the attacks on Gaza...
21 January 2009
Opposing the expansion of Heathrow
The government's decision to give the go ahead for a third runway at Heathrow has dominated headlines in London, writes Neil Cafferky.
21 January 2009
Postal workers across the country reacted with dismay and anger when the Hooper review of Royal Mail was published in December 2008, writes Gary Clark, Sub Area rep Scotland No.2 branch CWU.
21 January 2009
Capitalism kills, concludes study of privatisation era
Russia and Eastern Europe in the 1990s: "SHOCK THERAPY sell-offs blamed for one million deaths" was the stunning headline in the Financial Times of 15 January, writes Clare Doyle.
21 January 2009
JCB is making another 700 workers redundant at its UK factories. This is the fourth round of cuts since August 2008 totalling over 1,500. There has been a rolling 90-day consultation period, meaning that...
21 January 2009
Hoover workers march in protest at job losses
People on the streets of Merthyr applauded as over 200 Hoover workers marched from the factory to the town centre to protest at the threat to 337 jobs by Candy, the parent company, writes Dave Reid, Socialist Party Wales.
21 January 2009
Fighting the cuts in Greenwich
In a quite vicious and vindictive move, Greenwich council have announced plans to attack pay, conditions, jobs and services right across the council...
21 January 2009
The nomination period for the election of the Amicus general secretary has now closed. Incumbent Derek Simpson, forced to put himself up for election following a challenge to the trade union certification...
21 January 2009
International Socialists/CWI member Brian Smith has won the election for branch secretary of Glasgow City Unison...
21 January 2009
Shop workers need a fighting trade union leadership
The Morrisons I work in dragged almost the entire workforce in over the Christmas period to do extra shifts to capitalise on higher sales, writes A Morrisons worker.
21 January 2009
On 15 January, Exeter Socialist Students took to the high street to campaign on behalf of Robbie Segal, Socialist Party activist and shop workers' union Usdaw presidential candidate, writes Rob Edwards.
21 January 2009
Refugees and repression in war ravaged Sri Lanka
THE HUMANITARIAN crisis in Sri Lanka has worsened since the government forces captured Kilinochi on 2 January, writes Danny Byrne and Senan, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
21 January 2009
Stanislav Markelov, a well known human rights lawyer, was shot dead after he left a press conference in Moscow, writes More in future issue.
21 January 2009
Exiled Zimbabweans demand Brown acts
OVER 400 Zimbabweans in the UK demonstrated outside Downing Street, London, on 13 January. The singing and dancing protesters waved placards saying: "Mr Brown: Allow Zimbabweans to work and pay taxes"...
21 January 2009
JUST BEFORE Christmas Wirral's ruling Lib-Lab coalition council announced plans to butcher cultural and leisure services, writes Merseyside Socialist Party members.
21 January 2009
Waltham Forest anti-incinerator campaign: Residents get results
Walthamstow's Residents Against Pollution campaign group had something to celebrate at the end of 2008, writes Paula Mitchell.
21 January 2009
Campaigners fight attacks on education and the environment
Don't dump on Sinfin: Teachers and campaigners packed Derby's town hall gallery for a meeting on 15 January, writes Graham Lewis, Long Eaton trades council.
21 January 2009
Weston Favell School (WFS) in Northampton is threatened with academy status starting from September 2009, with the United Learning Trust (ULT) as sponsor...
21 January 2009
Fast news: My Lords, Ladies and cash dispenser
DIGBY JONES, life peer, is stepping down from his post as the government's business minister...
21 January 2009
Readers' comment: media reporting on Gaza
When it comes to reporting on Gaza the conservative and liberal news media and the United Nations seemed to be lapping up the sour milk offered to the world by Egyptian president Mubarak and France's Nicolas Sarkozy, as if it were the only viable opinion on offer, writes Richard Bell, Bristol ISR and Socialist Party.
21 January 2009
What's going on? The meanderings of a comic mind in confusion, by Mark Steel
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Mark Steel at Socialism 2008, photo Paul Mattsson |
21 January 2009
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Please sir, can I have some more? Cartoon by Suz |
BANK BOSSES, whose reckless greed for profit has helped push Britain and the world into the deepest financial and economic crisis since the second world war, are to receive another bailout from Gordon Brown's government, writes Roger Shrives.
21 January 2009
Gaza war paves way for further conflict
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Demonstrating against war on Gaza, photo Sarah Mayo |
28 January 2009
Coventry protest over Gaza onslaught
FOLLOWING THE weekly protests in Coventry called by the Socialist Party against the Israeli state onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza, a dignified vigil and a 300-strong protest rally were held to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day last Sunday...
28 January 2009
Israel: Thousands march in Jaffa against Gaza massacre
SHORTLY BEFORE the Israeli government decided to finish its onslaught on the Gaza Strip for the time being, thousands of Jews and Arabs marched in Jaffa, on 17 January, against the massacre, the siege, the occupation and against racism, writes Shahar Ben-Korin, Socialist Struggle Movement (CWI in Israel).
28 January 2009
No pay discrimination against young people
I STARTED working for Clarks in the shoe shop's busiest period - 'back to school'. At the same time two 16 year-old girls started and from the off I was dismayed at Clarks' employment policies, writes Jack Youd, Salford and Central Manchester Socialist Party.
28 January 2009
Youth Fight for Jobs: The Youth Fight for Jobs initiative by International Socialist Resistance is a timely campaign against rising unemployment figures, a Jobcentre Plus worker writes.
28 January 2009
The crisis in manufacturing: Fighting for jobs and living standards
A FIGHTING socialist solution to the growing capitalist threat to workers' jobs and living standards is the only way forward for the trade union movement, writes Bill Mullins.
28 January 2009
Say no to youth unemployment: On 2 April the G20 - the leaders of the world's 20 major world powers - will be meeting in Watford. Young people and trade unionists will be marching from central London to meet them - demanding a future.
28 January 2009
Solidarity with Gaza: The huge demonstrations against the slaughter in Gaza once again gave the lie to the idea that young people are apathetic or apolitical, Socialist Students members write.
28 January 2009
Labour's abandoning of the working class
INCREASINGLY, THE media and politicians talk about the 'disadvantage suffered by white working-class people', and the need to 'listen to their concerns', writes Naomi Byron.
28 January 2009
Croydon: Striking against academies
ABOUT 100 education workers, other trade unionists and parents protested at the Croydon council meeting last week against the council's plans to bring in academies in place of community schools, writes Chris Newby.
28 January 2009
Scotland: Step up opposition to cuts
THE IMPACT of the cuts in local government spending signalled by both the UK and Scottish governments in late 2008 is beginning to show, writes Brian Smith, branch secretary, Glasgow city Unison (personal capacity).
28 January 2009
Greenwich Unison in south London has won the first round of a campaign to stop Greenwich council's plans to 'reconfigure' the child protection service, writes Onay Kasab, secretary Greenwich Unison, personal capacity.
28 January 2009
As four Socialist Party members defend themselves against the ridiculous and malicious allegation that they "gave racist offence to members" by disstributing a leaflet at Unison conference bearing the Three Wise Monkeys symbol, disturbing evidence has emerged that the right wing leadership of the union has relied on a racist to pursue their witch-hunt in one case.
28 January 2009
Building a fighting Unison leadership
Elections for the branch leadership of Manchester local government Unison have started. One of the left candidates is Socialist Party member Jim Cessford, who told The Socialist: "Last year the branch...
28 January 2009
Stop the deportation of Yahya Al-Faifi
YAHYA AL-FAIFI, an exiled Saudi trade unionist, and his family are facing deportation into the hands of the Saudi Arabian regime by the Home Office, writes Dave Reid.
28 January 2009
ON SATURDAY 31 January, hundreds of people will be protesting against the British National Party (BNP) in Liverpool, writes Hugh Caffrey.
28 January 2009
Build a mass movement for free education
NUS leadership severs links with students: The National Union of Students (NUS) governance review was passed at an extraordinary conference on 20 January in Wolverhampton, writes Ben Robinson.
28 January 2009
Parents and children in Greenwich and Lewisham have launched a campaign to save their school, Charlotte Turner primary, which Greenwich council is threatening to close...
28 January 2009
Say 'no' to the Metro privateers
In the north east, Labour MPs are unhappy. They are bleating that they are having to answer difficult questions from constituents over the privatisation of Tyne and Wear Metro. Norman Hall and Elaine Brunskill report.
28 January 2009
Amicus Unity Gazette left with egg on its face
Unite the union: The nomination period in the general secretary election in the Amicus section of Unite has now closed and the election has immediately descended into something of a farce, writes Mick Cotter, Amicus/Unite.
28 January 2009
Solid support for Glasgow strike
Glasgow council's 21 community service supervisors remain on indefinite strike. The strike is rock solid as it enters the fourth week, writes Brian Smith.
28 January 2009
Victory for left in Glasgow Unison
As reported in last week's issue of The Socialist, International Socialists (CWI Scotland) member, Brian Smith, has been elected to the post of branch secretary of the Glasgow City branch of Unison, writes Ronnie Stevenson, convenor Glasgow social work services (SWS) shop stewards.
28 January 2009
Socialist councillor opposes Tory plans for education privatisation
Last week's Kirklees council meeting brought in a new Liberal/Labour coalition administration after a vote of 'no confidence' in the ruling minority Tory cabinet took place, writes Jackie Grunsell, Save Huddersfield NHS councillor.
28 January 2009
'ROGUE TRADER' Jérôme Kerviel, sacked by the French bank Société Générale after amassing the biggest trading losses in history - £3.5 billion - revealed that he 'made a stock market killing' out of the 7/7 bombings in London...
28 January 2009
Final salary: IN AN economic recession, making workers pay for the crisis is the capitalists' guiding principle. The latest example of this 'philosophy' is the expected decision by 25 of 100 major UK private sector...
28 January 2009
Germany 1919 The Spartacist uprising
Historical feature: NINETY YEARS ago this month the German workers rose in the 'Spartacist uprising' - a turning point in the German revolution of 1917-1923 which led to the tragic deaths of revolutionary socialist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht...
28 January 2009
Russia: Bosses sack auto-factory union leader
ON 19 January at the end of his shift, Dmitrii Kozhnev, Chair of the Tsentrosvarmash factory branch of the Trade Union of Auto Industry Workers (MPRA), and a supporter of Socialist Resistance (CWI, Russia), was sacked from his workplace in Tver city, Russia...
28 January 2009
Courageous socialist activist, campaigning journalist and human rights activist
Obituary: Andrei Klimentov: COMRADE ANDREI KLIMENTOV died from a heart attack on 20 January 2009, at the young age of 35. Andrei was a talented journalist, who for many years worked as a human rights activist in the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights, and a leader of Socialist Resistance (CWI, Kazakhstan) in the Aktubinsk area.
28 January 2009
With regret I must inform members of the Socialist Party of the death of Barry Malone, Shropshire branch, on 12 January. Barry was just 60 but was battling with illness, writes Jim Reekie, secretary, Shropshire Socialist Party.
28 January 2009
A People's History of Sports in the United States
Book review: When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in the city were left homeless...
28 January 2009
Film review: This thought-provoking film is about teenage passion meeting with Germany's Nazi past. It centres on Michael Berg, a successful lawyer, whose life becomes involved with a brutal SS concentration camp...
28 January 2009
Era of illusions in capitalism ending
Editorial: So the economy is now officially in recession. No great surprise, as most people feel they have been suffering recession-like conditions for six months already...
29 January 2009
30 January 2009
30 January 2009
30 January 2009
House of Lords Appeal judgement on 2001 'May Day Detainee Case'
Press Release for immediate use: 28/01/09
1 February 2009
What's really behind the Lindsey Oil Refinery strike
By Keith Gibson, Personal Capacity, G.M.B., elected onto unofficial LOR Strike Committee
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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