Archive for January 2022
6 January 2022
Blair knighted for services to the rich and powerful
Tony Blair has joined current Labour leader Keir Starmer in being knighted, rewarded for his services to the bosses' establishment
6 January 2022
There is a shortage of Covid tests. You may have failed to book a pack of seven rapid lateral flow tests (LFTs), and people are struggling to books slots at PCR test centres.
6 January 2022
More fares misery for passengers - renationalise the railways
For many hard-pressed households this Christmas, news of a hefty 3.8% increase in regulated rail fares (the largest rise since 2013) will add to the prospect of a gloomy New Year.
6 January 2022
As we go to press, Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in the Royal Mail delivery office in Invergordon, north of Inverness have walked out
6 January 2022
Strike threat forces Tesco to improve pay offer
The run up to Christmas is the busiest time of year for retail workers. Despite this, Tesco workers, Usdaw members and other supporters joined an online public meeting on 14 December convened by Usdaw
6 January 2022
West Mids metalworkers strike over pay
Metal workers at Somers Forge in Halesowen made history just before Christmas after taking strike action for the first time in the factory's 155-year history
6 January 2022
Scunny scaffs enter twelfth week of strike action
Before Christmas, the 60 or so scaffolders who work at British Steel Scunthorpe finished their twelfth week of strike action with a protest demonstration outside the offices of their contractor, Actavo, in Wakefield
6 January 2022
The number of NHS trusts which have declared critical incidents because of Covid staff shortages is into double figures and rising
6 January 2022
Chile's working class delivers a landslide vote against ultra-right Kast
On 19 December 2021 the second round of the presidential election was held in Chile. Gabriel Boric, of the Frente Amplio electoral coalition, obtained an overwhelming victory, winning more than four and
6 January 2022
Fighting Fund - 162% of target, £162,000 raised
Congratulations to Socialist Party members and supporters for going well over our target for 2021
6 January 2022
TUSC appeals for widest possible anti-austerity socialist unity for May elections
Fighting trade unionists, socialists, and working-class community campaigners can offer an anti-austerity alternative at the ballot box
6 January 2022
6 January 2022
Obituary: Kate Jones - 1953-2021
We were saddened to hear of the loss of long-standing Socialist Party member Kate Jones on 20 December. Most recently a member in Swansea, Kate was previously a member in Brighton and Llanelli.
6 January 2022
Sheffield JustEat couriers escalate dispute
In the week before Christmas, JustEat delivery couriers in Sheffield, employed by Stuart Delivery, extended their targeted strike action to hit four Greggs shops
6 January 2022
Coventry: Private profits from hospital parking
At our last Socialist Party campaign stall of the year on 18 December, we gathered more signatures in support of the bin workers' strike.
6 January 2022
Trinity Centre: Shameful eviction by Newham council
On 22 December, local groups in Canning Town in east London - tutoring for kids who've fallen out of the school system, a food bank, and religious groups - found their community centre locked up by Newham Council
6 January 2022
S. Yorks Stagecoach workers start indefinite strike
Around 560 Stagecoach bus workers in South Yorkshire began an indefinite strike from the start of the New Year
6 January 2022
Union action needed for Covid safety
As we head into a new term, teachers are just as unimpressed by the Department for Education's performance as ever
6 January 2022
New unionism - when mass workers' action changed Britain
In the second of our occasional series on the history of working-class struggle in Britain, Iain Dalton looks at 'new unionism'.
6 January 2022
Tories' cost of living squeeze - Build workers' fightback
This year is set to inflict more pain on working-class people as rising costs outstrip incomes, meaning real-terms pay cuts. The average pay deal last year was worth just 2%, and a survey of employers found they were only planning 2.5% raises this year.
11 January 2022
Corbyn's Peace and Justice Project
The Telegraph has reported that "Jeremy Corbyn is considering establishing his own political party after privately accepting he will never be reinstated as a Labour MP" (9.1 22).
12 January 2022
Tories concede under cladding pressure but don't go far enough
Tory Housing Minister Michael Gove's recent announcement that he will make the property developers pay for unsafe cladding is in part a response to the scandal that has engulfed the industry post-Grenfell
12 January 2022
Shameless Johnson partied through lockdown
The proverb 'do as I say, not as I do' could have been written by Tory PM Boris Johnson during the course of the Covid pandemic.
12 January 2022
Carmarthenshire gritters take action as Plaid-led council reneges on agreement
Pickets were out for a second day on 6 January at Carmarthenshire County council depots Nantglas, Crosshands, Cillefwr, Carmarthen and Llandovery, in a dispute by gritting crews
12 January 2022
Jobcentre Coronavirus outbreak leads to reps meeting call
Just before Christmas a number of staff at the Mosley Street Jobcentre in Manchester contracted Coronavirus
12 January 2022
South Yorkshire bus strikes spreading and getting stronger
After two one-week strikes before Christmas, and now indefinite strike action since the New Year, the South Yorkshire Stagecoach busworkers' strikes are getting stronger
12 January 2022
East Mids rail conductors force concessions, train managers' dispute continues
The long-running senior conductors' dispute on East Midlands Railway (EMR) Intercity is over. RMT members voted to accept management's offer in a ballot on the pay and contract dispute, and on 'multiple
12 January 2022
Weetabix workers defeat 'fire and rehire' and ballot on improved pay offer
The end of 2021 saw a ramping up of strike action by the Weetabix workers at Corby and Kettering factories
12 January 2022
Invergordon Royal Mail mutiny wins
Communication Workers' Union (CWU) members in the Royal Mail delivery office in Invergordon, north of Inverness are back in work after walking out in support of a temporary worker who had his contract terminated, outside of the agreed industrial relations framework
12 January 2022
Protests against BBC transphobia
On 8 January, over 150 people assembled outside the BBC to protest the corporation's treatment of trans people in its reporting.
12 January 2022
Communities fight back against Rio Tinto mine
It is becoming a tradition that the Serbian diaspora meets at the London HQ of Rio Tinto mining company, to coincide with protests in Serbia against opening a lithium mine there.
12 January 2022
Solidarity with workers protesting in Kazakhstan
It's clear that the Kazakhstan government is feeling the heat following international coverage of the protests and repression there
12 January 2022
North London NHS - "It's going to be us who saves it"
The newly formed branch of Unite the Union for Migrant, Food, Retail and Services workers, and Day-Mer, a Turkish and Kurdish community organisation in north London, held a rally outside North Middlesex Hospital on 8 January, with the demand: 'Fund the NHS and keep it public'
12 January 2022
Southampton student vote for online exams must be accepted
Covid cases are surging across university campuses. I've never known this many people who have tested positive.
12 January 2022
From Liverpool youth leader to facing down press barons in Bradford: It is with great sadness we heard of the death of Pauline Wall, after a lengthy struggle against cancer
12 January 2022
Obituary - Ethan Bradley 1993-2021
We need more Ethans to lead fight against gig economy exploitation: At just 28, the loss of Ethan Bradley, the chair of the couriers and logistics branch for the IWGB union, is tragic.
12 January 2022
War criminal Tony Blair knighted
On New Year's Eve, Buckingham Palace announced that former Labour prime minister Tony Blair would be rewarded with the Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter by the Queen
12 January 2022
Bullying weighing room culture at the races
Horse racing, known as 'the sport of kings', has a long history. And for most of that time the jockeys were male, until the 1970s, in particular 1979, when women were allowed to become professional jockeys.
12 January 2022
Free prescriptions? Maybe when you're older
The government has a proposal on the table to raise the qualifying age for free medical prescriptions from 60 to 66
12 January 2022
Don't Look Up: An entertaining satire on corporate power and the US establishment
Film: 'Don't Look Up': The movie satire, 'Don't Look Up', became a major hit over the Christmas holiday season. The dark comedy, written and directed by Adam McKay, concerns a desperate attempt by scientists to alert the
12 January 2022
Money Heist: A Robin Hood tale set in modern-day capitalism
TV series: 'La Casa de Papel' or Money Heist: This is a must-watch Spanish drama over five series, and now available to watch in its entirety on Netflix.
12 January 2022
Kazakhstan: Working-class revolt only suppressed by massive mobilisation of troops
Kazakh state forces, backed by Russian paratroops, are enforcing a military grip in Almaty
12 January 2022
Energy bosses: 'Jump, cuddle and eat porridge while we raise prices'
Struggling to pay your energy bills? The obvious solutions; a pay rise, decent pensions and benefits, bringing energy back into public ownership...
12 January 2022
Energy price crisis: nationalise energy giants to save us from £600 hit
The energy price cap is expected to increase by over 50%
12 January 2022
Blow to establishment as jury backs Colston Four
There were jubilant scenes outside Bristol Crown Court as the four were cleared
12 January 2022
Anne: Hillsborough and the fight for justice
Kevin Sampson's short TV series portrays the crusade for justice by the family of one of the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster's victims
12 January 2022
People's Budget: We beat council cuts before, we will again
Leeds Labour council is preparing to pass on another round of Tory austerity.
12 January 2022
Covid, stress and cutbacks fuel school staff shortages
Covid is running rampant and unchecked through many schools
12 January 2022
10,000 tube workers vote to strike over jobs, terms and pension cuts
London Underground bosses refused to give assurances on jobs, pensions and working conditions.
12 January 2022
Low pay, stress and Covid drive: NHS staff crisis
Over 20 NHS trusts have declared critical incidents amidst staff shortages.
12 January 2022
12 January 2022
Coventry bin workers on strike, January 2022, photo by Dave Nellist
Socialist Party members joined the picket lines of striking bin workers in Coventry fighting for better pay. January 2022
12 January 2022
Super-rich get richer, while we can't make ends meet. Join the fightback!
The richest 1% of households were getting richer even before the pandemic, taking their average wealth to £3.66 million. The wealth gap has widened further since.
13 January 2022
19 January 2022
Southampton uni ignores staff and students in exam farce
University management was forced to meet the student union after 95% of the over 7,000 people that participated in an all-student vote favoured moving exams from in-person to online because of the latest Covid crisis.
19 January 2022
Demonstrating against the Tory anti-protest bill
As Parliament continues to debate the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which aims to further restrict the right to protest, demonstrations took place on 15 January around the country.
19 January 2022
Waltham Forest: Campaign unites families facing eviction
Following threats and evictions of women and their families in Waltham Forest, east London, the trades council's Housing Action Network met on 5 January to discuss the defence of residents who may be forced out of their homes.
19 January 2022
Newham council rejects using 0.03% of reserves to fund arts
I was part of the deputation from the North and East London branch of performing arts union Equity to a Newham Council cabinet meeting
19 January 2022
Birmingham: Cuts consultations replaced by computer game
Birmingham City Council traditionally holds public consultations on its annual budget, but for 2022 it has decided to change the format
19 January 2022
Bournemouth - angry people not represented by capitalist parties
Boscombe is supposedly not fertile ground for socialist values, but at our first Bournemouth Socialist Party campaign stall of the year on 15 January, we talked to many disaffected people on a range of topics - including union rights, issues effecting LGBTQ+ people, housing and homelessness.
19 January 2022
Interview: Telling the story of the 1971 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in: In June 1971, the privately owned shipyards of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders collapsed into receivership. But instead of accepting redundancy, the large workforce occupied the affected sites and began its famous
19 January 2022
Rob Windsor - remembering a tireless fighter for socialism
It is ten years since we lost Coventry Socialist Party member Rob Windsor to a serious illness. He was only 47, sadly far too young, but what a force of nature and of socialism he was.
19 January 2022
Why are things the way they are?
In the first of a series on Marxist classics, Nick Hart reviews 'An introduction to the Logic of Marxism' by George Novack.
19 January 2022
Murder of Ashling Murphy sends shocks waves across Ireland and beyond
The tragic and senseless murder of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy in County Offaly, in the Irish republic has sent shock waves, anger and devastation throughout communities across the country and beyond
19 January 2022
Northern Ireland: Workers fight threatened closure of women's hostel
The sole women-only hostel in Northern Ireland for homeless women, those with addictions, mental health issues or suffering domestic violence, is facing closure on 27 February.
19 January 2022
US: Independent Socialist Group launches new paper
The Socialist salutes the tremendous step forward achieved by the Socialist Party co-thinkers in the USA, the Independent Socialist Group (ISG), in launching a new party newspaper, 'Socialism Today'.
19 January 2022
Eyewitness account of workers' uprising in Almaty, Kazakhstan
In the following extract, Igor Ushakov, who serves on the Almaty editorial board of the left-wing online magazine Krasnaya Yurt, explains the events on 4-5 January in the Kazakhstan city of Almaty, where a working-class uprising against the regime took place.
19 January 2022
Mutual aid, the welfare state and the fight for a new mass workers' party
The Covid pandemic and its effects have deepened an already existing social crisis. Ravaged by years of cuts and privatisation, public services have been unable to meet the needs of working-class communities.
19 January 2022
The memorial meeting for lifelong Marxist Pauline Wall will take place on Saturday 29 January, 2pm, Haworth Village Hall, Butt Lane, Haworth, Keighley, West Yorkshire
19 January 2022
No trust in Tories to keep us safe
For democratic workers' control of Covid safety: The self-isolation period after a positive Covid test has been reduced from seven days to five, with negative lateral flow tests on days five and six
19 January 2022
Employers use vaccine excuse to attack sick pay
Ikea has become the latest company to cut sick pay for unvaccinated workers who need to self-isolate because of Covid, and in some cases for workers who test positive.
19 January 2022
£299 million of PPE brought by the government during the pandemic has gone out of date. The early days of the pandemic were marked by health and care workers' struggles for face masks and other PPE. Now,
19 January 2022
Somers Forge workers continue pay strike
Workers at Somers Forge in Halesowen took their fourth day of strike action in their current dispute for a living pay increase - and also the fourth ever in the company's 155-year history!
19 January 2022
Waltham Forest bin workers in Unite and GMB unions protested on the steps of the town hall on 13 January against bad pay and conditions
19 January 2022
Bus driver Tracey Scholes reinstated at Go North West
Bus driver Tracey Scholes has been reinstated at Go North West. The campaign won after supporters of Unite member Tracey were out in full force on 11 January to demand her reinstatement against the blind
19 January 2022
Royal Mail: Unofficial walkouts precede bigger battle to come on pay and workload
A number of Royal Mail delivery offices have taken unofficial industrial action since the New Year, all of which are linked to major national issues taking place within Royal Mail since the 'Pathway to Change' national agreement.
19 January 2022
Newham college strike solid against bully privatisers
Strikers are ready to go the distance and beat 'academisation' at Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) in east London. Action restarted on 11 January after the Christmas break.
19 January 2022
Oliver Campbell - 31 years fighting for justice
"I went into prison innocent. I came out innocent. And I've been innocent all the way through. I was put under pressure to confess to a crime I did not commit."
19 January 2022
Tories on the ropes - Build a workers' alternative
Photo: Kuhlmann MSC/CC
The future of Boris Johnson as PM hangs by a thinner and thinner thread, following the revelations of Downing Street parties and the backdrop of the cost of living crisis.
19 January 2022
Tory vaccine sacking threat set to deepen NHS staffing crisis
86,000 NHS staff face the sack in April if they do not have the Covid-19 vaccine.
19 January 2022
NUS walkout: Organise to fight for free education on 2 March
The National Union of Students has launched its campaign for a 'student strike for education'.
19 January 2022
Socialist Party members have continued to show support for striking bin workers in Coventry as the Labour council continues its campaign of disinformation and lies about bin workers' pay
19 January 2022
Sheffield Just Eat couriers speak about strike
Just Eat takeaway food delivery drivers have been striking against pay cuts in Sheffield since 6 December in what has become the longest continuous such action in the gig economy in the UK
19 January 2022
S Yorks Stagecoach strike results in "huge pay win"
After three-and-a-half weeks of strike action, 560 Stagecoach bus workers across South Yorkshire have voted to accept what their Unite trade union has described as a "huge pay win" of over a £1-an-hour increase, amounting to a 10.7% rise
19 January 2022
Scunthorpe scaffs resume indefinite strike action
The 61 scaffolders employed by contractor Actavo, working on the British Steel works at Scunthorpe, will resume indefinite strike action on 26 January
19 January 2022
Tories hand cash to private health profiteers
Nationalise private health and big pharma: Private hospitals are set to receive up to £525 million of public money in a deal negotiated by a Tory minister
20 January 2022
10,000 tube workers vote to strike
RMT members working for London Underground have voted overwhelmingly for strike action
25 January 2022
Nearly 600 health workers at Bart's health trust are striking for fair pay, and against increasing workloads and bullying.
26 January 2022
Government considers green levy cut: Energy bills are going through the uninsulated roof and the government is under pressure. The Energy Company Obligation could be under threat. This £1 billion levy on energy bills pays for energy efficiency
26 January 2022
Lords reject parts of anti-protest bill
Keep up the fight to defend the right to protest: In a blow to the Tory government, several parts of its anti-protest Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill were rejected by the House of Lords on Monday 17 January.
26 January 2022
Social care providers put profit before residents' needs - nationalise care now
Five years ago, I wrote for the Socialist explaining what it was like working in care, the limited time we had to get people washed, dressed, and to help them eat and drink.
26 January 2022
Government figures put inflation at 5.4% in December - the highest in 30 years, and this is an underestimation
26 January 2022
DWP reps demand action from PCS leadership
More than 60 DWP PCS reps and activists met in a national Zoom meeting called by PCS DWP Greater Manchester branch on 19 January
26 January 2022
10,000 tube workers vote to strike - don't make workers pay for TfL funding crisis
Transport union RMT members working for London Underground have voted overwhelmingly for strike action to defend jobs, conditions and our pensions.
26 January 2022
Strike action by Carmarthenshire winter gritters wins concessions from council
Winter gritters working for Carmarthenshire County Council have won big concessions from the council which will now have to adhere to an agreement to pay decent shift allowances that it has been trying to cut back.
26 January 2022
Worksop Wincanton logistics workers begin ninth week of strike action
450 Unite members are in their ninth week of strike action against Wincanton - the logistics company running the vast Worksop site for B&Q.
26 January 2022
Hundreds protest to save St Mary's Leisure Centre in Southampton
Southampton Tory council closed St Marys Leisure Centre on 22 December, locking out hundreds of users. They falsely claim that the building requires "millions" to maintain.
26 January 2022
Wakefield TUSC - Fighting for low-paid workers and NHS
Wakefield Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) held its first public meeting of the new year on 20 January, in person and via Zoom, to deal with the urgent question of working-class political representation.
26 January 2022
This is students' chance to fight back - help build 2 March NUS walkout
For too long now, students have been forced to pay for poor-quality higher education. Education should be a right, and free and available to all, not something to be marketised.
26 January 2022
On our Socialist Party campaign stalls about rising gas and electricity prices, we have spoken to lots of people concerned and angry about the situation
26 January 2022
Education: Workload and inflation goes up, incomes fall
This term has started just as last term finished: school staff under intolerable pressure from incessant workload and Covid absences
26 January 2022
Britain's waterways choked with a 'chemical cocktail'
How capitalism is severely polluting our waterways and what could be done to clean up the mess: Yet more depressing news on pollution of our rivers and waterways has made the headlines in recent weeks.
26 January 2022
Trade unionists in the USA fighting back
In 2021, union workers were involved in at least 346 strikes across most sectors of the US economy including manufacturing, transportation, and services.
26 January 2022
War in Yemen, made in Harlow, profit for rich
Three children were killed by an air strike as they were playing football in Yemen on 21 January, and more than 70 prisoners died when a detention centre was bombed
26 January 2022
The articles concerning the Somers Forge strike (see socialistparty.org.uk) in Halesowen were interesting to learn that the company has the same disregard for its workers as it had in the 1930s
26 January 2022
UK Covid-19 mortality similar to Spanish Flu
The total number of UK Covid deaths has exceeded 150,000. Laura Spinney, author of Pale Rider, reviewed by Socialist Party general secretary Hannah Sell (see socialistparty.org.uk), stated the number of
26 January 2022
It's my party, and I'll lie if I want to
Tory MPs and members knew that Boris Johnson's entire career as a journalist and politician was littered with lies - that's why they selected him, to win a general election based on 'levelling up' lies.
26 January 2022
Universities: Strike action at 68 in two disputes
Action is soon to be announced at 68 universities, following reballots in the UCU
26 January 2022
Oaks Park School: valiant strike exposed state of schools
The intrepid strike at Oaks Park School exemplified many of the problems facing school unions
26 January 2022
Trade unions and the fight against council cuts
Interview: Unite's strategy on fighting the cuts: Socialist Party member Onay Kasab, recently appointed Lead for Local Government in Unite the Union, spoke to the Socialist
26 January 2022
Sheffield Just Eat strikers step up action and hold mass rally, photo by Alistair Tice
Sheffield Just Eat strikers step up action and hold mass rally: Over 100 trade unionists and students in Sheffield rallied in support of the Just Eat delivery drivers on their 31st day of targeted strike action against company pay cuts. Photo by Alistair Tice
26 January 2022
We need a workers' alternative to big business Tories and Labour
Every day Boris Johnson and his government are more and more mired in scandal.
26 January 2022
Eviction resistance on the march in Waltham Forest
Every London borough has thousands of families on housing waiting lists and hundreds of empty homes. The benefit cap and the end of the eviction ban are creating a rising tide of evictions.
27 January 2022
Former MP colleague of Jeremy Corbyn to stand in Birmingham Erdington by-election
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) today announced that Dave Nellist is to contest the forthcoming Birmingham Erdington parliamentary by-election on behalf of the left-wing alliance
19 Nov Socialism 2022
LINKS
Socialism Today, monthly magazine of the Socialist Party
Publishing house of the Socialist Party. Click through to get your copy of From Militant to the Socialist Party, Lessons of October, ebooks and more!
Left Books website
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 020 8988 8786
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 077 7221 5281
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
MEMBER RESOURCES
MARXISM
Communist
Manifesto by Marx and Engels
Communism, grotesque caricature: see Soviet Union. See also What About Russia?
How would a socialist economy work?
Lenin:
On Marxism
Terrorism: Marxism Opposes Terrorism
BOOKS & VIDEOS
Click here for our video pages
Click here for our online publications
Click here to go to Left Books (opens in new window) for new and secondhand books
LATEST POSTS
ARCHIVE
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
Platform setting: =
V5