Archive for March 2011
1 March 2011
Gaddafi must go! It's a fight to the finish
Libya: Dictator Muammar Gaddafi's control over Libya suffered big reversals over the weekend with the fall of Zawiyah, a city 30 miles from the capital, Tripoli, to opposition forces.
1 March 2011
Stop blacklisting on the Olympics: reinstate Frank Morris
Stop blacklisting on the Olympics: reinstate Frank Morris, photo Suzanne Beishon
A lively protest of trade unionists brought movement of vehicles onto the Olympic site to a halt in protest at the sacking of RMT member Frank Morris for exposing the use of a blacklist
1 March 2011
Largest protest yet against Wisconsin Governor's anti-union bill
Wisconsin workers protest
USA: Saturday, 26 February saw the largest demonstrations yet in Madison, Wisconsin. This was the twelfth consecutive day of protest against Republican Gov. Walker's bill to effectively eliminate collective bargaining for public sector workers. An edited version of this report was published in the Socialist.
2 March 2011
'One-party state' Labour regime in Newham imposes cuts
Around 150 trade unionists and local residents demonstrated outside Newham town hall in east London on 28 February
2 March 2011
Dundee youth mobilise against the cuts
On Monday 28 February young people marched from local schools and colleges to Dundee City Chambers to protest against education cuts as the council's education committee met
2 March 2011
Protesters fill square against Tory Hillingdon council's cuts
Over 500, mostly young people, lobbied Hillingdon council in West London on 24 February to make their voices - and music - heard in opposition to cuts
2 March 2011
Anti-cuts demonstrations - London Socialist Party refutes accusations from SWP
All over the country council chambers are under siege. Budget-setting meetings are being barraged by angry workers and service users
2 March 2011
Sign the NSSN ‘Save Our Services’ petition
This will be presented to Labour’s local government conference on Saturday 5 March. It is online at http://www.stopcuts.net/sign.htm Join the march and lobby: 11am, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Southwark, London, SE11.
3 March 2011
Marching on the Con-Dem conferences in Wales
No cuts: Workers, students and anti-cuts campaigners in Wales will give a clear message to the Tories and the Welsh Lib Dems, both holding their conferences in Cardiff on 5 March, that their policies are not welcome in Wales, writes Katrine Williams PCS Wales chair.
3 March 2011
Lewisham election: There is an alternative!
Voters in the Bellingham by-election in Lewisham, south east London, have a clear choice. They can either vote for a candidate who will push through massive cuts to local services, or they can vote for...
3 March 2011
Westminster: Save our children's services
TORY-RUN Westminster council in London is planning to cut services provided to children and parents/carers at Sure Start centres in the borough, writes Elizabeth O'Hara.
3 March 2011
Coalition steps up assault on NHS
On the 'Save the NHS' march, 3 November 2007 , photo Paul Mattsson
RECENTLY, THE anti-cuts website False Economy published its findings from NHS Trusts which showed that well over 50,000 health workers' jobs will be axed...
3 March 2011
CWU youth conference 'ready and willing to take action'
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) held its annual youth conference on 12 February in Birmingham...
3 March 2011
THE UPRISING against Libya's dictator Muammar Gaddafi has left at least 1,000 dead and led to thousands fleeing the fighting, writes Niall Mulholland, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
3 March 2011
Tunisia: Revolution and counter-revolution on the streets
PRIME MINISTER Mohamed Ghannouchi announced his resignation on Sunday 27 February after three days of mass protests in Tunis and despite fierce repression by police, writes CWI reporters, (28 February).
3 March 2011
Unison witch-hunt: Reinstate the Four!
Four Socialist Party members, unjustly suspended from office by Unison, have won a major victory at an employment tribunal...
3 March 2011
A lively and sizeable protest of trade unionists brought movement of vehicles onto the Olympic site in East London to a halt on 1 March, writes Greg Maughan.
3 March 2011
Home Office: Civil service union PCS is balloting its members in the Home Office over job cuts and the sacking of two union reps on trumped-up charges...
3 March 2011
Energy rip-off: British Gas, the privatised energy giant, recently announced a 24% surge in profits in 2010. This was largely achieved on the back of screwing its customers with higher bills. Its parent company Centrica...
3 March 2011
Protest as forty Sure Start centres across Manchester face closure and privatisation as the city council carries out the government spending cuts, photo Manchester Socialist Party
Things have got to be bad when the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, warns that living standards may never recover from the financial crisis...
3 March 2011
Socialist Party 2011 congress - a party growing in strength
The 2011 Socialist Party congress took place on 26-28 February amid the tumultuous changes taking place in Britain and the world. This 300-strong meeting heard from very new delegates and those with decades of party membership.
3 March 2011
A SIX-foot high security fence. A special unit of 1,000 police. Late night court sittings. Sounds like the West Bank? No, welcome to the Lib Dems' spring conference in Sheffield on 11-13 March! Alistair Tice, Sheffield Socialist Party, writes.
3 March 2011
International Women's Day 2011: Women and the fightback
Keep the NHS public! On the 'Save the NHS' march, 3 November 2007 , photo Paul Mattsson
Build a mass movement against cuts and for genuine equality for women: International Women's Day comes at a time of women's struggles against exploitation and harassment in Asia and Latin America, strikes and demonstrations against cuts in Europe and of course mass movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya and elsewhere...
3 March 2011
Determination to beat the cuts
What we think: David Cameron's announcement that private companies and charities will be able to bid to run schools, hospitals and council services was a further declaration of no-holds-barred war on the public sector...
3 March 2011
Jarrow to London: March for jobs
Youth Fight for Jobs march
Join the march! Youth Fight for Jobs is organising a march in the footsteps of the Jarrow crusaders, to demand decent jobs and the right to education for all.
3 March 2011
Elections see collapse of Fianna Fail, the traditional establishment party
Joe Higgins and Clare Daly
Ireland: Socialist Party wins two parliament seats The general election in Ireland was historic but not for the reasons being stressed by the would-be new government partners of Fine Gael and Labour.
3 March 2011
Fighting the cuts: Thousands protest, lobby and occupy
Reports from around the UK: Thousands of people demonstrated against cuts last week, as shown in these reports in this week's issue of the Socialist from Hull, Camden, Lambeth, Haringey, Lewisham, Birmingham, Swansea and Bradford
3 March 2011
Sure Start campaign in Manchester builds momentum
Sure Start protest in Manchester, photo by Hugh Caffrey
Forty Sure Start centres across Manchester face closure and privatisation as the city council carries out the government spending cuts at the expense of jobs and services
3 March 2011
Liverpool 1983-87: the council that fought Thatcher
THE LABOUR council leaders proposing the cuts budget in Liverpool council can feel a spectre haunting them...
3 March 2011
Fantastic results in Irish election: Socialists and lefts gain five seats
17 MEPs and Irish Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins outside the department of finance in dublin, photo Socialist Party Ireland
Socialist Party councillor Clare Daly was elected as a TD for the first time in Dublin North with 7,513 first preference votes or 15.2% of the vote, and Joe Higgins, a TD from 1997 to 2007 and currently the Irish Socialist Party's MEP, was returned to the Dáil (parliament) representing Dublin West, gaining 8,084 votes (19%).
4 March 2011
BP Hull Saltend construction workers win victory through strike action
Lindsey Oil Refinery workers strike, photo Sean Figg
A one day strike took place on Wednesday 2 March at BP Hull where a multi-million pound biofuels plant is being constructed
4 March 2011
RMT secures major court victory on right to strike
Bob Crow at NSSN lobby
Press release from RMT: Transport union RMT this morning secured a major victory in the Court of Appeal over UK strike laws that will pave the way for millions to take action over cuts to jobs and services in the months ahead...
7 March 2011
On Wednesday 2 March, Liverpool City Council met to vote on their disgraceful cuts agenda. 250 angry protesters were there from the start with about 200 more joining them as the protest continued
7 March 2011
Labour and Green councillors in Brighton fail to stop Tory budget
Protesters witnessed a horrendous farce of a council budget meeting inside Brighton Town Hall that agonisingly swung an axe down on jobs, communities and services
7 March 2011
Over 1,000 marched through Manchester on Saturday 5 March, the biggest anti-cuts turnout in the city so far. Banners from local campaigns mingled with trade union and campaign banners from nearby towns like Salford and Bury
7 March 2011
Better to break the law than break the poor!
Labour councillors' conference lobbied by hundreds of angry trade unionists: "I've never been handed a petition quite like this before!" said the chair of the Local Government Association (Labour Group) as he received a petition
7 March 2011
Cardiff march and rally against cuts
Thousands of workers, students and anti-cuts campaigners marched through Cardiff on Saturday 5 March to tell visiting Con Dems we don't accept your cuts, photo Paul Mattsson
Thousands of workers, students and anti-cuts campaigners marched through Cardiff on Saturday 5 March to send a message to the visiting Con Dems - we don't accept your cuts!
8 March 2011
9 March 2011
Lib Dems 'get a kicking' in Barnsley
"The voters here in Barnsley have given me and the Lib Dems a kicking", admitted candidate Dominic Carman after coming sixth and losing his deposit in the Barnsley Central by-election on 3 March, writes Alistair Tice.
9 March 2011
Brighton: Labour and Green Party councillors fail to stop Tory budget
ON THURSDAY 3 March, Brighton and Hove council passed a budget condemning the city to £24 million of cuts, writes Peter Knight, Brighton Socialist Party and Clive Heemskerk.
9 March 2011
Labour councils should fight cuts, not implement them!
On Saturday 5 March, over 250 delegates marched to a rally outside the Labour Party local government conference in London, writes Vik Chechi, Tower Hamlets Socialist Party.
9 March 2011
Tories allow growth of Murdoch media empire
AS EXPECTED, News Corporation group, owned by the Rupert Murdoch clan, has been given the green light by Tory culture and media secretary Jeremy Hunt to fully take over TV satellite company BSkyB - the largest pay TV broadcaster in the UK...
9 March 2011
Fighting the anti-trade union laws
The appeal court in London has overruled a previous high court judgement that blocked the RMT calling its members from the Dockland Light Railway (DLR) out on strike, writes Bill Mullins.
9 March 2011
UCU members vote for action on pensions, jobs and pay
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) - which represents academic and academic-related staff at Higher and Further Education institutions - have voted strongly in favour of industrial action in opposition to attacks on pensions, writes James Naish, UCU, personal capacity.
9 March 2011
Defend International Workers' Day: Alongside the revolutions in the Middle East, the traditions of May Day marches and the need for a socialist alternative to cuts and poverty, there is an additional reason to support and celebrate International Workers' Day in 2011 - David Cameron wants to cancel it!, writes Bob Severn.
9 March 2011
Casualties of cuts - and a rotten system
Social care workers on strike in Scotland, photo Duncan Brown
BANKERS AND speculators have been bailed instead of jailed. But for our class, the cruel casualties of this rotten system have been mounting for a decade, writes Wally Kennedy, Secretary, Hillingdon Against Cuts.
9 March 2011
BIRMINGHAM CITY council is facing legal action from service users as it attempts to raise its criteria for entitlement to adult social care...
9 March 2011
Jarrow march for jobs: Why Hull is marching
Welcome to Hull - capital of youth unemployment. Where 50% of young men leave school without a single A*-C grade GCSE. Where chlamydia, gonorrhoea and teenage pregnancy are at the highest levels in the...
9 March 2011
Students at Sheffield University staged a sit-in of their student union building recently over anger at the rumours that the university could follow others in raising its tuition fees to £9,000 a year from September 2012, writes Wylie Hume, Sheffield.
9 March 2011
Benefit attacks: Average families living in three-bedroom homes in the south east will lose £2,500 a year as a result of the government capping benefit payments to a maximum £500 a week, according to a report by the homeless charity Shelter...
9 March 2011
TUC must address demo access issue
FOLLOWING INITIAL reports in February that coaches bringing demonstrators to the Trades Union Congress 'March for the Alternative' on 26 March would not be allowed into central London, disability rights group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) wrote to the TUC raising concerns about disability access, writes a Unison member.
9 March 2011
Disgracefully Onay Kasab, a Unison member for 17 years, has been expelled from the union. Kaz explained to the Socialist that this follows a ban from office after a witch-hunt against him and three other Socialist Party members in Unison by the leadership.
9 March 2011
Medirest NHS cleaners returned to the picket line on 7 March for a three-day strike in their ongoing battle over unpaid wages and sick pay...
9 March 2011
Needed: a fair deal for carers!
EVERY MORNING for 25 years he's brought his wife a cup of tea in bed - these days, she's likely to ask "who are you?" She doesn't recognise him any more, writes a Socialist Party member.
9 March 2011
Demonstrations against council cuts
Over 1,000 marched through Manchester on Saturday 5 March as banners from local campaigns mingled with trade union and campaign banners from nearby towns including Salford and Bury, writes Paul Gerrard. Also reports from Liverpool, Salford, Gateshead and Newcastle
9 March 2011
Lewisham: Vote for a real fight against the cuts
On 24 March the voters in Bellingham ward in Lewisham, south east London will have a real choice in the council by-election, writes Chris Newby.
9 March 2011
Wales votes 'yes' but workers' party needed
Thousands of workers, students and anti-cuts campaigners marched through Cardiff on Saturday 5 March to tell visiting Con Dems we don't accept your cuts, photo by Paul Mattsson
There was a predictably low turnout in the referendum for more law-making powers for the Welsh Assembly, but the result shows a significant support for devolution just as the cuts from Westminster come crashing into Wales, writes Dave Reid.
9 March 2011
For a fighting student leadership
Young people march for a future
Before Christmas we saw an explosion of students and young people onto the streets.
This movement marked the start of a whole generation taking part in struggle for the first time, fighting for their very futures, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Students.
9 March 2011
Middle East uprisings: The unfinished revolutions
Egyptians in Newcastle demonstrate in support of the Egyptian revolution, photo Newcastle Socialist Party
As the dates for elections in Tunisia and Egypt are announced, the Libyan masses, despite their herculean efforts, have not yet been able to overthrow the Gaddafi dictatorship, writes Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary.
9 March 2011
200 trade unionists, community campaigners and service users marched in Greenwich borough, south London, against the local council's brutal cuts package, photo Lorraine Dardis
Join the 26 March TUC demo
The three main establishment parties - Tories, New Labour, Lib Dems - have so far succeeded in limiting political debate on the cuts in public services, writes Dave Nellist, Socialist Party councillor and acting chair, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
10 March 2011
Labour in coalition with the Tories in Cumbria
Just how far to the right can the Labour Party go in carrying out cuts? Well how about a coalition with the Tories?
10 March 2011
One of the ‘Unison Four’ now expelled
Onay Kasab addresses 200 trade unionists, community campaigners and service users marched in Greenwich borough, south London, against the local council's brutal cuts package, photo Lorraine Dardis
Disgracefully, Unison has now expelled Greenwich anti-cuts activist Onay Kasab from the union despite a recent employment tribunal ruling that he had been unjustifiably banned from holding union office
10 March 2011
Hutton's plans mean savage cuts - Fight to defend your pension!
Rawmarsh Community School NUT teachers in Rotherham took nine days of strike action against cuts and redundancies, winning a repreive, photo Chris Borman
Martin Powell-Davies explains what Hutton's proposals on pensions will mean for teachers and why they, and millions of other public sector workers, need to urgently ballot for strike action against this major attack. A slightly edited version of this article apeared in the Socialist.
13 March 2011
Labour imposes a 'Tory budget' in Waltham Forest
On Tuesday 8 March Waltham Forest Labour councillors attempted to do their dirty deeds - £29.5 million of cuts - in secret
14 March 2011
Earthquake could leave "tens of thousands" dead and nuclear threat
Japan: The massive earthquake that struck north-eastern Japan on Friday 11 March and ensuing destruction caused by one of the most powerful tsunamis ever witnessed was the "worst crisis since 1945" according to Prime Minister, Naoto Kan. Reporters in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, from chinaworker.info, write.
14 March 2011
Press conference for YFJ Jarrow march - Wednesday 16 March
On the day that the latest youth unemployment figures are released, John McDonnell MP and FBU general secretary Matt Wrack will be speaking at a press conference about the restaging of the Jarrow march
14 March 2011
Thousands protest against Lib Dems in Sheffield
5000 people protested in Sheffield outside the Liberal Democrats' spring conference, photo Robbie Faulds
About 500 people protested on Friday evening (11 March) and ten times that number on Saturday's demonstration (12 March) in Sheffield outside the Lib Dem spring conference. An edited version of this report was carried in The Socialist.
15 March 2011
15 March 2011
16 March 2011
Protester challenges Lib Dem MP to debate
Cheltenham anti-cuts protester Rob Bishop has challenged Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood to a public debate over public spending cuts...
16 March 2011
I recently wrote to my FE college students union to ask if they were putting on coaches for students to the 26 March demonstration in London, writes Stuart Lambert, Nottingham East Socialist Party.
16 March 2011
Campaigning against all cuts and privatisation
Tower Hamlets: In 1921 Poplar councillors, led by George Lansbury, electrified British politics by refusing to make working class East Londoners pay unaffordable rates...
16 March 2011
On Wednesday 9 March, 1,000 people marched to save the NHS in east London. Barts and the London NHS Trust plans to cut 630 jobs. The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel was the starting point for the...
16 March 2011
Japan: Tsunami results in misery for millions
Japan: earthquake and tsunami: an aerial view of tsunami damage in Tōhoku, photo from Wikipedia
As we go to press the horrendous tsunami and earthquakes have claimed an estimated 3,000 lives in Japan. The final toll could be tens of thousands...
16 March 2011
Tunisia: 'You come back - we come back'
THE TUNISIAN revolution is experiencing an uneasy, fragile pause. Strikes, sit-ins, protests and blockades continue but the intensity has lessened. Promises to hold elections to a constituent assembly...
16 March 2011
Saudi troops to suppress Bahrain protesters
TWO THOUSAND Saudi Arabian troops in armoured vehicles crossed over the border into Bahrain on 14 March in order to bolster the beleaguered Sunni ruling class...
16 March 2011
Northern Ireland: Broad left gains in union elections
Northern Ireland's largest trade union, NIPSA, has completed elections for its executive body, the general council, writes Padraig Mulholland, NIPSA Public Officers' Executive and Socialist Party (CWI Ireland) member, Belfast.
16 March 2011
Defend jobs and education at Newcastle College
Newcastle College is threatening to sack 171 workers, including 124 teaching staff. Elaine Brunskill spoke to an instructor, a Unison trade union member, from the college...
16 March 2011
Action called off by Birmingham bin workers
The long running dispute between Birmingham city council and its refuse workers ended when agreement was reached on 9 March, writes Clive Walder, Birmingham Socialist Party.
16 March 2011
Left victory in building workers' union
There has been a victory for the left and the rank and file in building workers' union Ucatt. After a long campaign by victimised official Mick Dooley, the Certification Officer has forced general secretary...
16 March 2011
Vote for a socialist alternative
WITH the Bellingham by-election in Lewisham, south east London, set for 24 March campaigning is stepping up, writes Chris Newby.
16 March 2011
Huge protests against job insecurity
OVER 300,000 people took to the streets in Lisbon and ten other Portuguese cities on Saturday 12 March to protest against unemployment and job insecurity...
16 March 2011
The rich get richer - by another $1 trillion
THE LATEST rich list produced by the Forbes magazine shows that the collective wealth of the world's 1,210 billionaires has reached a new record high of $4.5 trillion - up nearly $1 trillion on last year's total...
16 March 2011
On 11 February Scott Walker, US Republican state governor of Wisconsin, proposed the introduction of an anti-trade union bill...
16 March 2011
Yahya Al Faifi, exiled Saudi trade unionist and CWI member, and his family, have won the right to indefinite leave to remain in Britain, writes Dave Reid.
16 March 2011
On 9 March, when 300 immigrant workers were on their 44th day of a mass protest hunger strike in Athens and Thessaloniki, an agreement was made between the protesters and the Greek PASOK government...
16 March 2011
Lively discussion at LGBT meeting
The Socialist Party LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) group met in London on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 March, writes Abigail Parkinson Southampton Socialist Party.
16 March 2011
Leeds: Celebrating International Women's Day
Leeds District Socialist Party held a public meeting to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day on 8 March, writes Alicia Blackett, Hyde Park and Headingley Socialist Party.
16 March 2011
Celebrate International Workers' Day in the Socialist with a May Day greeting
Greeting prices include: £500 for a whole page; £300 for a half-page; £170 quarter-page; £90 one-eighth; £50 one-sixteenth; £30 1/32; £20 small box; £15 for up to 30 words; £1 per word...
16 March 2011
The lecturers' union, UCU, will be carrying out rolling strike action from 17 March culminating in a national day of action on 24 March, writes Ian Pattison.
16 March 2011
As council budgets are being revealed around the country, youth services are facing some of the biggest cuts. Haringey's youth services face a 75% cut, whilst in Hackney jobs will be cut by 50%, writes Suzanne Beishon.
16 March 2011
For real jobs not exploitation
It was recently reported that an increasing number of students are taking up lap-dancing to fund their studies, writes Becci Heagney and Jasmine Shadrack.
16 March 2011
The makers of BBC's Panorama should reconsider their programme title after their 'Classroom Warriors' episode, writes James Kerr, Teaching assistant.
16 March 2011
Defend jobs and services: Protest 26 March
Labour councillors' conference lobbied by hundreds of angry trade unionists, photo Suzanne Beishon
The protests and occupations of council budget-setting meetings across the country are a sign of the opposition to the Con-Dem cuts, writes Nick Chaffey, Secretary, Southern region Socialist Party.
16 March 2011
Rage against the cuts at the Lib Dem spring conference protest, Sheffield
Lib Dem spring conference: A home-made placard on the 400-strong protest against Sheffield Liberal Democrat council budget cuts on 4 March read: "Barnsley Central today, Sheffield in May
16 March 2011
Where next for the anti-cuts movement? Come to a Socialist Party public meeting to discuss the next steps
16 March 2011
400 construction workers fight lock-out at BP Saltend, Hull
400 engineering construction workers have been locked out from work since 14 March at BP Saltend near Hull. An edited version of this article appeared in the Socialist.
16 March 2011
Building the battle against the cuts - now and beyond 26 March
What we say: This government has started a war on behalf of the capitalist class against the working class and public services...
16 March 2011
16 March 2011
16 March 2011
The Guardian newspaper, which pretends to be 'progressive' and 'liberal' on social issues, disgracefully included Margaret Thatcher in its article on the "100 most inspiring women" to "celebrate" international women's day...
16 March 2011
Privatisation threat to the blood service?
NHS workers in NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) were amazed to find themselves targeted in a series of carefully orchestrated leaks from the Department of Health, informing us that the government was looking at privatising 'key elements' of the Blood Service, NHSBT workers write.
16 March 2011
Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories: "We'll struggle like in Egypt"
How the recent movements in the Arab countries are affecting political consciousness in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories...
16 March 2011
March from Jarrow with Youth Fight for Jobs
No to cuts! Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration, photo Suzanne Beishon
As youth unemployment soars... The announcement of the latest youth unemployment figures comes as a chilling reminder of the worsening situation facing workers and young people, writes Danny Byrne.
16 March 2011
Workers hit hard by earthquake and tsunami
Exclusive report from Japan:
Take over the power and building industries!
Millions around the world watched, read and listened in horror to the reports coming from Japan on 11 March and the days that followed...
17 March 2011
Saturday protest in Madison draws 150,000 to 200,000
MADISON, Wisconsin, USA - Last Saturday saw the largest rally yet in Madison, Wisconsin. Anywhere from 150,000 to 200,000 marched and rallied with their picket signs, chanting their implacable opposition to Governor Walker's anti-worker agenda.
17 March 2011
18 March 2011
18 March 2011
'Dented shield' proposed in Horsforth anti-cuts meeting
On Wednesday 16 March there was standing room only at the launch meeting of Horsforth Against Cuts (Leeds) as over 30 people crammed into the meeting room
18 March 2011
A meeting of over 100 angry residents packed into Dunchurch infants school, just outside Rugby, to hear the chair and local Liberal Democrat parish councillor declare that the only way to save the local library was to staff it using volunteers
21 March 2011
PCS protest on budget day, Wednesday 23rd March
PCS members, other trades unionists and tax justice campaigners will be protesting outside parliament at lunchtime on Wednesday 23 March, just before chancellor George Osborne unveils his budget...
21 March 2011
Saltend construction workers call for national strike action
At a mass meeting of 400 locked-out Redhalls workers at Saltend this morning, the company's offer of £3,000 each was unanimously rejected...
21 March 2011
Rail unions win over anti-strike laws
Tube strike: RMT strikers picket the London Underground, photo Paul Mattsson
On Friday 4 March 2011 the Court of Appeal in London handed down definitive judgements in two important industrial action cases, writes Alex Gordon, president of the RMT union. An edited version of this article appeared in the Socialist as 'Trade union victory over anti-strike laws'
21 March 2011
Wales university lecturers' strike just the beginning
University lecturers strike
Striking lecturers and support staff at Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth, Trinity-St David and Bangor Universities joined the UCU rolling action
23 March 2011
Bracknell Tories' snouts in the trough
At the Bracknell Forest council meeting on 2 March the large Tory majority forced through cuts to jobs and services, especially to youth services
23 March 2011
Libya: no to western military intervention
Libya under attack from Western military intervention
The UN Security Council's majority decision to impose a 'no-fly zone', while greeted with joy on the streets of Benghazi and Tobruk, was in no way intended to defend the Libyan revolution...
23 March 2011
Government health 'reforms': The Con-Dems' future doesn't work
NHS demonstration, photo Paul Mattsson
Tens of thousands of health workers' jobs are being axed by NHS trusts. This is a result of billions of pounds of 'efficiency savings' initiated by the previous Labour government and carried on with...
23 March 2011
Our Socialist Party campaigning activity at Newcastle's Monument was going well on Saturday 19 March, writes Elaine Brunskill.
23 March 2011
Tory communities secretary Eric Pickles has declared war on what he calls councils' 'barmy rules and regulations' by conducting a 'review' of the 1,294 statutory duties placed on local authorities, writes By a Unison member.
23 March 2011
Mail closures: Royal Mail bosses plan to axe another 1,700 jobs and close two mail centres - Nine Elms Lane and Bromley-by-Bow - in London...
23 March 2011
Organise the fightback - from Tahrir Square to Wisconsin
The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI - the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated) fights for an alternative to cuts, crisis and capitalism worldwide, writes Stephan Kimmerle.
23 March 2011
Fukushima I courtesy of Digital Globe
After Japan's tsunami disaster -: The earthquake off Japan's east coast and the giant tsunami wave that followed on 11 March has, at the time of writing, officially killed over 8,500 people with another 13,000 people still missing...
23 March 2011
Little to laugh about in 'Carry On Cuts' budget
Like so many sequels, George Osborne's second full budget as Chancellor will be a disappointing re-run of the first. Working class people will find little to cheer them, writes Sean Figg.
23 March 2011
No education cuts: We can win the battle!
Not content with pushing through a trebling of university fees and cutting EMA, this government is planning to cut £1 of every £8 it contributes to teaching and research in higher education in England - a total of £940 million, writes Ben Robinson.
23 March 2011
Young people and staff protest against Connexions closure
With 36% of 16-24 year olds unemployed, Lewisham, South London, has one of the worst youth unemployment rates in the country, writes Tom Jousselin, Lewisham Socialist Party.
23 March 2011
2 April 2009: 600 march to G20: Youth Fight for Jobs was launched at a national conference in November 2008 to fight back against the way young people are being made to pay the price for the bankers' crisis...
23 March 2011
Liverpool city council's historic victory over the Thatcher government
Liverpool city council's struggle in 1983-87 for more funding from the Thatcher government was an inspriation to workers, photo Dave Sinclair
When organised mass action defeated the Tories: "Two unlovely black eyes" declared the Daily Mail. It was condemning Thatcher's environment secretary Patrick Jenkin for his retreat over extra funding for Liverpool. It wrote: "The Trotskyites and...
23 March 2011
Mass non-payment - how the poll tax was beaten
The campaign against Thatcher's hated poll tax is an example of how a mass movement can defeat a government, writes Steve Score, Former secretary of the Leicestershire Anti-Poll Tax Federation.
23 March 2011
"The Tories, Lib Dems and Labour all support cuts, privatisation and the anti-union laws...
23 March 2011
Stopping the cuts with the NSSN
The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) is at the forefront of the battle against the Con-Dem cuts, writes Rob Williams, NSSN anti-cuts convenor.
23 March 2011
Higher and Further education -
UCU members on strike at London Met university in 2009 say No Job Cuts, Save our staff, and Education not for sale , photo Paul Mattsson
United public sector action needed to defend jobs and pensions! Text of a leaflet produced by Socialist Party members in the University and College Union for the UCU strikes
23 March 2011
March for Jobs 2011
75 Years ago 200 Jarrow workers were forced to March for Jobs: Why is sky-high unemployment back?
David Cameron recently labelled the 20.5% youth unemployment rate a matter of "great regret" writes Dylan Hussey.
23 March 2011
Want to fight the cuts? Join the socialists!
The relentless pursuit of profit brought about the banking crisis and recession. Our world is run on that basis - the short-sighted, chaotic capitalist system that exists only to enrich the fat cats...
23 March 2011
What has socialism got to do with fighting the cuts?
Socialist Party members sell The Socialist, photo Paul Mattsson
Each week members of the Socialist Party sell copies of the Socialist newspaper at workplaces, colleges, stations, town centres and working class estates all over England and Wales, as well as at protests and meetings...
23 March 2011
Libya: No to Western military intervention
The UN Security Council's majority decision to enact a militarily-imposed 'no-fly-zone' against Libya, while greeted with joy on the streets of Benghazi and Tobruk, is in no way intended to defend the Libyan revolution. Updated 23 March 2011.
23 March 2011
Dave Nellist at the TUSC Launch rally, London March 2010, photo Alison Hill
On 5 May millions of voters will pass judgement on the Con-Dem coalition in elections to local councils, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, writes Councillor Dave Nellist, Acting chair, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.
23 March 2011
Fight all cuts: for a 24-hour public sector general strike
For a 24-hour public sector general strike, photo by David Smith
Fight all cuts: Join the demonstration: Assemble 11am, 26 March, Victoria Embankment between Blackfriars and Waterloo bridges...
23 March 2011
Trade union demo in Southampton, pic: D Smith
Nobody, apart from the super-rich, can hope to avoid the impact of the government's brutal attacks. HANNAH SELL, Socialist Party deputy general secretary, sets out a strategy for defeating the Con-Dems' cuts.
24 March 2011
Brazil welcomed Obama with the arrest of 13 protesters
The arrival of Barack Obama in Brazil was marked by the political arrest of 13 Brazilians who were protesting against his presence in the country...
24 March 2011
University and college picket lines
In the build-up to the UCU's national day of strike action on Thursday 24 March, there was a rolling programme of strikes in different regions. Here are reports from Tuesday's strikes in Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and London
24 March 2011
Budget fuels determination to fight back!
The chancellor of the exchequer's budget speech yesterday came as no relief at all to the many millions of people who are struggling to make ends meet and who are reeling under the onslaught of the government's austerity measures
24 March 2011
This government has declared war our living standards. Public sector workers, and many in the private sector, face huge job losses, pay freezes and attacks on their pensions...
24 March 2011
Alongside the cuts the Tories are planning mass privatisation. Part of the reason for the cuts in public sector workers pay, conditions and pensions is to make buying up public services a more attractive...
24 March 2011
Why are the Con-Dems doing this?
Before the general election David Cameron tried to claim that the Tory party had changed and was no longer the brutal anti-working class party of the 1980s...
24 March 2011
The government is trying to cow the working class by the sheer scale of the cuts. Two thirds of public-sector bodies are reported to be making job cuts...
24 March 2011
Oppose all cuts in jobs, services, pay and conditions!
United we are strong, divided we will be defeated. The government knows that and is desperate to divide us - public sector from private sector, old from young, benefit claimants from everyone else.....
24 March 2011
Step up the community campaigns - organise, demonstrate, occupy!
Most campaigns to save local services rightly start with petitions and meetings. To win, however, usually requires further action...
24 March 2011
For a 24 hour public sector general strike!
The trade unions in Britain have enormous potential power. They organise over six million workers who, if they go on strike, can potentially bring the country to a halt...
24 March 2011
For a mid-week national demonstration
Unfortunately, however, the biggest public sector unions have not yet made any proposals to ballot on pensions...
24 March 2011
No to the anti-trade union laws
We have the most repressive anti-trade union laws in Europe, introduced by the last Tory government and maintained by New Labour...
24 March 2011
For fighting, democratic trade unions
If the whole of the trade union movement, from top to bottom, was to launch a serious struggle against the cuts it would be impossible for the government to implement its programme...
24 March 2011
For councillors who vote against cuts
Central government funding to local councils is being slashed by 27% over four years. More than 200,000 job losses have been announced in local authorities...
24 March 2011
Labour councillors' conference lobbied by hundreds of angry trade unionists, photo Suzanne Beishon
All of these measures, and many more, could be carried out by using councils' legal powers. However, alone, legal powers would not be enough...
24 March 2011
Lessons of Liverpool, Lambeth and Poplar for today
Today councillors can no longer be surcharged unless they are found guilty of financial crime for personal gain...
24 March 2011
Support anti-cuts candidates - for Trade Unionist and Socialists Against Cuts
Only a third of the population think cuts are necessary, yet in the local elections in five weeks time, all of the candidates from the main parties will be supporting cuts...
24 March 2011
A socialist alternative to the cuts
To be fully effective, a workers' party would need to put forward socialist ideas. Socialists do not accept that cuts are necessary...
24 March 2011
Think cuts won't affect you? Think again...
Just some of the many services facing major cuts are: adult education, benefits for the disabled, bus services, Citizen's Advice Bureau, children's services, coastguard services, domestic violence services, English for Speakers of Other Languages, EMA, fire services, flood defences, help for rough...
25 March 2011
Socialist receives 12% of the vote in Bellingham, Lewisham
Socialist Party member and former councillor Ian Page received 12% of the vote in yesterday's byelection in the Bellingham ward in Lewisham, south London. An edited version of this article appeared in The Socialist.
30 March 2011
Visteon pensioners demand the pensions they have earned
200 Visteon pensioners demonstrated outside parliament on Tuesday 29 March as Ford executives met MPs, photo by Mike Gard
Up to 200 Visteon pensioners demonstrated outside parliament on Tuesday 29 March as Ford executives met MPs. Their pensions, which were originally set up by Ford, are being reduced by between 14% and 50%
30 March 2011
Cllr Dave Nellist condemns housing benefit reductions
New housing benefit claims from Friday 1st April will only be eligible for a reduced rate; existing tenants will see their claims reduce at some point up to nine months after the anniversary of their claim date...
30 March 2011
PCS wins ballot in Jobcentre Plus contact centres
PCS DWP group vice president 70% of Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members have voted 'yes' to support strike action to improve working conditions in Jobcentre Plus contact centres across the UK, writes Katrine Williams.
30 March 2011
Unison health conference: Time for action to defend our jobs, pensions and the NHS!
Unison health conference is meeting just a week after the magnificent TUC demonstration in London on 26 March, writes Adrian O'Malley, Conference delegate, personal capacity.
30 March 2011
Vote for a fighting democratic Unison leadership
Unison members, along with all other workers in both public and private sectors, are facing unprecedented attacks from the Con-Dem government, local councils and employers...
30 March 2011
Portugal Government falls amidst mass protests
Portugal Government falls amidst mass protests
The collapse of the Portuguese 'Socialist Party' government of prime minister Jose Socrates came during a period of intense economic and social turmoil, writes Danny Byrne.
30 March 2011
Save Sure Start services - Westminster campaign, photo Save our Childrens Services
Around 30 supporters of the Save Our Children's Services - Westminster campaign marched on the 26 March TUC demonstration, writes Elizabeth O'Hara.
30 March 2011
BBC Radio 4's Analysis programme recently looked at 'Blue Labour' (BL), writes Steve Score Secretary, East Midlands Socialist Party.
30 March 2011
Against cuts? Support the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coaltion (TUSC) will be standing anti-cuts candidates across Britain in May's local, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections...
30 March 2011
Half-million strong TUC demo, central London, 26 March 2011, against the government's cuts, photo Senan
From every direction they poured onto London's Embankment, from up and down the country, a magnificent surge of workers, their banners and placards, transforming London for a day...
30 March 2011
Gove's EMA concession not enough
For school and college students, education minister Michael Gove's latest announcement of a scheme to 'replace' the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) will have left a bitter taste, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield Socialist Students national organiser.
30 March 2011
Pay squeeze Average take home pay is lower today than in 2004, according the BBC's Panorama TV programme - The Big Squeeze - shown on 28 March. It reckoned that the average worker takes home £1,088 a year less than two years ago after adjusted for inflation.
30 March 2011
MPs back the Jarrow March for Jobs
March for Jobs 2011
Seventeen MPs have signed an early day motion backing the Youth Fight for Jobs Jarrow march in October on the 75th anniversary of the original Jarrow unemployed march, demanding decent jobs and a free education for youth, writes Paul Callanan Youth Fight for Jobs, national organiser.
30 March 2011
Socialists on the 26 March demo
The Socialist Party participated very successfully in the TUC demonstration on 26 March. There were 50 Socialist Party campaign stalls where thousands of people signed our petitions for a 24-hour public sector general strike.
30 March 2011
The Con-Dems are intent on attacking us on every front. The cuts to the health service will cost lives. Despite promising to 'ring-fence' the NHS, billions of pounds of 'efficiency savings' initiated...
30 March 2011
The consequences of the earthquake disaster in Japan
Resentment and anger need a socialist expression: The human cost of the Kanto- Tohoku earthquake and tsunami will be immense, writes Carl Simmonsm, Kokusai Rentai (CWI Japan).
30 March 2011
Unite elections: Ballot papers to elect a new executive committee for Unite have now been sent out and must be returned by 15 April to be counted...
30 March 2011
Libya: the revolution will be televised... NATO intervenes, photo BBC
What we think:
* No to imperialist intervention
* Build an independent force of workers and the poor
The Libyan revolution is at a crossroads. But the turning point is not simply the rapidly shifting battle around the Gulf of Sirte.
30 March 2011
Saltend construction workers protest against being locked out by Redhall, photo Yorkshire Socialist Party
In a magnificent show of determination and solidarity, at 6am on Monday 28 March, 800 construction workers and other trade unionists assembled outside the gates of the Saltend construction site near Hull...
31 March 2011
Prison officers fight prison privatisation: Interview with POA assistant secretary, Joe Simpson
Joe Simpson, POA
Interview with POA assistant secretary, Joe Simpson The Con-Dems have sold Birmingham prison to private security firm G4S. This is the first existing public sector prison to be contracted out. An edited version of this article appeared in The Socialist.
19 Nov Socialism 2022
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