By Chris Clough Dublin, Easter weekend 2016, saw tens of thousands of people line the streets. Flags, banners and photos of martyrs were displayed on every street corner, shop and building. Socialists and Republicans marched through the city while the government held a military parade, complete with a fly over. Graffiti and stickers called for […]
In the north of Ireland the picture appears similar to past elections. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein remain the largest parties and will continue to lead the Executive in pursuing the austerity dictated from Westminster. However the DUP vote was down 0.8 per cent and Sinn Fein was down 2.9 per cent. […]
Joint Enterprise: Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) held a demonstration outside Downing St on 16 May to demand the freedom of prisoners incarcerated by the law on joint enterprise. The grassroots campaign is currently supporting over 600 men, women and youth (the youngest of which is just 13) that have been locked up for crimes […]
By Sandy McBurney New Labour’s formula has delivered the greatest electoral defeat in Scottish Labour’s history. It’s time for change Scottish Labour suffered a historic defeat in the Holyrood elections, securing just 20 per cent of the vote and 24 seats. The biggest shock of the night came when they were pushed into third place […]
By Sarah Barden A new pay deal has been agreed between Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), but it is unclear whether the union’s conference and membership will accept the deal. The offer sees new starters getting a 5% pay rise over the next five years but […]
By an NUT member Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has made a U-turn in her forced academisation programme. This is good as far as it goes but she insists that the Tories’ intention remains to eventually convert all schools into academies. Moreover she is determined to move academies away from national terms and conditions, abolish national […]
“What’s the difference between a subordinating conjunctive and a preposition?” Tory education ministers don’t know so why should 11 year olds? By Bernie McAdam The latest leak of a primary school test online is trying the patience of the Department of Education and causing huge embarrassment. The DoE has linked this to a campaign of sabotage […]
By KD Tait On 5 June, Momentum Youth and Students will hold its founding conference in Manchester. The conference is open to all members of Momentum under 30, or in education. This is the first national meeting of a section of Momentum and is a chance to ensure that young Labour members take advantage of […]
By Simon Hardy The movement emerging in Lambeth could act as a model for everyone fighting council cuts across the country Strikes, occupations, thousands of people marching against cuts – Lambeth is currently the site of some very energetic resistance to austerity Britain. Housing, libraries, local jobs, government accountability, anti-gentrification and now the new multi […]
By Rebecca Anderson The interim leadership of the campaign formed to support Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party has decided to delay holding its founding conference until February 2017. Although there are plans to hold regional policy conferences, the delay means that there is no way for tens of thousands of Corbyn’s supporters to organise […]
By KD Tait In the last six weeks the Tories have made more U-turns than in the last six months. The infighting over the European referendum has bitterly divided our rulers. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party means David Cameron can no longer count on Labour MPs supporting his austerity programme. The watered-down Queen’s […]
Fight austerity alongside European workers For a socialist united states of Europe Editorial If you want to fight back against austerity, then vote to remain in the EU and help link up with mass movements in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece that have fought back against the bankers and the billionaires. At a time […]
By Marcus Halaby On the 68th anniversary of the original Partition of Palestine, and in the wake of the Labour right’s smears about antisemitism on the left, we answer a few common questions about the debate on Zionism, antisemitism and Israel-Palestine What is Zionism? Isn’t it just a code word for Jews? Why do some […]
By KD Tait President François Hollande’s Socialist Party (PS) government has used emergency powers to force through Minister of Labour Myriam El Khomri’s labour reform bill. This major plank of the PS government’s austerity offensive had provoked weeks of mass demonstrations, general strikes and the “Nuit Debout” (“rise up at night”) movement. Prime Minister Manuel […]
By Dave Stockton The press reported David Cameron as jubilant – can he do anything else beyond jubilating? On the morning after the 5 May elections, it became clear that their results were a disappointment to a wide spectrum of politicians, journalists and assorted “think tanks”; indeed to all of those who had already written […]
On March 30, 2012, Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton, were both convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for the fatal shooting of constable Steven Carroll in Craigavon on 9 March 2010. The case is widely regarded as a blatant miscarriage of justice with ‘evidence’ used inconclusive, contradictory and in […]
Statement Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism This campaign is actually directed against Corbyn and the party’s new left majority Fight all forms of racism Counter-offensive against the right starts now A cynical campaign is in full swing to destabilise the Labour leadership on the verge of the London Mayoral, local and regional elections, and in particular […]
By KD Tait Wednesday’s strike saw 20,000 junior doctors leave the frontline of the NHS and join the picket lines of the BMA in a campaign to stop the government imposing unsafe new contracts. The action will pile on the pressure after four out of five junior doctors joined Tuesday’s first all-out strike in NHS history. […]
By Dave Stockton High street staple BHS has gone bust with debts of £1.3 billion, a £571 million pensions black hole and nothing to show for its 88 year history other than a tidy profit for retail billionaire Sir Philip Green. With 164 stores slated for closure, 11,000 jobs are at risk and 20,000 people […]
By Jeremy Dewar David Cameron claims, “This migration crisis is the greatest challenge facing Europe today. […] Where we can help, we should.” How to “help”? By sending warships to aid NATO, not to rescue refugees, but to “stop the desperate flow of people crammed into makeshift vessels from embarking on a fruitless and perilous […]
By Jeremy Dewar A 1975 apartment block plays host to Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of the eponymous JG Ballard novel, which portrays what antihero psychologist Robert Laing terms “a future that has already happened”. The film descends into an orgy of sex and violence, the context for an allegorical critique of class society. As you might […]
By KD Tait The campaign to defend Lambeth’s 10 public libraries from the Labour council’s closure and outsourcing plans saw more than 2,000 people march through Brixton in one of the biggest local demonstrations in years. Residents, librarians and Friends of Lambeth libraries assembled at the Carnegie library to congratulate the occupiers who walked out […]
By Dave Stockton The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) recently launched its campaign for Brexit with a long article by Alex Callinicos, The internationalist case against the European Union, and a pamphlet by Joseph Choonara, The EU: a left case for exit. If you want to know all the facts to prove that the EU is […]
By Rebecca Anderson The year 1890 saw the first ever May Day demonstration, called by the First Congress of the Second International, with more than 300,000 workers filling London’s Hyde Park. Karl Marx’s daughter Eleanor, herself a prominent figure in the New Unionism movement which was then at its peak, addressed the crowds: “I am […]
Declaration of the Tenth Congress of the League for the Fifth International Since 2008, global capitalism has entered a new period of historic crisis, characterised by weak recovery, stagnation and renewed recession. As well as economic, this has had political, environmental and ideological consequences, against which both the political and trade union organisations of the […]
By Andy Yorke In this year’s US presidential race, a month is a long time. March saw the tensions in American politics stretched close to breaking point. The billionaire demagogue Donald Trump widened his lead, forced out the Republican establishment’s favourite, Marco Rubio, whipped up support with his racist, jingoistic campaign to “Make America Great […]
The second instalment in our serialisation of a socialist history of the Labour Party. Read the first instalment: Labour’s early years: 1900-1914 By Dave Stockton The years of the First World War of 1914-18 were critical ones for the British labour movement. Its political party, its trade unions and the role they play in British life […]
By Jeremy Dewar Labour should demand the permanent nationalisation of Tata’s UK operation. Steelworkers have paid for these works many times over with their labour, so no compensation is necessary. John McDonnell is right: Labour’s previous nationalisation model is flawed. Instead of a capitalist management dictating to and exploiting the workforce, we propose workers’ control […]
By Jeremy Dewar At a board meeting in Mumbai, India, Tata executives voted through a plan to sell off all its UK plants or, failing that, to shut them down. Some 15,000 workers and their families face the prospect of devastating job losses, with another 25,000 workers in the supply chain at severe risk. The […]
By Dave Stockton Villains stashing their ill gotten gains on Caribbean treasure islands is not new “April is the cruellest month,” goes the poem. Well it certainly started cruelly for David Cameron. The publication of 11.5 million records (the “Panama Papers”) of Mossack Fonseca, an offshore law firm involved in arranging tax havens for wealthy […]