As the economy shows signs of growth, the bosses are determined to take the lion’s share George Osborne boasts that Britain’s economy is “turning a corner” and that “those in favour of a Plan B have lost the argument”. This bragging seems to be based on little beyond the latest Gross Domestic Product figures, […]
By Jeremy Dewar The Daily Mail is a rabid, racist and reactionary paper. It has history. So it was no surprise to see it fighting against Labour’s left turn. But even by its standards, its attack on Ed Miliband’s dead father was shocking. In an article titled, “The man who hated Britain”, the Mail quotes […]
By Richard Brenner On 1 February 1960, an impulsive and practically unplanned act of bravery by four black college students sparked the great civil rights’ revolt in the USA. The students went into a Woolworths store in Greensboro, North Carolina and then sat down at a lunch counter that was reserved for whites. A waitress […]
By KD Tait On 7 September, the Metropolitan Police arrested 286 antifascists for venturing away from the police-determined route for a demonstration against the English Defence League in Tower Hamlets. The arrest and detention of the 286 represents a further attack on our already eroded right to protest, and indeed on our human rights. Lawyers […]
Read online (PDF) The October issue featuring coverage of the party conferences, Left Unity, the upcoming postal workers’ strike, antifascism after Tower Hamlets and much more… Time for action Tory Party Conference: seven more years of austerity Labour’s left turn – and what we need to do Recovery […]
Read WP373 online (PDF)
KD Tait reports on how the rise in zero hour contracts exposes the bosses’ latest strategy to beat the crisis – at our expense First published by the Revolutionary Socialists Up to one million workers are employed on zero hour contracts in Britain. These contracts give people no guarantee of work, but force them to […]
Postal workers should vote yes to fight not just cuts but privatisation too By a CWU rep In late August rumours from government sources surfaced in the press that the Coalition could announce the float of Royal Mail on the stock market in September, aiming to start selling shares to investors in October. In response, […]
By James Copley Militant protesters in the mid-Sussex town of Balcombe have temporarily disrupted energy firm Cuadrilla’s exploratory drilling for oil. Perhaps more importantly, they have brought to public attention the controversy around hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking”. Through persistent acts of civil disobedience and camping out on the site of the drilling, courageous activists […]
The struggle for a living wage has gone national, hitting 1,000 shops in nearly 58 cities across the USA. KD Tait reports On 29 August thousands of workers walked out in the biggest wave of strikes to hit the US fast food industry. Workers are fighting for $15 an hour and the right to unionise […]
By Dave Stockton The defeat of the Cameron-Clegg coalition in the House of Commons on Thursday 29 August by 285 votes to 272 was a historic occasion: the first time a British government was defeated on the issue of making war in over three centuries. It was also the first time the Parliamentary Labour […]
Dave Stockton writes, according to Greater Manchester Police a column of some 50,000 demonstrators threaded its way through the streets of the city centre in a route which passed within view of the Tory Conference venue. Placards, banners, chants expressed not only the defence of the health service but hatred of the Tories and all […]
By a CWU postal rep
A strike by 220 machine operatives and cleaners at the Hovis factory in Wigan shows that determined action backed by militant tactics and labour movement solidarity can beat the bosses. Members of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) voted for three weeks of discontinuous action to stop bosses using agency staff to undermine […]
Click to read as PDF Strike threat rattles Coalition, makes investors wary: Bring on a strike ballot & let’s all vote yes! CWU postal members will be balloted for industrial action from 20 September to 3 October – and not a moment too soon. With privatisation coming on top of a crap pay offer, […]
Martin Suchanek attended the Syriza Congress in July as an international observer from the New Anticapitalist Organisation (NAO) in Germany In last year’s elections in Greece, Syriza (The Coalition of the Radical Left) narrowly failed to gain the largest proportion of votes that would have given it the opportunity to try to form a government […]
The mass movement that erupted onto the streets of Egypt’s cities on 30 June 2013 against the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of President Mohamed Morsi was just as much an expression of popular anger and the continuing revolutionary will of the Egyptian masses as were the protests that brought down the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak on […]
The illusion has been shattered. The austerity coalition – which was cobbled together by David Cameron and Nick Clegg after the election, on a set of policies never put to the people – can be beaten. When the government lost the vote to send Britain hurtling into another war, millions of people rejoiced. Not just […]
By Jeremy Dewar / 02 September 2013 David Cameron broke off his fourth summer holiday in an attempt to stampede parliament into supporting military action against Syria. But Ed Miliband, whom the Tories had taunted with being “weak”, turned on him and soon it was the Bullingdon boy who looked weak. So will Ed Miliband’s […]
By Dara O’Coghaidin, Mental Health worker / 02 September 2013 Established in 1948 to be a free and universal system of healthcare, the NHS reached the pensionable age of 65 in July and is sadly unwell. Patient satisfaction has plummeted from an all-time high of 70 per cent to just 58 per cent in a […]
By Marcus Halaby / 30 August 2013 On 21 August, reports emerged that hundreds of people had been killed in a chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held agricultural region just outside of the Syrian capital Damascus. With reports of up to 1,700 dead, this atrocity is just the latest in a long series […]
The League for the Fifth International totally condemns the preparations by the US administration, warmly supported by the British and French imperialists, to launch missile attacks on Syria. We call on the labour movements and progressive forces of all countries to mobilise to prevent such attacks and to make the perpetrators pay heavily for it […]
This motion was proposed by Workers Power members and passed by Lambeth Left Unity branch on 27 August 2013. Lambeth left Unity condemns the preparations by the US Administration and the British Government for missile attacks on Syria. We also condemn in the strongest terms the Assad regime¹s use of chemical weapons in Ghouta on […]
By a CWU rep Earlier this month, 500 full-time Communication Workers Union reps and officials, gathered in London for an emergency “policy forum”. They voted unanimously for a national strike ballot. Pending further negotiations, the leadership is committed to doing so no later than September 2013. The CWU is on course for its first national […]
The July 3 military coup in Egypt, launched by Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, seems to be faltering in the face of intransigent resistance by the mass following of the Muslim Brotherhood. Having failed to crush the resistance of pro-Morsi demonstrators, despite the massacre of 72 people at the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo […]
By KD Tait / Saturday 10 August, 2013 Last week retail workers’ campaign for $15 an hour and the right to unionise took another step forward with thousands joining strikes in seven cities. What began as a one-day strike by 200 fast food workers in New York last November has spread to several states and […]
A recent “correction” in The Guardian makes it the first mainstream newspaper to confirm what many activists, bloggers and most of all, health workers have known for months: the so-called “needless deaths” statistics pedalled by the media are a crude scare tactic designed to shore up public support for “reform” – the Tory term for privatisation. For […]
Unite and GMB members employed in highways, grounds and maintenance work will stage a 24 hour strike on Friday 9 August after rejecting a below-inflation pay rise. They will strike each Friday until they get a better offer. The escalation comes after a work-to-rule and overtime ban observed by up to 600 workers since 29 […]
Postal workers at Bridgwater Delivery Office in Somerset are on strike against imposed “summer savings” (workload hikes) and management bullying. Royal Mail are refusing to suspend a senior manager while allegations of stealing a postman’s mail are investigated, something that would see a worker suspended immediately. This strike is about issues facing workers in every […]