The workfare system sees multi-millionaire companies such as Tesco, McDonald’s and Asda exploiting workers by forcing them to take part in “work experience” in order to receive their meagre Job Seekers Allowance. Sally Turner writes These companies are raking it in – McDonald’s UK saw an 11 per cent rise in profits in the last three […]

Disabled People Against Cuts organised a week of protests in the run-up to the Paralympic Games to highlight attacks on people with disabilities. In particular, they are targeting the disgusting role of Atos, a major sponsor of the Paralympics as well as the government’s main weapon against those claiming Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Rebecca Anderson writes

Spain is the new Greece, the latest country to fall victim to the bond markets and Eurozone bailout conditions. With its banks weighed down by €184 billion in toxic debts and in a double-dip recession since last Autumn, in June Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had to go cap in hand to Eurozone finance ministers for […]

Editorial of Workers Power 366 – September 2012

Halfway through its term the Tory-Lib Dem coalition has failed – even by its own standards.

  Statement of the League for the Fifth International 20 August 2012 The League for the Fifth International condemns the brutal massacre – reminiscent of the Apartheid era – of 34 striking miners at the Marikana platinum mine, Rustenburg, South Africa. We condemn the actions of the British-based Lonmin owners for refusing to negotiate an […]

As the rival imperialist powers manoeuvre to gain an advantage from the mass uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship, Marcus Halaby examines the regime’s strategy and tactics as it struggles, if not for outright victory, then at least to cling on to some vestiges of its power. One of the historic claims to legitimacy of Ba’athism, […]

Unite Construction Rank and File – the “sparks” – held their conference in London last Saturday, almost one year to the day since their launch. Jeremy Dewar was there for the Grass Roots Left “Every time – we beat ‘em then walk away. Let’s get some blacklisted guys and shop stewards in and hit ‘em!” said Kevin, […]

Rebecca Anderson asks why the left has covered up the latest sellout by so-called ‘left’ trade union PCS On 26 June, members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) were due to strike over the cuts and privatisation. They face the threat of 8,500 job cuts, 5,300 of them to UK Border Agency (UKBA) […]

Racism rife, jobs and services in shreds, justice denied – Jeremy Dewar reports

By Andy Yorke GMB and UNITE officials called off the third Remploy strike scheduled for Monday 6 August, breaking the momentum of the struggle. The action was pulled at the last minute after a national meeting of the Remploy national consortium, involving GMB and Unite officials, in favour of a “new strategy which will have […]

By Paul Silson In another slap in the face for disabled people, Atos Origin has secured a £400 million contract to run the controversial “Work Capability Assessments” – despite being at the centre of a popular backlash over it’s methods. The scheme – whose sole purpose is to reclassify the sick and disabled as fit for work, […]

A sustained Remploy strike could put the Tories into crisis

Nassos Theodoridis, a member of Syriza’s Human Rights Commission, spoke by live-link to a meeting organised by the Labour Representation Committee, Leeds Against the Cuts and Leeds Anticapitalist Alternative. The meeting was introduced by Andy Young of Workers Power who gave a brief outline of the situation in Greece and then Nassos spoke about the […]

A fantastic strike took place at the Remploy factory in Leeds on Thursday, reports Paul Silson.

Leaflet given out at Leeds Remploy factory picket line on 19 July 2012

In a dramatic turn of events on the eve of the second London bus strike, the employers appear to have conceded.  Clearly the private bus operators and Tory Mayor Boris Johnson’s Transport for London feared yet another gridlock from yet another strike. According to a report in the Evening Standard, Unite, the drivers’ union, has […]

Today’s strike saw hundreds of bus drivers from 17 companies putting on some of the biggest and most militant pickets seen in recent years. Up to 25,000 drivers are on strike, demanding an equal share of the £500 Olympic bonus given to transport workers to compensate for the extra workload expected during the games. Despite […]

   Local Associations for National Action Conference (LANAC) was held in Liverpool on Saturday and was attended by 110 delegates from over 30 NUT Associations. Bernie McAdam, Sandwell NUT reports.

By the narrow margin of just 2.77 per cent of the popular vote, the Greek electorate succumbed to the blackmail of the Greek media and political class and the threats of the leaders of the European Union to give Antonis Samaras of New Democracy, ND, the initiative to form a coalition to continue wreaking havoc […]

  The TUC has called a national demonstration against austerity in the autumn under the banner “A Future that Works”. This demo comes more than 18 months after the TUC’s “March for the Alternative”. By any standards, one isolated demo every year and a half is a pathetic response to the worst capitalist crisis since […]