PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2011 will be remembered as the conference that declared war – class war – on the coalition government, but whether we can win depends on the leadership’s willingness to go beyond the strategy agreed or, failing that, the membership taking up that challenge.
Rajesh Thapa, a Workers Power supporter from Nepal, outlines why the government is still unable to agree a constitution, despite four attempts
Simon Hardy asks if we can we just tax the rich to solve the capitalist crisis, or whether more serious action is needed
The arrest of Ratko Mladic exposes the connection between the war criminals of the former Yugoslavia and the western powers, writes, Marcus Halaby
In the wake of the Arab Spring, many Palestinian activists are discussing the possibility of a third intifada, by Kady Tait
Unite’s executive last week hardened its policy against government cuts, distancing itself from the Labour front bench “too far, too fast” line, and offering support to councillors who support UNITE’s policy. The executive also agreed a motion from the North West region backing “co-ordinated and generalised strike action within the law” as part of the […]
1. Preamble The GRASSROOTS LEFT is an organisation that is worlds apart from the ‘broad lefts’. We aim to build a rank and file movement controlled by its members themselves. This PLATFORM is the property and statement of political intent of those members. All those elected as representatives of the GRASSROOTS LEFT are obliged to […]
A national conference of around 50 trade union activists saw the official launch of the Grass Roots Left, a rank and file grouping based in Unite, earlier this month. Unite member Marcus Halaby reports.
The TUC came under pressure today to call a 24-hour general strike against the coalition government’s all-out assault on workers and future generations “before it’s too late”, writes Louise Nousratpour at morningstaronline.co.uk Read more…
Katharine Birbalsingh wowed the Conservative Party conference with her tales of a south London school, which was “out of control” supposedly because white liberal teachers were afraid of punishing black pupils. Jeremy Drinkall reports on plans to put her right wing educational theories to the test by opening a “Free School” in the area
Thousands of people have begun protests across Spain in the run up to the elections, a camp modelled on Tahrir square has been set up in Madrid’s city centre. So who are the protesters and what do they want?
Revolutionaries and anti-imperialists from across the world will be gathering in Cairo between 3-5 June to discuss the next tasks for the growing rebellions across the Middle East and North Africa, writes John Bowman
Last Thursday’s election was a worked example of the power of the traditional British political establishment: the dinosaurs won the day, and by a mile, writes Luke Cooper for the Open Democracy website. Read it here
The Arab revolutions have pressured the Palestinian leaders in Fatah and Hamas to sign a unity treaty. Peter Main considers what this means for the Palestinian people. Read it here
The Scottish National Party (SNP) wiped the floor in last weeks Scottish Parliament elections, gaining 23 seats at the expense of Labour, Lib Dems, and the Tories, writes John Bowman
The elections illustrate the tremendous challenges ahead of the anti-cuts movement, but we can still answer the Tory menance with a huge movement on the streets, argues Luke Cooper It’s little wonder that attention has focused on the collapse of support for the Liberal Democrats in Thursday’s election. They were heavily defeated in the Welsh […]
On 30 April over 300 trade unionists, workers, students and unemployed joined the Leeds ‘March for the Alternative’ May Day demonstration called by the Local Trades council. The sun shone down on what was easily the biggest May Day turnout in years, with banners from Unison Health & Local, GMB, Unite, UCATT, NUT, NASUWT, CWU […]
The Philip K Dick short story Minority Report, which was made into a film starring Tom Cruise, sees a futuristic police force arresting people before they have committed a crime. Worryingly, the arrests of ‘might-be’ protesters before the Royal Wedding have turned this sci-fi fiction story into a near reality.
Fifty anticuts pages taken down under cover of royal celebrations At the same time as the royal wedding, alongside a wave of raids on squats and ‘pre-emptive’ arrests of activists, Facebook took down fifty pages, all belonging to groups coordinating protest against the government’s vicious spending cuts.
“Yes we can!” gloated Barak Obama as he announced to the world that the US has assassinatesd enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden, reports Martin Suchanek. Read it here Dave Stockton looks at the relationship between Osama Bin Laden, his politics, and American imperialism. Read it here
“For richer, for poorer?” A sick joke at our expense, writes Joana Ramiro
Nina Power comments in The Guardian on the intense and repressive police crackdown on anti-cuts protesters, just a few days before the royal wedding. Today, several social centres were raided. In Camberwell, south London, between 8 and 10 police vans tried to evict residents from the ‘Ratstar’, even though they had been given permission to […]
There have been two events in the last few months which have shown that we have the power to beat the government. The first was when the students occupied the Tory HQ at Millbank, writes Simon Hardy in this month’s editorial
Andrew Lansley’s NHS and Social Care Bill is a fraud. It’s no exaggeration to say that it will destroy the NHS as we know it – letting privatisation rip the heart out of our health service. John Bowman explains
Born in Essex, and son of a pathologist, Lansley’s first taste of politics came at the university of Exeter where he won a close battle to become president of the student guild against a communist candidate, securing support from Tory, Labour, and Lib Dem students.
GIANT MEDICAL and outsourcing companies are salivating at the prospect of getting lucrative contracts for NHS healthcare. That’s why private health bosses donated £750,000 to David Cameron’s 2010 election campaign. Now they are hoping their loyalty will be rewarded with the passing of Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s NHS and Social Care Bill.
HEALTH WORKERS have formed a new rank and file network to stop the attacks on the NHS. NHS staff are dedicated to the services we provide. Many of us didn’t get into this for the money – in the case of nurses certainly not!
Are the cuts about ideology or necessity? Many on the left have argued they have more to do with Tory politics than raw economic necessity, a case put forcefully by journalist and blogger Johann Hari. Richard Brenner puts forward an alternative perspective
THE FIGHT against the cuts is taking a big step forward on 30 June, with a string of unions now pledging to shut the country down in a mass public sector strike, writes Jeremy Drinkall