A RECENT survey found a third of young women in mixed secondary schools have experienced sexual harassment. A majority complained about the use of misogynistic language and 24 per cent reported unwanted sexual contact. Whilst these results can hardly be surprising given the rife sexism in our society, they should serve as a wake-up call […]

By Dave Stockton The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty group, AWL, is well known on the left for its assertion that the state of Israel embodies “the right to self-determination of the Jewish people”, has a “right to defend itself”, and that those on the left who reject this are antisemites, albeit “left antisemites”. Antisemitism is, […]

By Bernie McAdam LABOUR’S Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, has issued a call for a new Anti Nazi League “to resist racism and the growth of the far right”. This is in response to recent far right demonstrations in support of the jailed fascist Tommy Robinson organised by the Democratic Football Lads Alliance, DFLA, and also […]

THE online culture wars became inflamed again recently in an episode triggered by — of all things — microwave rice. After celebrity chef Jamie Oliver released his new “Punchy Jerk Rice” Dawn Butler, Labour MP and daughter of Jamaican immigrants, took to Twitter to admonish him. She wrote: “#jamieoliver @jamieoliver #jerk I’m just wondering do you know what #Jamaican#jerk […]

By KD Tait THE Labour Party NEC’s decision to adopt all 11 unofficial examples attached to the IHRA definition of antisemitism represents a serious retreat from solidarity with the Palestinians and a victory for anti-socialist forces inside and outside the party who are determined to prevent the election of a leftwing Labour government. In capitulating […]

By KD Tait HUNDREDS of Labour Party members attended a rally called by Jewish Voice for Labour and others outside the party’s headquarters, to call on the NEC to oppose adopting the full IHRA definition of antisemitism, including all the examples, which would ban members from opposing the racist character of the Zionist settler state. Demonstrators […]

By Jeremy Dewar ON JULY 14, amidst the political chaos of the Tory cabinet’s splits over Brexit and Donald Trump’s visit, a “Free Tommy Robinson” rally packed Whitehall with 6-10,000 assorted far rightists, fascists and the members of football firms, who form the base of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance (DFLA). They were joined outside […]

JEREMY CORBYN’S Birmingham launch of Labour’s  ‘Build it in Britain’ campaign has been welcomed by many Labour Party members as offering a roadmap to radical reorganisation of the economy “in the interests of the many, not the few.” Certainly it was about time Labour set out its industrial strategy. And there are certainly promises, repeated […]

By Dave Stockton US PRESIDENT Donald Trump flew in fresh from provoking his Nato Allies in Brussels to a Britain he said was “in somewhat turmoil” (sic) and promptly went on to make things even worse for his hapless host. Throwing himself into the Brexit controversy wracking the Conservative Party, he made clear whose side […]

By KD Tait After warning mutinous backbenchers that a divided Tory party risks paving the way for a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government, Theresa May gambled on splitting the pro-Brexit faction of her party, and uniting the Cabinet around the “hybrid” negotiating position agreed at Chequers last Friday. For now, it seems the gamble has paid […]

Rob Schofield reports on the recent antifascist action in Leeds TOMMY ROBINSON supporters were sent home from Leeds with their tails between their legs on Saturday after they were met with an effective anti-fascist mobilisation. Through anti-fascist networks, the Labour Party and the trade unions 600 answered the call to oppose the fascists’ incitement of […]

By Simon Hannah  THE FIGHT over whether to leave the European Union is increasing in tempo. Hundreds of thousands marched in central London on 23 June (venomously described by some as “liberals”, “Blairites”, “croissant eating intellectuals” and so on) while sections of the left in Labour have swung to being militant Lexiteers. There is a […]

By KD Tait DONALD TRUMP’S long anticipated UK visit will take place on 13 July, immediately after a consultation with his alienated Nato allies at a summit in Brussels.  Campaigners are preparing to stage the biggest demonstration since the Iraq war, to give a suitable welcome to a President who threatens to “totally destroy” states […]

By KD Tait KEN LIVINGSTONE has resigned from the Labour Party, days before a formal disciplinary process was due to start, the outcome of which had become a foregone conclusion after “Baroness”  Shami Chakrabarti spoke out in favour of his expulsion, signalling that the leadership had definitively turned against him.  In making those comments, Chakrabarti […]

By Peter Main  THIS MONTH sees the second anniversary of the “Brexit Referendum” and, a few days later, the opening of a crucial EU summit on 28 June. Until now, it has been possible for Theresa May to hold her party together by publicly echoing the rhetoric of the “hard Brexiteers” whilst, in the actual […]

By Jeremy Dewar LOCAL GOVERNMENT officers, health workers and school support staff will gather in Brighton in mid-June ostensibly to discuss and debate the way forward for Unison, the principle public sector union. In reality it will be a frustrating week, listening to endless and highly inappropriate self-congratulation from the top table. Motions or amendments […]

By a PCS activist THE Public and Commercial Services union’s annual conference in May voted by a huge majority to ballot for industrial action over pay. After a two-year freeze and five-year one per cent cap, many members’ pay has only risen 5 per cent in seven years, inflation has stormed ahead at 20 per […]

By Pericles da Lima, Liga Socialista IN THE last days of May almost nothing moved in Brazil. Crucial economic links such as motorway junctions, ports, airports and refineries were paralysed by some 500 blockades, each with around 150 trucks. South America’s largest port, Santos, near Sao Paolo, was closed, as were several major airports. Schools […]

By Rebecca Anderson DELEGATES TO UCU’s 2018 congress witnessed an unprecedented attack on their democratic rights by the union leadership. Officials repeatedly suspended conference when delegates refused to withdraw motions critical of the union leadership’s behaviour during the recent 14-day pensions strike.  The strike ended with members voting to accept a deal, which puts off […]

By Dan Jones ONE WEEK after Tommy Robinson was sentenced to 13 months’ prison for contempt of court at Leeds Crown Court, around 400 of his far right supporters staged a rally outside the court, demanding his freedom before descending into the streets. The #FreeTommy protest had all the hallmarks of a far-right demonstration with […]

By Jeremy Dewar SINCE THE heyday of the National Front in the 1970s, British Nazis have always dreamt of lashing up with the football hooligan scene. If they could inculcate fascist ideas into the heads of the leaders of the various “firms” – often full of racist and socially conservative prejudices already – then, they […]

JUNE 5 2018 is the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service – the jewel in the crown of the British Labour Party and the welfare state. But the celebrations are tempered by the knowledge that the NHS is mired in the biggest crisis of its history, one that threatens the survival of a health […]

By KD Tait This year marks 70 years since the foundation of Israel and the Nakba, in which more than 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes. Over the last month, refugees and their descendants in Gaza have been holding peaceful protests in support of the right to return. These demonstrations have faced savage repression […]

Red Flag Statement ISRAEL HAS celebrated the opening of Donald Trump’s Embassy in Jerusalem with a bloodbath, by massacring at least 60 Palestinian demonstrators, including eight children, and wounding more than 2,270. This brings the total number killed by the IDF since the protests began to over one hundred. Thousands have been injured, with Al […]

By Dave Stockton FIVE HUNDRED people, a large number of them of black Caribbean heritage, held a noisy rally outside Downing Street on Saturday 5 May, before taking the road and marching off to the Home Office, a mile away. “Windrush people here to stay, let’s deport Theresa May!” they chanted. The continuing anger on the […]

By Martin Suchanek ANNIVERSARIES NEVER serve as a mere recollection of a person’s historical work. When they are about an epoch-making theorist like Karl Marx, who together with his friend and companion in struggle Frederick Engels, founded “scientific socialism”, there are only two possibilities for the ruling class or the left wing of the bourgeoisie, […]

BY KD Tait THE DECISION by Labour’s right wing to reheat the smear campaign accusing Jeremy Corbyn of failing to tackle antisemitism within the party is a deliberate attempt to sabotage Labour’s local election campaign, discredit the leadership, and silence critics of Israel’s brutal oppression of the Palestinians. Though they have differing priorities and motives, […]

By Bernie McAdam THIS YEAR marks the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). The ‘peace process’ that this initiated between the British state and Sinn Fein/ Irish Republican Army (IRA), with ceasefire followed by decommissioning of IRA arms and recognition of the police, was crowned with a power sharing government […]

ON SATURDAY 21 April, a number of democratic and socialist activists were arrested by the Punjabi Police in Lahore, amongst them Ali Wazir, Bilawal Mandokhel, Muzammil and Ismat Shahjahan, all of them leaders of the Pashtun Protection Movement (Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, PTM), and the Awami Workers’ Party Chairman, Fanoos Gujjar. These arrests are designed to […]

By KD Tait THE US, French, and British attack on the Syrian regime’s chemical warfare facilities, ostensibly in retaliation for the recent chemical attack in Douma, was little more than a cynical attempt by the Nato powers to avoid being made to look totally impotent by the Syrian dictator – whilst carefully avoiding a direct […]