It was a long time coming, but yesterday London was crammed full of people for one of the largest demonstrations in years. Trade unionists, families, pensioners, communities, youth and students took over central London in defence of jobs and services, and against the Con-Dem coalition. The march was so huge that some protesters took over […]
Demonstration live blog
The UN decision to intervene in Libya was not a humanitarian measure to “protect civilians”. It was, first of all, a carefully calculated policy to protect Western interests in the country. Secondly, however, it was a major step towards stabilising the entire region, stemming the tide of rebellion while ensuring the continued rule of Western […]
The rebellion against Gadaffi’s dictatorship deserves unconditional support and that is not altered by the UN decision. Those who oppose powerful states have the right to get hold of arms wherever they can and to take advantage of any weaknesses in their oppressors’ situation. That remains true even where the weaknesses are the result of […]
Demonstrate against police custody deaths, remember Smiley 16 April 2011, 12pm South Bank Gym, 124-130 Wandsworth Road (Vauxhall tube) SMILEY CULTURE, Britain’s first rap star, died on Tuesday 15 March with a single stab wound to the heart. His family, friends and the black community as a whole are in shock and demand answers. The […]
THE FORTHCOMING marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton on 29 April is being paraded as a “feel good” moment for the whole country. Yet it has already cost £20 million for security while the rest of us have to put up with swingeing cuts. The wall to wall coverage of the Royal wedding has […]
SOME PEOPLE would have you believe that young people today are lazy and that they don’t care about education. Adverts tell young people how terrible their life will be without the right shoes, deodorant or iPhone. Teachers and celebrities tell us that there is a world full of opportunities and it’s our own fault if […]
How will the emerging Arab revolutions affect the struggle of the Palestinian people? Will it help their long battle for national liberation? This question is on the minds of millions throughout the Middle East, where solidarity with the Palestinians remains a key component of popular aspirations. There is no sign yet that the revolutions will […]
YOU MAY not have heard of him, but the man to watch in China is Xi Jinping. Two years ago he organised the Beijing Olympics. By this time next year, he will be President of China. In the capitalist dictatorship that still calls itself the ‘People’s Republic’, the question of government is not left to chance, […]
AT 2:55PM on 13 March a 30 foot high Tsunami struck Japan, the waves crashing over flood barriers and in some areas reaching as far as six miles in land. It was caused by an earthquake which measured 8.9 on the Richter scale that occurred out at sea 10 minutes earlier. The earthquake was roughly the […]
MOST PEOPLE do not think nuclear power is a problem until something goes wrong – then the threat of radiation or an explosion suddenly becomes real. One Japanese worker told the BBC of his fear “going to work 150 miles away from three nuclear reactors in near meltdown”. Japan has become increasingly reliant on nuclear power […]
The action of workers and young people in the US has been an inspiration. A series of mass protests, occupations and strikes have shaken the states of Wisconisn, Ohio and Indiana. Battling a huge programme of spending cuts and attacks on the unions, their struggle shows what can be achieved even in historically right wing […]
UNTRIED AND unconvicted, 24-year-old US army private Bradley Manning has been imprisoned for almost 300 days, held in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions under a ‘prevention of injury’ order at the Quantico marine base. He is kept in his cell 23 hours a day, force fed a daily diet of antidepressant pills, forbidden to exercise in […]
Barack Obama campaigned on a ticket of ‘hope and change’ but, in office, has radically short-changed his young, Black and working class supporters. It was their huge mobilisation for his election campaign in 2008 that put America’s first black president into office and also swept the Democrats to victory in both houses of Congress. Two […]
From credit crunch to global crisis The fightback begins WHAT STARTED as a credit crunch became a worldwide recession. The banks demanded public money to keep their system afloat – now the governments of the world face huge deficits in their budgets and demand the poor pay the cost of this crisis. Mervyn King, head […]
IN THE MONTHS after the Con-Dem coalition was formed, 30,000 people – fearful for their future – signed up to join the Labour Party. Brown’s departure meant a party leadership contest and many old and new party members hoped someone would emerge who would rally resistance to the impending savage cuts to jobs and services. They were […]
The Trade Union Congress called the 26 March demo under the slogans: jobs, growth and justice. Countering the Con-Dems’ rhetoric that that there is no alternative to cuts, the TUC bases its economic strategy on three demands: • Crackdown on tax avoidance and loopholes • Raise Robin Hood tax on banks and finance • Policies […]
As we go to press, the Universities and Colleges Union is in the middle of a week of strikes. This will culminate on 24 March, when 120,000 further and higher education teachers will strike together across the UK.
There is a serious debate going on within the movement about how to beat the cuts, write Jeremy Drinkall and Richard Brenner. Different strategies are being proposed but there is one thing that the TUC and Tories certainly agree on – nobody is talking about a general strike (or are they?)
NEARLY 80 per cent of the Con Dem Coalition cabinet are millionaires, yet their attacks are hitting ordinary people hardest
The Tories are pushing through some of the most dramatic cuts and reforms in living memory, John Bowman explains where they want to take Britain
Over the next four years the Tories and the Liberal Democrats want to destroy the welfare state as we know it, writes editor Simon Hardy
Mandate? No WAY. Cameron and Clegg do not have the voters’ backing for their vicious cuts package – the deepest in British history. Their Coalition only has a majority in Parliament because of Lib Dem support, and the Lib Dems only won votes because they promised to oppose the cuts. What’s more, no one voted […]
Post Office workers have voted a thumping 93% in favour of striking over the lack of a pay rise. The high vote and good turnout (66%) by the 4,000 Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in Crown Post Offices shows the widespread anger with two years of a pay freeze. With growing inflation this is in […]
University lecturers are preparing to strike against a massive attack on their pensions. Across the public sector, the Con-Dem government are tearing up existing pension agreements (see article on Hutton Report). But so far it’s only the lecturers who have balloted for action. Over 60% voted to strike, with just over 50% also voting to […]
The Bill in question is Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill, which will open up 80% of the NHS budget to private GP consortia and give contracts to “any willing provider” of health services. On top of this, 50,000 jobs, including many frontline posts, will disappear this year – 635 of them at St […]
HSBC’s Karen Ward, a senior economist at the bank, said that rapidly rising food prices were occurring at a time of “very, very low wage growth”. In fact, living standards have fallen in the UK by more than 10 per cent, according to the Bank of England’s chief Mervyn King, as inflation outstrips wages. They […]
“There’s got to be a deal here between the taxpayer and the scheme member and that deal is going to unravel if the people in the public sector say they will not contemplate change,” he said. His report has two main recommendations. First, he wants to raise the retirement age to 66 by 2020. Hutton […]
Industrial overiew from Jeremy Drinkall
“We are not the same old Conservative Party. We have changed. We are a party for the mainstream majority.” This is how David Cameron lied his way into Downing Street, writes Jeremy Drinkall