By Tim Nailsea STAGECOACH DRIVERS, engineers and cleaners in Scotland, Chesterfield, Manchester, the North-East, Lancashire and Liverpool and South Wales are all balloting, or have already been balloted for strike action. The issues are broadly the same everywhere. Despite working throughout the pandemic at considerable personal risk, drivers have either not been awarded a pay […]

By Rebecca Anderson THERE IS a real opportunity for coordinated strike action between two of Britain’s largest workforces: council workers, including school support staff, and hospital employees. If successful, it could bust the public sector pay freeze and build momentum in private sector struggles for substantial pay rises. Local government and school staff have been […]

By Joe Crathorne BETWEEN 600,000 and 1.2 million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers live in Britain, around 50,000 of whom are each year rounded up and sent to detention centres to be processed and, usually, deported. At any one time up to 3,500 are held indefinitely in prison-like detention centres. These workers, whose only crime […]

By Dave Stockton THE CONFEDERATION of British Industries (CBI), representing 190,000 companies, warned on 18 October that ‘acute’ labour shortages will spread across more and more industries, from construction and distribution to retail and healthcare. And this crisis could last as long as two years. Though hospitality trades have enjoyed a strong bounce-back, this sector […]

By Tim Nailsea BRITAIN’S ECONOMIC growth has almost stalled because of shortages of labour in parts of industry and of material inputs, due to disruptions in the supply chain, coupled with the effects of Brexit. GDP grew by 0.4% in August but is still 0.8% below where it was in February 2020, before the country […]

‘NEGOTIATIONS ARE about give and take … We are not cowards because we have taken a compromise,’ said the self-styled ‘socialist revolutionary’ Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). Immediately after, he ordered 155,000 steelworkers back to work, ending their three-week strike. This wasn’t just ‘compromise’; it was […]

By KD Tait ON SATURDAY 16 October tens of thousands attended an anti-fascist demonstration in Rome, called by the CGIL trade union, in response to a fascist attack on the union’s headquarters the previous week. On 9 October thousands of people had attended a protest against the Green Pass, a covid passport which provides proof […]

By Alex Rutherford THE GOVERNMENT and Labour are exploiting the murder of David Amess MP to whip up fears around ‘online anonymity’ in order to ram through a raft of measures giving the government unprecedented control over online free speech. The Bill has been on the cards for some time – the draft text was […]

Editorial November 2021, No. 388

By Rebecca Anderson THE TRIAL of Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard has shone a spotlight on violence against women and the inability of the police and judicial system to confront the problem. For months after Sarah’s murder the Metropolitan Police and Home Office dismissed any notion that there was a deep-seated prejudice […]

We need 15% or £15 an hour

By Jeremy Dewar Workers in Britain are being hit by a triple whammy this month: inflation heading towards 5%; a £20 cut to Universal Credit, hitting the unemployed and worst paid workers; and the ending of furlough for 1 million workers, throwing hundreds of thousands out the door. These are not ‘temporary blips’ that will […]

By Jaqueline Katherina Singh (Berlin) The Social Democrats (SPD), led by Olaf Scholz, topped the polls with 25.7% in the German general election on 26 September and will take the first shot at forming a coalition government. Negotiations are likely to last till Christmas. Over the preceding year both the conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the Greens […]

By Marcus Otono (Nashville, Tennessee) Texas has become the testing ground for a new approach to the nearly 50 year-long battle over abortion rights in the United States. A new law took effect on 1 September which prohibits terminations after the detection of a foetal heartbeat, around six weeks into a pregnancy. There are no […]

By Reginald Banks The Tories have fired an initial salvo at the working class in the battle over who is to pay for the pandemic. The new ‘health and social care levy’, which cleared all of its Commons stages in a single day, will raise national insurance rates by 1.25% to their highest level ever […]

Despite a career of abuse, cover-up and racism, Cressida Dick will be reappointed as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Remember the old slogan - "with the union leaders where possible, without them where necessary".

The pandemic revealed just how much British capitalism relies upon transport workers

Editorial October 2021, No. 387

Two trade unions have called on Uber drivers to stop work.

Afghan women are leading the way in organising anti-Taliban protests in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan. They are doing what US and allied occupying forces failed to do: stand up to the Taliban.

Despite its talk of helping Afghan refugees, the government is passing new laws to harass migrants

Mass unemployment and the scourge of long-term joblessness have returned.

Brexit and pandemic-induced shortages fuel demands for action on pay and conditions

NEC purge signals end of left's attempt to wrest control of the party

This year's annual conference presents a last chance for the Labour left to regroup and reassess its priorities

The Tories are pressing ahead with plans to ban the BDS campaign in public institutions

Profiteers are cherry-picking the most profitable parts of our health service

The pandemic has exposed that the NHS is not so much at breaking point, but beyond it.