NATIONALISATION. It’s the Labour policy the Tories have always hated. And it’s back in the news. Newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has made it a cornerstone of his new package of leftwing policies. In a popular move he has called for the renationalisation of the railways. He wants to take gas, water and electricity […]
THE BRITISH government rolled out the “reddest of red carpets” for China’s President Xi Jinping’s four day state visit. There was no limit on the pomp and pageantry laid on to impress their visitor – and no doubt pictures of his reception by the Queen and his speech to members of both Houses of Parliament […]
“ELECTIONS change nothing,” said Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister. He was responding to the election of Syriza in January. Syriza owed their victory to their pledge to put a stop to austerity which had inflicted five years of grinding poverty on Greece. Six months later Schäuble was triumphant; Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras capitulated in the […]
The Scottish Nationalist Party is still riding high after its almost total wipe out of Labour in the May general election. The SNP has a lot of support among the electorate. Currently in the opinion polls they have about 50 per cent of the vote and look set to win a sweeping victory in the […]
IN PORTUGAL’S recent elections, the people voted to chuck out a European Union backed pro-austerity government. The governing coalition between the liberal Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the conservative People’s Party (CDS-PP) won only 102 seats out of 230. By contrast, the anti-austerity left did well. The Socialist Party (PS) won 32.3 per cent […]
IT DOESN’T take long for memories to fade. The picture of drowned three-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on a beach near Bodrum, Turkey went viral across both social and mainstream media back in September. The image humanised the tragic fate of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in Syria. Its immediate effect was to […]
THE TORIES’ response to the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War is to allow a mere 20,000 Syrians to settle in the UK over the next five years – an average of 4,000 a year. It will take nearly a year for the first refugees to arrive, so bureaucratic are the rules governing […]
IN THE last month Israeli occupation forces have murdered 60 Palestinians, 15 of them under the age of 18. One, Dania Irshaid, a 17-year-old student returning from school, was shot holding her hands in the air. Israeli sources later claimed that she had been “carrying a knife”. Nine Israelis have been killed in the same […]
On 11 October a demonstration against state terror ended in the bloodiest massacre in Turkeys’ recent history. About 10,000 people travelled from across the country to gather in front of the main railway station in Ankara. Two major union federations, the Turkish Medical Association and the Engineers’ and Architects’ Association, had mobilised for the march, […]
ONE of the most important factors in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign was his opposition to the war in Iraq, and to any future wars in the Middle East. The lies and spin that took us to war in Iraq under Tony Blair still weigh heavily on the minds of millions. Ed Miliband’s refusal to give […]
Ian Townson, a Lambeth housing activist, traces the contours of a housing crisis made worse by Tory policy AT THE last election, all the mainstream parties issued their usual shopping list of measures to deal with the chronic housing crisis. The one thing they all lacked was a strategic plan for it. Having relied for 30 […]
TORY plans to reduce tax credits have been defeated in the House of Lords. This is a welcome setback for Osborne, but he is still determined to grab £4.4 billion from low paid workers and the self-employed. The Lords’ vote will delay Osborne’s plans by three years, but his Autumn Statement will reveal fresh […]
National Gallery staff have ended their indefinite strike having won serious concessions after 100 days of action. Originally opposing moves to privatise the security and visitor services, PCS members also demanded the London Living Wage and later the reinstatement of Candy Udwin, a senior union rep who was sacked on trumped up charges early on in […]
The Tories’ Trade Union Bill will ramp up Britain’s anti-union laws, already among the most repressive in Europe. Liberty and the British Institute of Human Rights have condemned the Bill as an attack on civil rights. The Tories’ aim is to finally destroy the welfare state by breaking the public sector unions’ resistance, to create […]
British steel is in crisis. While cheap Chinese is steel being “dumped” on world markets, three body blows have been inflicted on steel production. The SSI steelworks in Redcar is going into liquidation, with the government refusing to offer any lifeline. A mothballing operation will now see 2,200 jobs go, in a devastating blow to […]
Jeremy Corbyn won Labour’s leadership election by mobilising hundreds of thousands with his call for Labour to break with the austerity consensus and lead opposition to cuts, privatisation and war. The comprehensive nature of Corbyn’s victory has opened up a serious struggle over the Party’s future direction. The Blairite right have been quick off the […]
Marc Dauncey interviewed a returning Labour Party member in South Wales THESE are tumultuous times for the Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn’s dramatic win and a huge influx of activists. Nowhere is that more evident than at the grassroots, local level – constituency and branch meetings. But how are these new activists finding the experience? […]
Matt Hale from Sheffield Central CLP (pc) spoke to Red Flag about the local Corbyn4Leader campaign RED FLAG: HOW DID JEREMY’S CAMPAIGN GO IN SHEFFIELD? MATT HALE: We initially started with an open organising meeting, inviting both Labour Party members and trade unionists, where we planned a series of events. We ran numerous phone banks and put […]
DAVID Cameron is threatening to put a series of votes to the Commons that would radically up the tempo of the war drums. First there is his stated aim to expand the UK’s theatre of operations in the Middle East to include bombing Syria. Labour has already, two years ago, thwarted this aim, when the intended […]
100,000 people who signed up to Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign over the summer, ticked the box to indicate they wanted to keep in touch and get active after the election. Many are new activists or returnees to the party. Now the team behind Jeremy4Leader has decided to launch Momentum – a new movement to encourage them […]
THE TORIES have wasted no time. More anti-union laws, less social housing, new wars. Cameron and Osborne are railroading Bills through Parliament. The Tories have launched a class war against ordinary people. So the labour movement has every right to respond by placing ourselves on a war footing. And now we have an anti-austerity leadership […]