Rebecca Anderson picks apart the bizarre logic of Britain’s competing anti-cuts campaigns If we are to stop the cuts, beat privatisation and banish austerity we need to be united and organised. We need a mass movement that can call huge demonstrations, put pressure on the union leaders and bring solidarity to every struggle. As it stands, most of the […]
‘Time to tackle the dumbing down’ is the new slogan of the Tory education ‘reforms’ which aim to make school serve the needs of the market, not the students. At their heart these counter-reforms aim to segregate students by class, limiting working class students to basic literacy and numeracy skills or, at best, technical, vocational […]
When the Tories cobbled together the Con-Dem Coalition in May 2010, they were clear about how they were going to tackle the economic downturn – by making the working class pay for the capitalist crisis. With the Lib Dems limping lamely behind them, the Tories set their plan to rip society apart and rebuild it in […]
The continent is still deep in recession. Coordinated by Germany, France and the European Commission and Central Bank, savage austerity is being imposed on its weaker economies. KD Tait looks at resistance in Portugal and Greece and opposition in France to the new Fiscal Treaty. The southern states of the European Union – Portugal, Italy and […]
Marcus Halaby reports on the endgame in Afghanistan In late August the number of American troops killed in the war in Afghanistan reached a total of 2,000. This includes those killed in Pakistan and other countries where US forces are involved. Of particular concern to the US-led occupation forces has been the sharp rise in […]
It seems like only yesterday that America faced the question of whether Barack Obama would be the country’s first black president. In the months running up to the November 2008 election, his campaign unleashed a seemingly inexhaustible enthusiasm from millions desperate for “hope” and “change”. Four years on, those hopes have been dashed. For many, […]
The Trades Union Congress has agreed to consider the practicality of a general strike in response to the government’s austerity programme. Their first step should be to ask their 6 million members what they think. Are they willing to take action in defence of jobs, wages, pensions, health and education? The entire left should be […]
London’s sparks have targeted rogue construction outfit BFK for some special treatment – flying pickets, direct action and brand contamination. The capital’s high-profile Crossrail project has received some unwelcome publicity when building workers, students and supporters blocked traffic near Tottenham Court Road for an hour. But matters got worse for the blacklisting and corner-cutting consortium a […]
This year’s Labour Party conference saw what has become an annual ritual: the Labour leader and his shadow chancellor trying to steal the Tories clothes and “standing up to the unions”. Bernie McAdam looks at what happened in Manchester. This year Labour’s message was plain enough. Workers should wait quietly and patiently for another two […]
This autumn the epicentre of struggle against savage austerity has moved from Greece to Spain. KD Tait examines the potential for halting the attacks and the strategy needed to do this.
Joy Macready reports on the growing backlash against a women’s right to choose In September, a woman was jailed for terminating her pregnancy in its final stage. Sarah Catt took a drug that she purchased on the Internet to cause an abortion in 2009, and now faces eight years in prison for it. To give […]
Protesters picketed the BFK (Bam-Ferrovial-Kiers) Leeds Arena construction site this morning, demanding the reinstatement of workers sacked for trade union activities. The company, subcontracted by Crossrail, has been fiercely resisting the efforts of union Unite to win collective bargaining rights for those working on the project. A health and safety rep was suspended last month […]
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By K Tait Hundreds of masked, black-clad police advancing, firing rubber bullets into the backs of fleeing protesters. In a side street, young people confronting vans of riot police behind a blazing barricade. These were the streets of Madrid as Spain’s government announced a further £8billion of cuts to education, health and welfare spending in […]
By Rebecca Anderson
By Jeremy Dewar
Leeds Workers Power report
After TUC motion agrees to ‘consider’ general strike, step up the pressure for real action By a sizeable majority, TUC delegates have voted for a motion moved by the Prison Officers Association (POA) which says: “Congress accepts that the trade union movement must continue leading from the front against this uncaring government with […]
As we go to press news is breaking of 400 dead bodies, mainly civilians, being found in Darayya. It could turn out to be the most deadly massacre yet in Syria’s bloody confrontation. Marcus Halaby writes
While the world’s media has been concentrating on the trial of Gu Kailai for the murder of her “business” partner Neil Heywood, a crackdown of a different sort has been underway in the southern province of Guangdong. Peter Main writes
South African state prosecutors tried to charge 270 miners with the murder of 34 of their fellow workers. To do this it used a piece of Apartheid law called “common purpose”, which was designed to prosecute enemies of the white supremacist state, who were often ANC members. Keith Spencer writes
If you made a rogue’s gallery of the opponents and critics of the Syrian revolution on the Arab and international left, you would come up with a range of positions and emphases. Marcus Halaby writes
The American Zionist scholar Daniel Pipes recently wrote an article in The Washington Times, with the title “Stay out of Syria: Intervention is a trap”. Arguing that “Bashar al-Assad’s wretched presence” in power may “do more good than harm”, he added that Assad’s “non-ideological and relatively secular” regime is at least staving off “anarchy, Islamist […]
In an extract from Workers Power’s forthcoming programme, Beyond The Crisis – Beyond Capitalism, Richard Brenner sets out our key measures against the capitalist crisis through putting the working class in control of society
WHEN IT IS 38 degrees in the sun, not much stirs in the centre of Athens. But on 24 August 10,000 mainly young, male migrant workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan took to the streets after months of escalating attacks by racists and fascists.
IF YOU ARE a new student reading this there’s a good chance you’ve started a course that will see you graduate with around £50,000 worth of debt. Two years after hundreds of thousands took to the streets against the tripling of tuition fees, the student movement is on life-support; its campus anti-cuts groups diminished, its national […]
YOUNG PEOPLE in Tory Britain are caught between a rock and a hard place. Youth unemployment stands at over 20 per cent – over one million people. For young black men, the rate is a scandalous 50 per cent, revealing that racism is still experienced by the younger generation. KD Tait writes
JUST WEEKS after London was touted as a multicultural paradise during the Olympics, international students at London Metropolitan University have been told to find a new university place or face deportation. KD Tait writes Around 2,600 non-EU students have had their education thrown into jeopardy by the decision of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to strip […]
“Every time – we beat ‘em then walk away. Let’s get some blacklisted guys and shop stewards in and hit ‘em!” said Kevin, an electrician, or “spark”, from the floor of the Unite Construction Rank and File conference. Suddenly everyone was alert; hands shot up to speak on this key issue: how to make the […]
Union leaders are planning neither to change their strategy nor to lead an effective fight to stop the Tory-Lib Dem cuts at this month’s Trades Union Congress. Rebecca Anderson writes