British Airways merger plan poses new threat to workers

FRIDAY 13TH was the date BA and Iberia announced the details of their proposed merger. While the potential pay-off of a successful merger will prove very lucky for the bank balances of bosses at BA and...

Tamil refugees in desperate situation

Labour pushes nuclear plants

Fast news

Brighton bin workers score quick victory

Brighton bin workers GMB picket line , photo Sean Figg

"Don't mess with the best!" Is what one worker quipped to sellers of The Socialist the morning that the Brighton bin workers returned to work after less than two days of solid strike action, writes Sean Figg.

Third week of Superdrug strike

Leeds council delays talks to end bin dispute

Sheffield First bus drivers beat back bullying management

Interview with Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary

Photo Paul Mattsson

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) is standing for re-election in the next few weeks.

Mark spoke to The Socialist about the challenges facing the union and its members.

USSR 1989 - the collapse of Stalinism

Leon Trotsky

Clare Doyle - of the Committee for a Workers' International - was an eyewitness to the tumultuous events in 1989, and for five years (1990-95) lived in Russia as the USSR collapsed...

Glasgow North East by-election: Mass abstentions in Labour's 'surprise win'

LABOUR'S VICTORY in the Glasgow North East by-election last week by more than 8,000 votes over the Scottish National Party (SNP) seems, on the face of it, to be a surprise, writes Philip Stott, International Socialists (CWI Scotland).

Far right SDL driven out of Glasgow city centre

Service with a snarl: Robert Service refuses to answer questions

HISTORIAN ROBERT Service recently wrote a well-publicised and widely distributed book Trotsky - a biography...

Working life in a car factory

Steve Bell of Aylesbury Socialist Party recently interviewed a car worker at the BMW plant in Oxford, writes What is your working life like at the moment?.

Ericsson closure condemned by Coventry socialist councillor

Save Ashford further education

London trade unionists meet to build workers' solidarity

Youth Fight For Jobs leaflet

Fight for real jobs and free education

Demonstrate 28 November: New Labour and the Conservatives are determined to make young people and workers pay for this crisis, writes Ben Robinson, Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign national chair.

End the war in Afghanistan: Bring the troops back now!

Anti-war demonstration September 2005, photo by Alison Hill

THE WAR in Afghanistan is bringing more and more bloodshed. About 1,500 Afghan civilians were killed between January and August this year and the numbers are still rising. The 110,000 Nato-led troops sent...

Socialism 2009 - an excellent weekend!

Bob Crow, general secretary RMT, at Socialism 2009, photo Rob Emery

A thousand people came to Socialism 2009 over the weekend to participate in the various discussions and to be inspired by the two rallies. From long-standing Socialist Party activists to those attending their first ever meeting, everyone got something out of it.
"This event allowed me to really understand what the Socialist Party is actually about," said Jessica from Peckham in south London. "I joined the Socialist Party at the event."

Postal workers force management back

What we think The postal strike interim agreement between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Royal Mail contains a number of concessions forced out of the bosses...

Unison witch-hunt: Defend the Four campaign gets a boost

Brian Debus (centre) with supporters outside the latest Unison disciplinary hearing, photo Alison Hill

Four Socialist Party members - Onay Kasab, Glenn Kelly, Brian Debus and Suzanne Muna - are facing bans from holding office in Unison, ranging from three to five years. This was as a result of a leaflet distributed at Unison conference over two years ago!

RMT conference on political representation

The RMT transport union hosted an open-to-all conference on the crisis in working class political representation on Saturday 7 November. This followed the overwhelming backing given at the RMT's annual general meeting in July to the union's participation in the 'No2EU, Yes to Democracy' European election coalition, and a decision at that meeting to continue the discussion on the lack of working class political representation.

20 years after fall of Berlin Wall, capitalist triumphalism turns rotten

Socialism Today, November 2009

THE WORLD'S leading politicians, past and present, gathered in Berlin this week to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, writes Dave Carr.

General Motors - no to 'divide and rule' in Germany

Ireland: 90,000 march against government cuts

United Socialist Party congress delegates defy difficult conditions in Sri Lanka

Leeds bin strike - week ten

Despite completely made-up media reports of 100 strikers returning to work, resolve amongst Leeds refuse and street cleaning workers remains high going into the tenth week of all-out strike action, writes Alistair Tice.

London bus strike

Strikes force concessions

Steelworkers get organised and score a victory over bonus payments

Fujitsu

College strike

Big business fights for fees: Students must fight back

The higher education funding review that will look at university fees levels began on 9 November. On the same day a Compass/YouGov poll showed that only 12% of the public believe the review should even...

Internationally young people fight for their rights

Reclaim the game by John Reid

Review: John Reid's eighth edition of Reclaim the Game updates and develops his critique of the "greed is good" culture of British football, writes Jared Wood.

Anti-fascists tactics - What happened in Newport?

ON 24 October, Newport Communities Against Racism (NCAR) organised a rally of 600 local people against the far-right English/Welsh Defence League (E/WDL) that shut the League out of Newport...

Youth Fight For Jobs march 2 April 2009, photo Paul Mattsson

Join the march for jobs

1,000,000 young unemployed: It is hard to imagine what was going through the heads of the producers of ITV's Tonight show when they decided the best person to 'advise' unemployed youth on how to improve their job prospects was... Lord Alan Sugar! Sean Figg, Youth Fight for Jobs national organiser, writes.

Youth Fight for Jobs national demonstration

Transport for Youth Fight for Jobs demo

'Modernisation' means cuts: Support the postal workers' fightback

On the picket line at Bitterne in Southampton, photo Rob Emery

This dispute and the reasons for these strikes go all the way back to 2002 and the appointment of Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier as chairman and chief executive of Royal Mail, a Coventry postal worker writes.

Time to plan for all-out postal strike

Reports from the postal workers' picket lines

Postal workers - step up the action to win! Socialist Party leaflet pdf

Want to change the world? Join the Socialist Party!

No one today can doubt that capitalism is a system in crisis. The capitalist propaganda of the previous decades lies in tatters, writes Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary.

Click here to go to the Socialism 2009 pages

Socialism 2009, photo Rob Emery

Photos from Socialism 2009

Action needed to bring election coalition into shape

OVER RECENT months meetings have taken place of the participants in the 'No2EU-Yes to Democracy' European election coalition to see whether another alliance could be constructed to contest the forthcoming general election. Informal discussions have also been held with some left trade union leaders not involved in No2EU.

We want workers' MPs on a worker's wage

PITY THOSE poor hardworking, low-paid MPs! The independent auditor, Sir Thomas Legg, has been reporting on some of the expenses claims made by MPs on second houses, writes Kevin Parslow.

RBS/Lloyds - Yet more bailouts and job cuts

fast news

BA cabin crews come out fighting

SANDOWN PARK has witnessed many dramatic moments in its time as one of England's premier race courses, writes Neil Cafferky.

British Airways: Vote YES to strike action: Socialist Party leaflet

Leeds bins strike against management attacks still solid

South Yorkshire firefighters and Sheffield First bus drivers

Victory at Crown Aerosols

Trade unionists must fight for decent benefits for all

Pakistan - New wave of terrorism as the guerrilla war escalates

In recent weeks attacks carried out by Taliban fighters and a new ground offensive by the Pakistani government in the Waziristan region on the Afghan border, have deepened Pakistan's social, political and ethnic fault lines...

Postal workers on strike in East London, photo by The Socialist

Support postal workers

Fighting to defend jobs and services: The Postal workers' strikes are to defend a national service which we can be proud of. Management are only after massive profits, writes Gary Clark, sub area rep, Scotland No.2, CWU

Support post workers, this is no time to equivocate

Postal strike reports: Defending the service

Leaflet: Victory to the postal workers

Socialism 2009 forum - can we build a party for working class people?

Socialism 2009 session times

At Socialism 2009, the third session in the 'Britain after the general election' course will be a wide ranging debate on how the crisis in working class political representation can be solved, writes Dave Nellist, Coventry Socialist Party councillor.

Socialism 2009 final agenda

BBC Question Time panel - Workers' voice denied against BNP

Editorial: Eight million people watched BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time, the biggest audience for the programme in its thirty year history...

BBC Griffin protest: Jobs and homes, not racism!

Far right shut out of Newport by mass protest

Huddersfield march for jobs

Huddersfield Youth Fight for Jobs march, photo Huddersfield YFFJ

Students and young workers from Huddersfield took part in a Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) demonstration on 21 October, protesting against planned cuts in Kirklees council services, writes Ian Slattery, Huddersfield YFJ.

Youth Fight For Jobs leaflet

Young musicians support YFJ

Cardiff Socialist Student elected

Youth Fight for Jobs demo leaflet, (colour)

Demonstrate 28 November
London • Assemble 12 noon
Assemble Malet St, Central London, WC1E.
Nearest tube Euston / Russell Square
www.youthfightforjobs.com

Youth Fight for Jobs leaflet, (black and white)

Afghanistan: anti-war demo

Anti-war demonstration October 2009, photo Alison Hill

SEVERAL THOUSAND anti-war protesters marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, London, on 24 October to protest against the eight-year long military occupation of Afghanistan by Nato forces...

Tamil Solidarity fights for boat refugees

Darling you're talking rubbish!

WHAT A turnaround. Just a couple of weeks ago, chancellor Alistair Darling, claimed he could see the green shoots of economic recovery. Many media commentators said so too. Then the Office for National...

Energy giant 'fanciful to the point of paranoia'

80th anniversary of the Wall Street Crash: Capitalist failure - then and now

Scant attention has been paid in the media to the 80th anniversary of the October 1929 Wall Street crash. The capitalists can hardly repeat their theme of yesterday - "it can never happen again."
Peter Taaffe, general secretary of the Socialist Party, takes a look at how much of it really has happened again, and spells out the underlying cause.

Strikes sweep across Yorkshire

"Three strikes and we're out" was the front page headline of the anti-union local paper, the Sheffield Star, above a photo-montage of firefighters, busdrivers and posties, all on strike in Sheffield last Friday, writes Alistair Tice.

Leeds bin strike: 92% vote to reject council's 'final' offer

Battle for jobs in Land Registry

Ex Ford/Visteon pensioners protest in Swansea

Leicester uni cuts protest

British Airways: Vote YES to strike action: SP leaflet

Call centres - public services on the cheap

John McInally, vice-president of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), photo Paul Mattsson

THE PROLIFERATION of call centres within the civil service and related bodies is rooted in the government's pro-market 'reform and modernisation' programme of cuts in investment, jobs and conditions and office closures and privatisation.

As John McInally, national vice-president of the PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union - pc) explains, this is not "efficiency" as they claim but an ill-conceived strategy to deliver public services on the cheap.

Newport Rising 1839

Feature: ON 4 November 1839, 170 years ago, the 'Chartist Rising' in Newport, south Wales, ended in bloodshed. DAVE REID explains the background to one of the first workers' insurrections in history.

Daily Mail homophobia

Comment: Jan Moir, a Daily Mail journalist, has provoked outrage with a blatantly homophobic column attacking the recently deceased Boyzone singer, Stephen Gately, writes Conor Payne, Socialist Party Ireland.

Film review - Capitalism: a love story

Michael Moore's film: Capitalism: A love story

Michael Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story opens with a simple message: "Capitalism is evil," and must be replaced with a system that puts the interests of ordinary people over profit, writes Reviewed by Dan DiMaggio, Socialist Alternative, USA.

Conspirator: Lenin in Exile

Postal workers demonstrate, photo Paul Mattsson

Postal workers must win

Vital battle to save Mail service: As the national strike to defend the postal service and its workforce begins on 22 October, two Communication Workers Union (CWU) members spoke to The Socialist about the importance of the dispute for all workers...

Post - a battle that mass strike action can win

Editorial Royal Mail bosses have declared war on the postal workers and their union, the CWU ...

Afghanistan: Troops out!

Photo Paul Mattsson

Eight years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the situation is a nightmare.
Far from moving towards peace and democracy the last few months have seen some of the bloodiest fighting in the conflict, with 220 British soldiers killed and over 1,500 Afghan civilians in this year alone.

Feature: End the bloody occupation of Afghanistan

Protests at the BBC: No to the far-right, racist BNP

As the Socialist goes to press, Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right racist British National party (BNP) is due to appear on Question Time on Thursday 22 October, writes Hannah Sell.

WDL racists chased out of town

Tommy Sheridan - a socialist fighter on a worker's wage

Tommy Sheridan campaigning in Saracen Street, Glasgow, photo International Socialists

Glasgow North East by-election: TOMMY SHERIDAN is standing in the Glasgow North East by-election on 12 November. Standing as a "Workers' MP on a Worker's Wage" for Solidarity - Scotland's Socialist Movement - Tommy contrasts strongly with the disgraced former incumbent, Michael Martin...

Laughing all the way to the bank

Fast news

Sri Lanka protest: Shut down the prison camps!

Tamil demonstration in London, photo D. Carr

DISGUST AT the inhuman treatment of hundreds of thousands of Tamils held under armed guard in open prison camps in Sri Lanka brought tens of thousands on to the streets of London on 17 October, writes Manny Thain.

Chinaworker.info journalist refused entry into China

FBU strike to defend fire service

FIRE BRIGADES Union (FBU) members in South Yorkshire have shown strong support during the first of two 24-hour strikes against management attempts to impose new shift patterns under threat of mass dismissals...

Leeds bin workers fight on

Giant energy company hounds unemployed electrician

First bus drivers give bosses a 'fright'

400 jobs under threat at Leeds

Striking at London Metropolitan

Click here to go to the Socialism 2009 pages

Socialism 2009 full agenda

Primary education: Report slams government policy

Martin Powell Davies at the Lewisham demonstration against destructive school policies, photo Paul Mattsson

EVER SINCE New Labour was elected, they have sought to dictate to schools what to teach and even how to teach it. Policed by the threatening machinery of Ofsted inspections and league tables of SATs and GCSE results, schools have been bullied into following each new instruction imposed by ministers and Whitehall officials, writes Martin Powell-Davies, secretary, Lewisham NUT.

Union activists discuss pulling the plug on Labour

A RECENT special meeting of Unite's United Left (UL) in the north west discussed the question of political representation, writes Paul Astbury.

Conference on political representation

The Greatest Show on Earth: The evidence for Evolution

Reviews: This year included the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and, in November, the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species...

Hard Times by Charles Dickens, reviewed by Linda Taaffe

When Britain's spies backed Mussolini

TO FURTHER their interests at home and abroad, Britain's government and secret services have always had secret deals with the most brutal dictators and anti-working-class organisations, writes Naomi Byron.