Afghanistan: Bring the troops back

Demonstrating against war, photo by A Hill

THE HORRIFIC loss of life in the war in Afghanistan should make it a major election issue. In this human catastrophe, tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have died since the war started in 2001.

Kyrgyzstan - dictator overthrown

News in brief

Defend welfare and public services

RMT union challenges far-right in Barking

Postal workers call for 'no' vote on deal

Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in Royal Mail are currently being balloted on whether or not to accept the proposals made in the document 'Business Transformation 2010 and Beyond'...

NUT conference calls for 24-hour public sector strike

Newcastle University - support staff face attacks on jobs and pay

STOP PRESS - BA dispute

National Shop Stewards Network 2010 conference

Lewisham - standing on our fighting record

Chris Flood and Ian Page

MOST ESTABLISHMENT politicians spend years ignoring working people, going against our wishes. But every few years it seems we're 'the boss' and they want to 'have a conversation' with us. It must...

Coventry's city-wide socialist election challenge

Russia: Putin - ten years of the man that no-one knew

WHEN BORIS Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet president, greeted revellers in his traditional New Year's Eve broadcast in 1999, he surprised the country by resigning and appointing Vladimir Putin, then prime minister, as his acting replacement, writes Rob Jones, Moscow.

Emperor's new clothes: the bosses' pet management theories

Bosses are always searching for the Holy Grail of how to run their production systems. They were even envious of the growth the former Stalinist states in Eastern Europe managed for a limited time. One...

20 years ago: the Strangeways prison riot

Defend jobs and services - Fight for a workers' alternative - Vote TUSC

• No cuts in public services and jobs. For fully funded, publicly owned and democratically run public services.
• No to mass unemployment. For investment in socially useful job creation programmes, such as house building, youth facilities and other services.
• Stop all privatisation and take privatised services back in-house...

Mobilise to defend the right to strike

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, speaking to the press, photo Paul Mattsson

Editorial: The rail union democratically agreed and planned an effective strike. Network Rail bosses went running to the courts...

London Underground workers balloting

13 April 2010

Video: Nancy Taaffe, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate for Walthamstow

Stand up for the millions, not the millionaires!

Jackie Grunsell, Save Huddersfield NHS campaign councillor and Socialist Party member, photo Alison Hill

ARE YOU suffering from this recession? If you're a low-paid worker, the answer is probably yes. If you're a fat-cat business executive, the answer is almost certainly no!, writes Roger Shrives.

Reject the parties of cuts and privatisation

General Election 6 May: A Socialist Challenge

Socialist Campaign launched in Coventry

New Labour meltdown in Stoke

Making an impact in Huddersfield

Hazel Must Go! opposes cuts to Salford NHS

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Cuts bite in north west

NHS demonstration, photo Paul Mattsson

Fighting the onslaught on public services: So much for New Labour's attachment to education and "no cuts" to the NHS. In the north west, private sector employment has been hit by the recession, in many cases even harder than the national average...

Tories reveal yet more anti-gay bias

'Free schools' or free-for-all?

Hull May Day Youth Fight for Jobs March 2010

News in brief

NUT conference again calls for action on workload

Teachers strike on 24 April 2008, photo Paul Mattsson

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference, which took place in Liverpool over the Easter weekend, showed that the conditions teachers now face are similar to those of workers across the public sector where pay and conditions are being eaten away, writes Jane James.

Ex-Visteon workers continue fight for pensions

Industrial news in brief

Mobilise students and workers to defeat cuts and tuition fees

NUS conference: THE NATIONAL Union of Students (NUS) conference will take place on 13-15 April in Gateshead. At a time when students face huge cuts in universities and the threat of higher fees it could be expected that...

Kazakhstan: "change the politicians - or they will change you!"

The economic crisis has hit Kazakhstan harder and faster than most other parts of the world, but this has been met by massive struggles of the workers and poor...

Mass protests and strikes continue to shake Algeria

Tekel workers brutally attacked by police

The real lessons of the poll tax

Readers' comment: The centre page article about the massive anti-poll tax demonstration of 1990 by Steve Glennon (issue 617) was excellent, mainly because as chief steward, Steve had a very good overview of events, writes Rob Windsor, Socialist Party councillor, Coventry.

Mad Axe Woman Thatcher, Cartoon by Alan Hardman

We will not pay!

'Worse than Thatcher' So similar are the policies of the three main political parties that you couldn't get an anorexic fag paper between them, writes Nancy Taaffe, TUSC election candidate, Walthamstow, east London.

Help fund Socialist Party campaigns

Editorial: Stop the cuts, build a socialist alternative

Historic ‘Kazakhstan 2012 conference’ in opposition to Nazabayev regime

Peter Taaffe on Kazakhstan TV

Report of visit by Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary and Rob Jones, CWI Russia: We were driving along a road, not knowing where we were going, on the outskirts of Almaty, to attend a historic conference of the ‘Kazakhstan 2012’. The destination had to be kept secret, until the last minute...

Short Kazakh TV video of 'Kazakhstan 2012' conference

PCS: Striking against government attacks

Wrexham PCS workers on strike, photo Andrew McCoy

Following the tremendous civil service two-day strike on 8 and 9 March, PCS members once again demonstrated their anger at the government's attempt to rip up their contracts under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, writes John McInally, Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) national vice-president, personal capacity.

PCS budget day strike: Support grows across country

BA cabin crew strike: 'We shall not be moved'

AS THE second round of strikes by British Airways (BA) cabin crew comes to a conclusion no-one within a ten mile radius of Heathrow could possibly be unaware of what is happening, writes Neil Cafferky.

Air Stike - Socialist Party British Airways cabin crew strike bulletin no 6

Fight the decimation of London tube jobs

Network Rail dispute: RMT signalworker speaks to The Socialist

Workplace news in brief

NUT conference: fight cuts and excessive workload

The annual conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) usually hits the headlines over the Easter weekend, writes Martin Powell-Davies, secretary Lewisham NUT.

Socialist elected to NUT executive

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Standing against cuts and privatisation

TUSC Launch rally, London March 2010, photo Alison Hill

TUSC launch rally in London: The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has been set up to stand candidates in the coming general and local elections - expected on 6 May - who are against the pro-big business agenda of the main political parties...

Yorkshire on the campaign trail

Click here for the TUSC website

Lewisham councillors' record

Lewisham Socialist News - Our record

The Telegraph Hill ward in the south east London borough of Lewisham has been represented by socialist councillors for 15 years.

Over the years the local party branch has produced regular editions of a newsletter, Socialist News, to keep local residents informed on what their councillors, Ian Page and Chris Flood, are doing.

Copies of the report are available for sale at £2 per copy.

Lewisham Socialist Party Councillors: Our record. PDF (2MB)

Waltham Forest: on march against redundancies

Developing a strategy to defeat the far-right

Cameron shows Tories still anti-gay

Council cuts: Grim Reaper moving to Surrey

News in brief

Terror returns to Moscow For workers' unity against terror, repression, racism and capitalism

THIRTY NINE people died and over 70 were badly injured when two bombs exploded on the Moscow metro during the morning rush hour on Monday 29 March, writes Igor Yasin and Rob Jones, CWI Russia.

Eurozone crisis: Hanging together or hanging separately

Future Jobs scam: attacks on young unemployed

The Future Jobs Scheme is the government's new initiative aimed at getting young people back into work. But it appears to be more about driving the young unemployed off benefits, writes Vincent Leonard.

Southampton University protest

May Day march in Hull: Rebuilding traditions of struggle

When We Were Miners

When We Were Miners marks the 25th anniversary of the ending of the 1984/85 miners' strike, the greatest movement of workers in Britain since the 1926 general strike...

Picket line on British Airways cabin crew strike, photo Paul Mattsson

Strikers can beat BA bosses

Support grows for cabin crew: "We've been forced into going on strike because the terms and conditions have changed on board the aircraft, writes Neil Cafferky.

BA cabin crew can win

Message of support for striking BA workers from Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins:

Striking British Airways cabin crew pickets speak to The Socialist

Civil Servants strike on budget day

Pickets were out in force for the second time, taking strike action to stop cuts in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, which would leave many PCS members tens of thousands of pounds worse off in the event of voluntary or compulsory redundancy. Reports from round the country.

Support trade union and socialist alternative: Workers reject main parties

BA CABIN crew, civil servants, railway workers... As the general election looms, trade unionists are voting for, and taking, action to defend their rights, conditions and pay against the onslaught from...

Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition

Byers, Hewitt & Hoon: inevitable outcome of the New Labour project

Salford: The growth of 'Hazel Must Go!'

Woolwich and Greenwich: For a workers' MP on a worker's wage

Stoke Central: Fighting for the millions not the millionaires

Trade unionist and Socialist Coalition general election launch rally

'MPs for hire' scandal

More parliamentary sleaze: "I'M A bit like a cab for hire," said former Blairite government minister Stephen Byers to an undercover reporter who was posing as a company lobbyist, writes Dave Carr.

Hewitt's big business alliance

New workers' party needed

MPs: in it for the money

Far-right EDL outnumbered in Bolton, police try to even the odds!

When the far-right English Defence League (EDL) brought their racist bandwagon to Bolton in Greater Manchester on Saturday 20 March they were significantly outnumbered by anti-EDL protesters, writes Socialist Party members, Greater Manchester.

EDL attend anti-racist meeting

Nottingham anti-EDL anti-BNP conference

Sussex: Students gain a victory - but fight must go on!

A week of protests and activity at Sussex University started with a 700-strong protest of staff and students on Thursday 11 March and culminated in a one-day strike by lecturers and the reinstatement of six suspended students on Thursday 18 March, writes Claire Laker-Mansfield, Sussex Socialist Students.

Cuts to higher education announced: Students fight back

Socialist Party youth meeting

On the march against cuts

March 1990 anti-poll tax demonstration

Anti-Poll Tax demonstration March 1990

The riot - what really happened: In 1989, one million Scots were not paying the poll tax. The All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation was also planning organised opposition south of the border. On 1 April 1990, 35 million people would get...

Massive rejection of Sarkozy's policies presages a 'third round on the streets'

Workers and youth protest in Paris, France in May 2003 , photo Paul Mattsson

France: Regional elections: LITTLE MORE than 24 hours after the second round of regional elections in France, strike action began on the railways, ushering in a day of action and protests in 80 cities across the country, writes Clare Doyle, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).

Obama's neutered health bill limps through

Nottingham council targets the vulnerable

COMMUNITY GROUPS across Nottingham have been expressing their anger at the impact of council budget cuts on services, particularly those for vulnerable adults, writes Jean Thorpe, Nottingham East Socialist Party.

Dickens is back: Implications of poverty revealed in London

Barking council: Late developers

Battling against school academies in Hastings

HP workers take further action

Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members working for Hewlett Packard (HP) have announced a further four days of strike action in support of demands over pay, job security and collective bargaining rights, writes Ian Fitzpatrick.

Rail safety disputes

Striking civil servants in the PCS union march through central London, photo by Paul Mattsson

BA workers, civil servants: Defending jobs and conditions

The sickening bonanza for the rich goes on; last week the Forbes 'rich list' showed that the number of billionaires on the planet has increased significantly over the last year, and they have seen their incomes soar...

Support British Airways cabin crew

The planned seven days of strike action in two separate walkouts on 20-22 March and 27-30 March by British Airways (BA) cabin crew opens up a new chapter in their ongoing dispute with BA management, writes Neil Cafferky.

PCS Budget Day action

Following their well-supported two day strike on 8 and 9 March, up to 200,000 civil servants in the PCS union will be on strike again on budget day - Wednesday 24 March, writes John McInally, national vice-president PCS, personal capacity.

'Winners' and losers in Royal Mail deal

Workplace news in brief

State infiltration - a warning to the workers' movement

The state, cartoon by Alan Hardman, photo Alan Hardman

Last Sunday's Observer (14 March 2010) led with a scurrilous 'exposé' of how "an officer from a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police" was "working undercover among anti-racist groups in Britain, during which he routinely engaged in violence against members of the public and uniformed policemen... "

Youth Fight for Jobs day of action

Youth Fight for Jobs demo in Barking, East London, photo Paul Mattsson

On Saturday 13 March Youth Fight for Jobs organised demonstrations and campaigning activity against youth unemployment, cuts in education and the racist BNP in Manchester, Barking in East London and Yorkshire...

Unison leadership's "scorched earth policy"

EIGHTY PEOPLE from Unison branches across London took part in a protest against the appalling actions of the union's leadership in the witch-hunt against four Socialist Party members.
Outside Congress House, where the London region of Unison has its offices, Unison members burned letters from the regional secretary, Linda Perks.

Coventry: Voters need socialist fighters - not service cutters

Dave Nellist

"You know Dave Nellist and the Socialists - they are the ones who stand up for people like us". This was the comment of a woman to her daughter at one of our recent campaign stalls, a sentiment that is more and more common among working class people across the city...

Free the Tamil refugees

Tube Lines: Another fine mess

News in brief

Defend higher education

Socialist Students new mag out April

Course closures, funding cuts, job losses, fees... The last 18 months, since the start of the economic crisis, have seen students and campus trade unions organising protest action in Britain on a scale not seen since the movement to oppose the introduction of tuition fees in 1997-1998.
Why? Higher education faces a 'fight for survival' as reports show that funding could be cut by a third...

Defending public education in the USA

Another general strike brings Greece to a halt

ON THURSDAY 11 March, Greece was again brought to a standstill by the third general strike in a few weeks against the government's third draconian austerity package since the start of the year, writes Andreas Payiatsos, Xekinima (CWI Greece), Athens, and Niall Mulholland (CWI).

Iceland: 93% reject bankers' bailout

Interview with Skúli Jón Kristinsson, CWI Iceland We have seen recently some angry protests and demonstrations on the streets of Reykjavik. What is this "parliament of the street"?...

Thatcher's enemy within: 25 years after the end of the miners' strike

When the 1984-85 miners' strike ended, most of Britain's 180,000 miners had been on strike for a year in a battle to save their pits, their communities and trade unionism...

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition General Election launch rally

TUSC logo

General Election launch rally: TUSC has been set up in opposition to public spending cuts and privatisation, for investment in publicly owned and controlled renewable energy, for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws, and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. www.tusc.org.uk.

Surrey workers fight cuts

THE JUGGERNAUT of cuts and closures is already being felt in Surrey, which people usually see as a place of leafy suburbs and stockbrokers, writes Paul Couchman, Save Our Services in Surrey (personal capacity).

Fighting the cuts at Leeds University

Unite to save Northcott Theatre

Cuts mean poorest people priced out of the legal system

Legal aid in crisis: "Do you think they'll evict me?" - this is the question I was asked recently at the County Court. I was the duty solicitor representing a housing association tenant who had £2,200 rent arrears. Usually...