Socialist Worker

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Dominic Cummings shows class arrogance of the rich

“People will have to make their minds up” about Dominic Cummings, said Boris Johnson this week.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Anthony Grainger killing: ‘words will never be enough to save lives’

The government claims that lessons have been learned almost a year after an inquiry said police were to blame for the killing of Anthony Grainger. But the police responsbile are still not facing trial.

Workers, parents and students unite to fight dangerous schools reopening

The Tories’ plan to start reopening schools from 1 June looks “increasingly unlikely” to take place. That’s according to a furious article in the Daily Mail newspaper.

‘Everything is destroyed’ in wake of Cyclone Amphan

Millions of people in India, Bangladesh and Bhutan have been forced to flee from “super cyclone” Amphan that swept inland from the Indian Ocean on Wednesday. 

Dyson workers pull rug out from bosses’ feet

A workers’ revolt has stopped a return to work at a Wiltshire engineering company owned by Sir James Dyson, Britain’s richest man.

Huge meetings of parents boost fight against unsafe schools opening

Over 580 people joined a meeting in Redbridge, 185 in Coventry and 140 in Hackney

Angry cavalcades reject Tory return to work

The feeling of solidarity with NHS workers, and revulsion at an unsafe return to work and schools, was shown by cavalcades and other events across Britain on Thursday

Tories retreat on NHS charge

Anti-racists vowed to step up the fight against NHS charges for migrants after Tory prime minister Boris Johnson was forced into a humiliating U-turn.

Fight to save every job at Tradeteam

Workers at the Tradeteam distribution firm across Britain are preparing to vote on strikes after bosses announced plans to close the Sheffield depot in Tinsley, putting more than 200 jobs at risk.

Parents and teachers could wreck Johnson’s school plan

Boris Johnson said on Sunday that the Tories would push ahead with plans to get more children in schools from Monday of next week

Devastating critique of SNP and care homes

Police are investigating the deaths of three women at a care home at the centre of a coronavirus outbreak on the Isle of Skye.

Bankers celebrate relationship with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour

City spivs are hailing a “sea change” in attitudes towards bankers and bosses from Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

University workers build resistance to throw out a rotten deal

A major revolt among rank and file UCU union members in universities is taking place. 

Workplaces round-up: University workers fight major attacks + Medway Norse + fighting council and fire ccuts

Workers at Roehampton university are fighting plans to attack jobs and pay. The university has announced a voluntary severance scheme and 15 percent of academic posts are at risk.

Moves to undermine furlough scheme flag up plans for new attacks on workers

Bosses have warned of a ‘tsunami of job losses’ after lockdown ends, reports Tomáš Tengely-Evans

‘Horrific’ new terror laws will mean that more lives are ‘ripped to shreds’

Tory home secretary Priti Patel wants to grab more powers for the state with a draconian terror bill.

Labour lets Tories stagger on

The growing furore over Dominic Cummings finally forced the Labour Party to at least show some sort of opposition to the Tories. 

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International

Jair Bolsonaro caught up in coronavirus and corruption crisis

Brazil’s soaring cases of coronavirus, and growing splits in Jair Bolsonaro’s government, are shaking the foundations of the far right president’s rule.

Workers in France say no return to ‘normal’

French health workers are demanding that “we don’t go back to how it was before”—and want fundamental changes in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Fresh protests erupt in Hong Kong

Mass protests have erupted in Hong Kong against a plan by the Chinese government to impose a new security law.

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Comment

Don’t use Denmark to justify a return to schools

The Tories claim Denmark shows it’s safe to reopen schools. Paul McGarr looks behind their spin

Is EU singing from Hamilton songbook?

Alexander Hamilton, one of the brilliant group of “founding fathers” of the United States and its first finance minister, was once remembered mainly because he was killed in a duel by vice president Aaron Burr in 1804.

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Features

Why the world is unequal

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the grotesque inequalities between rich and poor countries

Winners and losers in Covid-19 Britain

We are not “all in this together”. Covid-19 is not some great equaliser that brings everyone together, but rather a crisis that is deepening the fissures in an already unequal society.

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Reviews

Far-fetched series Inhuman Resources shows up a brutal corporate culture

This new Netflix show stars Eric Cantona as a man fallen on hard times given a second chance. But its outlandish plot fails to score

The Public is a good story, if a little heavy-handed

This film about a group of homeless people who occupy a public library has recently become available on Curzon Home Cinema

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What We Think

Elite liars push for an unsafe return to work

The fallout from the Dominic Cummings scandal has sent a shockwave through British politics. It comes at a pivotal moment in the coronavirus pandemic in Britain. 

Expose smug media hypocrisy

Dominic Cummings and many of his newfound critics in the mainstream media have far more in common than they like to pretend. 

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Other Categories

Letters—Why are the press ignoring the Covid-19 gender gap? 

I was struck this week by the mainstream media’s lack of interest in the latest report from the Fawcett Society.The differential impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities has been widely reported but little attention has been given to the issue of women and the pandemic. 

Cummings’ trips to Durham are nothing to be sneezed at

The Prime Minister defended Dominic Cummings after his top aid showed him the pictures of whatever it is that he has on Boris Johnson.

Tory ‘test, track and trace’ plan is in tatters before it’s begun

After months of failures, Boris Johnson claims he has a new contact tracing strategy. But as Sarah Bates reports, the scheme is already in trouble

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