Issue: 2031
Dated: 16 Dec 2006
Search below by year or month.
Try our search to find a specific issue of Socialist Worker, or use the search at the top of the page to find a specific article.
Everyone must add their voice to the clamour for a national protest to defend the NHS. Trade unions have been forced to raise the possibility of a demonstration and want to know how many people would come.
More than 800 postal workers struck on Saturday in the Stoke area in a battle to stop full time jobs being changed to part time. Another strike is set for tomorrow (Monday).
An attempt by the fascist British National Party (BNP) to hold a racist rally in Dagenham, east London, ended in its humiliation last Saturday.
Surrey County Council strike The Unison union in Surrey County Council, which represents 3,000 workers, has called a second strike on Thursday of next week to continue the dispute with the council over pay.
Lecturers at Middlesex University have voted for action short of a strike over the university’s refusal to implement a pay award and pay framework agreement, which have been agreed nationally.
The national delegate conference of Left Unity met in Gateshead last Saturday. It is the socialist grouping which has a majority on most of the leading committees in the civil service workers’ PCS union.
Around 30 people attended a public meeting on Friday of last week to fight plans to build a controversial academy school in Northumberland. It urged the government to allow a referendum on the issue.
Some 60 workers at Sandwell council held a protest at a meeting of the controlling Labour group on Monday of last week.
Camden council in north London, led jointly by the Lib Dems and the Conservatives, is proposing cuts of £23 million from the budget in 2007-8 with nearly 350 job losses.
Southampton council workers, threatened with the privatisation of their jobs, are to ballot for strike action.
Last week saw the release of a long awaited report by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) – a panel of senior US ruling class politicians – into the future of US imperialism in Iraq.
Within a few minutes of the announcement that the hated tyrant Pinochet was dead, thousands of Chilean people took to the streets to celebrate.
A furious protest by victims of the Farepak collapse took place on Monday of this week outside the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) head office in Edinburgh as a champagne reception took place.
The government was set to announce the closure of thousands of post offices on Thursday of this week, after Socialist Worker went to press.
The distinction between Christianity and Christendom is not widely understood. Christianity is the faith of those who seek to follow Jesus of Nazareth and declare him to be the Son of God.
Tony Staunton, Plymouth local government Unison branch secretary, has been suspended from office for 60 days by Unison union leaders.
Over 1,000 bus drivers at First Bus in Leeds struck on Monday against attacks on their final salary pension scheme. The company is trying to cap pensions contributions and link them to inflation.
Strike action at Exeter mail centre has been called off after an agreement was reached between the CWU union and management.
Hundreds of postal workers in the Stoke area struck last Saturday in a dispute about full time posts being turned to part time.
Some 1,000 striking drivers brought bus services to a standstill in Leeds on Monday of this week. The T&G union members are planning two more days of action before Christmas over attacks on their pensions.
Falkirk The battle against the single status pay settlement in local government is hotting up across Britain. GMB and Unison union members working for Falkirk council in central Scotland are set to protest this Saturday and strike on Monday of next week.
Acclaimed jazz musician Courtney Pine performed at the hugely succesful Cultures of Resistance gig in London on Friday of last week. Gilad Atzmon, Rodney P and Skitz, and Sam Beste also performed. The gig was a fundraiser for the Socialist Worker appeal
If you ever thought the class struggle was dead, you should have been outside the Iceland depot in Enfield, north London, at 2am on Friday last week.
The money is still rolling in for the Socialist Worker appeal. Last Friday’s Cultures of Resistance fundraiser raised over £5,000.
The new "Britsaver" pension, which the government announced this week, could make matters worse for millions.
Utter chaos I am the Sub Postmaster of a rural Post Office branch serving about nine small villages and I am generally quite busy as I also attract a lot of passing trade as we are situated on the main road.
A group of anti-war musicians has released a cover version of Edwin Starr’s classic War (What Is It Good For?) as a download-only single – with the aim of taking their message to the top of the charts in the new year.
Lancaster Office Cleaning Company has caved in to a campaign by cleaners and their supporters in London and Edinburgh demanding union recognition and a living wage.
New Labour’s smears Campaign group Health Emergency has challenged the government to identify a single one of the 29 major acute hospitals facing early closure or downgrading where the axing of key services isn’t being driven by a major deficit in the local NHS budget.
Demonstrators against the Iraq war, who were detained during a protest in 2003, have won a legal victory against the police's action.
Sam Beste Presumption of Innocence performed at the Cultures of Resistance concert in London on Friday 8 December 2006
Metroline bus drivers in London have voted by around 80 percent to accept a 5.75 percent pay rise. The rise will apply to all elements of pay – the basic rate, overtime, holiday pay and back pay.
Some 350 Iceland strikers struck and dozens joined picket lines again today (Friday), faced by security guards. They are hitting the company hard but need your backing.
Hillingdon Hospital's Accident & Emergency department is being privatised without the knowledge of local people.
Postal workers at Manvers delivery office in South Yorkshire are involved in an increasingly bitter dispute with Royal Mail following the imposition by executive action of cuts to staffing levels within the office, which involves not only the ending of the night shift but the lengthening of attendances on some days and reducing others.
IT services giant Fujitsu escalated its dispute with Manchester staff by walking away from talks with Acas last week. It has also threatened disciplinary action against Ian Allinson, the senior Amicus Rep, as part of an effort to attack the union by reducing facility time in the middle of the dispute.
Workers at Falkirk council held a one strike on Monday 18 December against the council's plans to impose wage cuts to pay for single status. The workers are members of GMB and Unison unions. They both held ballots at the same time, which decided in favour of industrial action to resist the council's attacks on wages and conditions.
The strikes planned at Iceland's depot at Enfield, north London, have been called off. A majority of T&G union members at the plant accepted an offer from DHL, the company that runs the operation, to restart serious talks on 29 December.
On Wednesday 13 December, the Basarwa (Bushmen) of the Kalahari in Botswana celebrated a tremendous victory. After a two-year long court struggle the Botswana High Court ruled in favour of Roy Sesana, the leader of the Basarwa human rights organisation First People of the Kalahari (FPK) and close to 200 other Basarwa, that they were unlawfully forced off their ancestral land.
Britain’s schools are institutionally racist against black pupils – that is the clear conclusion of a recent report from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).
An estimated 650,000 Iraqis dead, 126 British troops dead, dangerous chaos dominating many parts of the country.
The recent brutal series of murders of women in Ipswich has brought the question of prostitution and violent crime to the foreground.
The stench of corruption around the Labour party is becoming overwhelming.
The state of the radical left in Europe is quite contradictory. If one just looked at the visible state of political organisation in some countries one could get quite depressed.
Low pensions condemn people to poverty and misery. Both are becoming all too prevalent because Britain, despite being a rich country, does not pay a decent state pension.
Whichever way one looks at it, current government policies cannot solve the pensions crisis. So millions more will be condemned to face retirement poverty and insecurity. The only way to tackle this is through progressive taxation and redistribution of wealth.
The legendary US radical Angela Davis spoke recently at a commemorative meeting for author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was executed in 1995 in Nigeria, after campaigning against the exploitation of Nigeria’s Ogoni areas by Shell Oil and other multinationals.
A basic feature of capitalism is that aspects of life that should be accessible to everyone become controlled and restricted to a privileged elite – the ruling class. Works of visual art, such as paintings or sculptures, are no exception to this general rule.
The creative flowering that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917 is an extraordinary example of how art can play a major part in the struggle for a better society.
Mexico was rocked by a revolution between 1910 and 1919. The post-revolutionary government attempted to harness art to its cause.
In 1968 France was brought to a standstill by a huge movement of students and workers. This movement paralysed the French state and also saw an explosion of experimental street art.
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in street art, coinciding with the rise of the anti-capitalist movement. One element of this is "culture jamming" or "adbusting", where activists use guerrilla art techniques to subvert the advertising that pervades our society.
What relevance does Chartism have for socialists today? Of course, it is important that we understand our own history. But are there political lessons, strategies and tactics from the Chartist period that are still useful to us today?
All respect to Spike Lee. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he felt he had a political duty to make a documentary about it, to make it long – and to make it for television so as many people as possible saw it.
Benjamin Britten was the greatest of the British classical composers of the second half of the 20th century. He ranks among the greatest British composers ever.
What’s Going OnThe Dirty Dozen Brass BandCD out now It is testament to the power of Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On that its songs have been covered by hundreds of artists, almost from the moment it was released in 1971.
Having spent years justifying the invasion and occupation that have caused the deaths of an estimated 650,000 Iraqis, the world’s rulers seem to have suddenly discovered that Iraq is a disaster.
Letters
Meetings And Events