Socialist Worker

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24 April: Join this pay revolt

24 April: Join this pay revolt

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News

Left List campaign taps into the anger

The Left List hit the ground running last week with its campaign for a radical political alternative in the London elections – one that will stand up for ordinary people against the privateers and property developers.

Grassroots fight has stopped greedy developers at Queens Market

Neil Stockwell has worked as a fruit and veg trader at Queens Market in Newham for 30 years – and he is furious at Sir Robin Wales, the borough’s New Labour mayor.

Left List is at centre of Camden fight for change

Across Camden, north London, there is a fight on for the future of the borough – and a mood for change.

Getting message out across the capital

From Enfield in north London to Feltham in the west, Left List campaigners made their presence felt last weekend.

Launching a challenge to the mainstream parties in many different areas

Left candidates are standing across England and Wales, including in Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Cambridge and Birmingham.

Men and women are not from different planets

Deborah Cameron is a professor of language and communication at Oxford university.

Reports round-up

Students vote at crucial conference Delegates to this week’s annual conference of the National Union of Students (NUS) were voting on whether to transform their campaigning body into something more akin to a lobby group as Socialist Worker went to press.

Lobby against redundancies at Keele university

Members of the UCU union and other protesters are set to lobby the council of Keele university on Thursday of this week over the threatened redundancy of 38 of the 67 staff in the School of Economic and Management Studies.

Glasgow Metropolitan College dispute in third week

Lecturers at Glasgow Metropolitan College entered the third week of their pay dispute with a two-day strike on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and are due to strike on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Unite executive election results

Results of the Unite union executive elections were still coming in as Socialist Worker went to press.

NUJ protest against police harassment

The NUJ journalists’ union called for an end to the harassment of its members by the police on Friday of last week. A set of guidelines on dealing with the media was agreed between the NUJ and the Association of Chief Police Officers last year.

Vote on Housing Regeneration Bill

The government’s Housing and Regeneration Bill was debated in parliament on Monday of this week.

Lobby for Karen Reissmann

Health workers are organising for the national lobby of parliament in support of Karen Reissmann, the sacked nurse and trade unionist.

Express Newspapers journalists to walk out over below-inflation pay deal

Members of the NUJ journalists’ union at Express Newspapers are set to strike on the next three Fridays in their battle over pay.

Local Government striking back against single status deals

Birmingham Council workers in Birmingham are gearing up for resumed strike action over pay cuts being imposed in the council’s single status pay deal.

Back tube workers’ fight for everyone’s safety

Major strike action by two London Underground unions is set to bring the capital to a juddering halt next week.

Oxford post activist reinstated

Postal workers in Oxford were celebrating victory as leading union activist Steve Gill was returned to work after months of suspension.

Royal Mail pensions attack must face full force of the union

Royal Mail has this week ripped up the pensions arrangements of thousands of postal workers – without any agreement from the unions.

Victory for Sukula family campaign in Bolton

Anti-racist campaigners in Bolton were celebrating last week at the news that the Sukula family had won their three-year fight and been granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain.

Muslim chaplain Adam Kelwick speaks out against airport stops

A Muslim chaplain from Liverpool has spoken out against the treatment that Muslims face at airports from anti-terrorism officials.

Cairo Conference: Delegates meet amidst strike wave

Hundreds of delegates to the sixth Cairo Conference against globalisation and imperialism met this week amid a growing movement for social justice in Egypt.

Basra uprising beats occupiers

The mass revolt that broke out across Iraq last week has exposed the hollow claim that the occupation has won a "strategic victory" in Iraq.

Mass strikes to take on Gordon Brown over pay

Up to half a million workers are set to strike on 24 April – "fightback Thursday". The action will bring together thousands of teachers, lecturers and civil service workers in united action over pay.

Everyone can build the action

Up and down the country activists are fighting hard to make the most of the potential of 24 April.

List of planned rallies and protests on 24 April

List of planned rallies and protests on 24 April

Tube worker: ‘We are fighting for safety’

Tube workers on London Underground are fighting for a decent, safe and affordable public transport system for the capital. Everyone should support us.

Left list election candidate held at Heathrow

Tower Hamlets councillor Oliur Rahman, a Left List candidate in the 1 May London Assembly elections, was detained at Heathrow airport under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Plans to gut NUS democracy are scuppered at conference

The right wing project to "reform" the National Union of Students (NUS) into oblivion was defeated yesterday when its backers failed to win the necessary two thirds support for the plan at the NUS's national conference.

Wall of sound demonstration to silence Tony Blair this Thursday

The Stop the War Coalition is asking as many people as possible to help create a wall of sound to accompany Tony Blair as he gives a lecture on Faith and Globalisation at Westminster Cathedral in London on Thursday 3 April.

Train drivers will consider new deal

The Aslef train drivers’ union suspended four days of strikes at South West Trains set for Monday to Thursday of this week after the union and management agreed a new deal.

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International

Rising struggle aids German left

Civil war is raging in the SPD, the German Labour Party, following the successes of the radical left Die Linke party in recent elections. The crisis has grown to such an extent that a recent opinion poll put the SPD at 22 percent, with Die Linke at 14 percent.

Revolt from below threatens Mugabe’s stranglehold on Zimbabwe

As Socialist Worker went to press, it appeared that Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe had lost both the parliamentary and presidential elections in the country by a landslide vote.

‘The working class must prepare for a general strike’

‘It is really exciting that the ruling Zanu-PF party is being challenged, and that the workers and the poor in Zimbabwe have dared to reject its policies.

Mixed loyalties of the MDC opposition

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was founded in 1999 out of Zimbabwe’s trade union movement. It emerged from a mass struggle against the neoliberal policies of the World Bank.

A long history of British betrayals in Zimbabwe

The news of Robert Mugabe’s humiliation at the hands of Zimbabwe’s people will no doubt be cheered on by the imperialists in Downing Street and the White House.

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Comment

Tories and Labour attack migrants in House of Lords report

"Migrants have nicked our jobs" was how the Daily Star greeted a House of Lords report that called for fresh limits on non-European Union (EU) immigrants.

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Features

Our alternative to market madness

The growing economic crisis in the US is causing even the most fervent supporters of capitalism to have their doubts in the neoliberal ideology they have used to justify the system for the past 30 years.

Roosevelt’s double edged New Deal

Last month saw the 75th anniversary of the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) as US president. His election took place at a critical moment in the country’s history.

Martin Luther King and the fight against racism in the US

The legendary US civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee 40 years ago.

Barack Obama carries only the faintest echo of the civil rights movement

Ken Olende dismisses the claim that Barack Obama is Martin Luther King’s heir

How did capitalism come into being?

Revolution, we are usually led to believe, is either impossible or undesirable. Yet the capitalist world in which we live today was brought about by revolution.

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Reviews

An England Story: a fitting tribute to the pioneers of black British music

Black British music today has an unmistakable style – one that instantly separates it from the output of the two countries that have historically shaped the scene – Jamaica and the US.

LMHR carnival: More acts to take the stage against the Nazis

Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) has unveiled four new acts that will be playing at the free anti-Nazi carnival taking place in Victoria Park, east London, on Sunday 27 April.

Artists call for anti-fascist unity

"It’s important that we’re still organising events against the Nazis. Today we have a lot more nationalities in Britain, but racism is still prevalent.

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What We Think

Are Labour in Scotland Keir Hardie’s heirs?

There is a land where New Labour stands for socialism, a land where the party’s founder Keir Hardie is held up as an icon.

A very high price for Nato expansion

George Bush arrived in Romania for a Nato summit this week backing applications from Ukraine and Georgia to join the US-led military alliance. The expansion of Nato to Russia’s borders has been key to the "new Cold War" between the US and Russia.

Bankers want to pass the buck onto you

You know the economy is in trouble when even the Bank of England starts to panic. Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor, did just that this week.

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Other Categories

Leon Kuhn: 'I'm on top of it'

Tim: 'Only canvassing'

Letters

Did China free Tibet? The most patronising argument used to defend China’s crackdown on Tibetan protests is that Chinese rule has benefited and developed Tibet. Some on the left even argue that Chinese domination liberates Tibetan women. The argument is all too familiar – the Russians, the US and Britain said the same thing about liberating women in Afghanistan.

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