Thousands of postal workers from across London struck for 24 hours today as part of a fight against attempts by Royal Mail to ram through thousands of job losses and attacks on working conditions.

Day of action shows growing support for Vestas workers

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Isle of Wight yesterday as part of a national day of action as part of the campaign to save jobs at the Vestas wind turbine factory.

More action, not less, is the way to win ballot in Royal Mail

A crucial battle is taking place in Royal Mail. It will determine both the future of the postal industry and the role of the CWU union within it.

Action hits Royal Mail bosses

Postal workers across Britain have taken strike action over the past week in response to a wave of management attacks on working conditions and on their CWU union.

Is Royal Mail preparing a secret scabbing operation?

An industrial complex on the edge of a Northamptonshire village has become a centre of the battle for the future of the postal service.

Vestas: the fight for jobs goes on

The sense of struggle is palpable on the Isle of Wight, and workers at the Vestas wind turbine factory are taking a clear lead in order to take their campaign for jobs to victory.

Vestas occupier: ‘We need a system that is based on the needs of people’

Ian Terry, one of the youngest Vestas occupiers, spoke to Socialist Worker about his experiences and where the struggle should go now.

London bus workers take protest to bosses

London bus workers in the Unite union took their protest directly to Transport For London (TfL) when they temporarily occupied its office in Southwark last Wednesday.

Strike called off at First Yorkshire

Bus drivers in South Yorkshire are fuming at news that a planned one-day strike has been called off.

National Express: A united fight for decent pay

Workers at the National Express East Anglia train company are stepping up their fight over pay, conditions and reorganisation with their third 48-hour strike set for Thursday and Friday of this week.

Reports round up

Protest at Stoke Newington police A protest outside Stoke Newington Police Station, east London, on Wednesday of last week saw around 30 people gather to support Ibrahim Avcil.

Fighting fascism in Hungary

Veroce is a typical Hungarian village – streets of wooden and stone houses built around a few shops and a huge church.

Glasgow and Edinburgh council disputes

Danny Tervit, a street sweeper at Glasgow city council and a former deputy shop steward at the Bell Street depot, was sacked on Friday of last week and given notice for 3 September—as Glasgow street cleansing workers were preparing to strike.

Vestas: green jobs battle is on

If the government thought they were off the hook after the end of the Vestas occupation, they are in for a shock.

Fighting cuts in the civil service

The government plans to slash redundancy and early retirement payments for all civil and public service workers from January next year.

London firefighters set to take industrial action

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in London has won a ballot for industrial action short of strike action. The result was a magnificent 91 percent in favour.

Guardian and Trinity Mirror printers ballot for action

Print workers in the Unite union at both the Guardian Print Centre and Trinity Mirror Group are balloting for industrial action.

Barclays workers fight for pensions

Unite activists picketed Barclays shareholders on Thursday to protest against the closure of their final salary pension scheme.

IBM workers meet to fight back over pensions

IT workers have traditionally had fairly low union membership and, in the UK, IBM was no exception.

A humiliating defeat for the Nazis in Brum

Birmingham’s modern shopping centre, the Bull Ring, reflects a diverse and multicultural British city. On Saturday 8 August it was full of tourists and locals.

Nazi attack shows their true colours

Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) has been attacked by thugs.

Protest at Red, White and Blue hate festival

Unite Against Fascism are in the final days of preparation for the massive anti-Nazi protest outside the BNP’s "Red, White and Blue" hate-fest in the village of Codnor, Derbyshire, this Saturday.

Camberwell fire raises more questions for council

The deaths of six people in a fire at a tower block in Camberwell, south London last month could have been spread by botched and potentially illegal renovations by the local council, according to fire safety experts.

Dale Farm campaign against eviction

Protesting Gypsy mothers gathered outside Basildon’s town hall this week in a last bid to save their homes from the bulldozer.

In brief

Another day, another bailout

Police under fire over G20 brutality

Pressure is mounting on the police this week after the family of Ian Tomlinson accused the police of a "cover-up" and demanded that the officer who hit Ian is prosecuted.

Torture evidence: what is the government hiding?

Government denials of complicity in torture are unravelling.

International

Afghanistan: Growing resistance to the ‘40-year war’

The US military has admitted that the Afghan resistance is spreading across the country.

Start of a huge struggle in Egypt

A battle over pay and working conditions in the post office marks a new phase of the Egyptian workers’ movement.

Pakistan: Killing won't stop anger

The possible assassination of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud by a US drone bomber last week was greeted by shouts of joy in both the US and Islamabad.

Violence surges in Iraq as US loses past allies

Former allies of US occupation forces are the driving force behind a renewed wave of sectarian violence in Iraq.

Protest called against war

The Stop the War Coalition has called a national demonstration against the continuing war in Afghanistan.

Comment

Remembering Jerry Cohen

This has been a bad summer for left wing intellectuals. The radical political economists Giovanni Arrighi and Peter Gowan died within a few days of one another in June. And then last week the socialist philosopher GA "Jerry" Cohen died suddenly at the age of 68.

Features

Is the number up for trade unions?

The Guardian newspaper’s Work supplement raised an interesting question a couple of weeks ago: "Are unions back in fashion?"

Mosley’s fascists

There is a long-standing current of opinion in Britain that fascism could never take hold here—that it is an "un-British" phenomenon that the establishment would never allow.

The Battle of the Bogside

The world is full of people who look back at history and tell you that they saw it all coming. I wish they told me at the time. If you have a sketchy history in mind of the past 40 years, you’ll know that the Battle of Bogside led on to the Provisional IRA and 30 years of guerrilla warfare that saw more than 3,000 people die.

Anti-union judgement takes more liberties

The anti-union laws are being extended by default and we are moving towards a situation where it will be virtually impossible to organise legal strikes.

Harriet Harman and the real pay gap

I was shocked to find myself on Harriet Harman’s side last week. Under a year ago I ran a campaign to send her hundreds of emails with the subject line, "Shame on you Harriet Harman!" – of which, more later.

Socialist Worker

Looking for an earlier issue?

News

International

Comment

Features

Reviews

What We Think

Other Categories

Get In Touch

Other SWP sites

Social Media Links