Socialist Worker

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Politicians want a coalition for cuts - we need a coalition of resistance

The votes have been counted, but it’s the bankers and big business who are ruling Britain.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Greek protester: 'How I stormed TV studio'

‘We went to the ERT national TV channel because we heard the minister of education was going to be on a live programme to talk about the new education law.

Sats boycott strikes a blow against the market

Primary school head teachers have begun a boycott of the hated Sats tests for 11 year olds.

Spirit of defiance against cuts on college picket lines

Thousands of lecturers struck on Wednesday of last week against plans for massive education cuts.

Middlesex philosophy students occupy to defy cuts

Middlesex university students have occupied against management plans to slash their philosophy department.

What would real democracy look like?

So that’s what "democracy" means. Every five years or so we vote – and that’s the end of it until the next election.

Construction workers battle

Hull City Council’s building contractors Kingstown Works Ltd (KWL) and Connaught are sacking more than 50 workers who carry out maintenance and repair work on Hull council houses and the council’s "Decent Homes" scheme.

Birmingham airport job threat

Managers at Birmingham International Airport are planning to cut up to 50 security jobs this summer.

BT to cut 5,000 more jobs

BT bosses are planning to sack a further 5,000 workers.

Strike vote turns up the heat

Workers at Prescot cooker manufacturer Glen Dimplex Home Appliances in Liverpool have voted by 73 percent for strike action and 83 percent in favour of action short of a strike.

East London bus battle

East London Bus Group is threatening to slash wages for all workers. Supervisors face a pay cut of up to £5,000 a year.

Firefighters want a break

Firefighters in Coventry are demanding industrial action over penny-pinching bosses’ cuts to leisure facilities.

Back Paul Holmes for Unison

Voting for the Unison union general secretary begins next week. Socialist Worker is supporting Paul Holmes.

All change as London Underground PPP work goes in-house

Boris Johnson took the Tube Lines private consortium back into public hands this week as workers there began a ballot for strikes against attacks.

Strike at Glasgow Herald and Evening Times

Over 140 print, production, clerical and advertising workers at the Glasgow Herald and Evening Times in Glasgow struck for 24 hours during the elections last Thursday.

NUJ to set strike date at Johnston Press

Journalists at the Johnston Press Group were deciding on whether to set a date for a group-wide strike as Socialist Worker went to press.

Jarvis workers still fighting for justice

Former Jarvis workers are continuing their fight for jobs and justice after they were sacked in March.

PCS executive election results

The elections to the PCS national executive saw minor gains for the right wing 4themembers group.

Victory as court rules in PCS union’s favour

Civil service workers were celebrating on Monday after their PCS union won a crucial legal victory against the government’s plans to slash their redundancy payments.

Wildcat action over school safety fears

Teachers at St Aloysius school in Islington, north London, refused to begin lessons on Friday of last week.

Striking for our services in Glasgow council

A second strike by Culture Sport Glasgow workers paralysed the city’s arts and leisure sector on election day.

Resistance takes off with 20 BA strike days

Cabin crew at British Airways (BA) will strike for 20 days during May and June, dealing a fantastic blow to bullying boss Willie Walsh.

Greek workers say: ‘We won’t pay’

The movement against the austerity measures being imposed on the Greek people is gaining momentum – despite the deaths of three bank workers during a protest last week.

Step up fight for Abdul Omer

The campaign to reinstate the sacked union convenor at Sovereign buses took a step forward last week. Abdul Omer was sacked for being an effective union activist.

Guantanamo detainees seek justice from British government

The British government is scrambling to keep more evidence of its complicity in torture under wraps after judges dismissed an attempt to suppress it.

Deepwater Horizon: a slippery oil slick situation

The attempts to halt the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico have so far failed.

EDL to target Newcastle

The racist English Defence League (EDL) have called their next national mobilisation against Muslims for Newcastle on Saturday 29 May.

Right to Work conference: a chance to join the resistance

Everyone who wants to be part of the resistance in Britain and Europe should be at the Right to Work emergency conference on 22 May.

Cameron takes over: don't mourn - organise!

The open class enemy is poised to enter 10 Downing Street.

Bradford lecturers first to strike under Cameron's government

Lecturers at Bradford College took part in the first strike under David Cameron’s Tory government today.

Spirit of Greece comes to Dublin as 2,000 march on parliament

Two thousand people braved lashing rain to march to the Dail (parliament) in Dublin, southern Ireland, on Tuesday to protest at the Bank Bail-Out.

Unite Against Fascism explains how the Nazi BNP was dealt a hammer blow in the election

Weyman Bennett (Joint Secretary UAF)

Middlesex university occupation calls for support as injunction served

The student protesters occupying the Mansion Building at Trent Park campus were informed on Friday morning that the university management was seeking a court injunction to end our sit-in protest.

BA ruling shows bosses can halt any strike

A high court ruling today underlined that bosses can have any strike they want declared illegal. Workers’ democratic votes mean nothing: there is no right to strike.

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International

Profits behind Russian mine disaster

At least 32 miners are dead after an explosion at the Raspadskaya mine in Russia. A further 58 are missing.

Thailand's Red Shirt protesters stay on the streets

Rural and urban poor, including farmers and industrial workers, make up the movement.

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Comment

You can't beat the BNP by taking up their racism

Some commentators have claimed that mainstream politicians being "tough" and "open" on immigration was the reason that the British National Party (BNP) had a terrible general election.

Thai tyrants cling to power on top of the dead bodies of the people

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Abhisit's soldiers have shot dead at least 50 people do far. Hundreds are injured. They say there are 500 "terrorists" in the protest site. Earlier they said that they would use snipers to shoot "terrorists".

The deceit that lies behind the deficit

In the full glare of publicity the three main parties jostle and manoeuvre over power. But, in the background, there is a much more fundamental assertion of power.

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Features

How can Greek workers beat the IMF?

The mass resistance to the cuts being imposed by the Greek government and the International Monet­ary Fund (IMF) is shaking the international ruling class. But it needs to escalate rapidly if workers are to win.

After the election – what next?

Gary Younge – The electorate’s divided and inconclusive verdict was, in a sense, ‘none of the above’ The election period itself sent out very contradictory messages. It felt like there was a dislocation between the electoral and the political.

Britain's general election: no winner and no mandate

IT WAS the election where everyone lost.

We drove the Nazi BNP out of Barking - let’s keep them out

The BNP suffered two hammer blows in their top target seat of Barking, east London.

BNP gets stuffed in Stoke too

It wasn’t just in Barking that the BNP failed.

The left in the election: good campaigns but TUSC vote squeezed

Supporters of the left wing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) ran some excellent election campaigns, but the results were generally disappointing.

Voting: There’s one rule for them...

Even though some people were denied the right to vote, politicians continued as if nothing had happened.

Disenfranchised by budget cuts

The queues of people outside the polling stations who were denied their vote in the election were victims of council cutbacks.

A ‘progressive coalition’ wouldn’t stop the cuts

After Gordon Brown announced his intention to resign on Monday, much of the media and some MPs applauded his political "cleverness" in keeping alive the prospect of a Liberal-Labour coalition.

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Reviews

Royal Wedding

This one-off television drama written by Bafta-winning Abi Morgan, is set against the backdrop of 1981’s marriage of Noddy to Big Ears (as Socialist Worker put it at the time) – Lady Diana Spencer to HRH Charles, Prince of Wales. On the day of the wedding the sun is shining and everyone is in high spirits.

A History of the World in 100 Objects restarts

This excellent series returns to the airwaves next week after a short break. It explores how labour – the action of human beings on the physical world – is the driving force of change and human progress.

Serpentine - Okou

Okou produce a swirling worldy mix of blues, pop, folk and soul – echoing everyone from Billie Holiday, through Tom Waits to Nitin Sawhney. But their sound never feels forced or artificial.

Dreams in a Time of War - Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s memoir tells of growing up under British colonial occupation and during the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s.

Robin Hood: ‘Loved by the good feared by the bad’...or was he?

"With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure."

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What We Think

Labour must feel heat from the unions

Gordon Brown’s notice of resignation was a last-ditch attempt to enable the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition with Labour and keep his party in government. It presents many questions to trade union leaders.

New bailout is blood transfusion for rich

The European Union (EU) and IMF are ready to hand another $1 trillion to the bankers while demanding an intensification of the assault on Greek workers.

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Other Categories

Willie Lee 1939-2010

Willie Lee, a lifelong socialist who made a big contribution to the Socialist Workers Party, died suddenly while on a walking holiday in northern Spain last week.

Tim’s view

Tim: 'I voted for Clegg…'

Letters

Peter Heathfield – leader that Maggie and Mirror set out to destroy The death of former miners’ leader Peter Heathfield recalled a vicious political witch-hunt on the leaders of the 1984-85 pit strike.

In their own words

"I’m fed up with you telling me what I think."Sky News’ Adam Boulton to Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell

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