Socialist Worker

Issue: 2297

Dated: 07 Apr 2012

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As crisis and scandal leave Cameron reeling—Kick out rotten Tories

It’s been a bad few weeks for the Tories. First their budget was attacked for lining the pockets of their rich friends while fleecing pensioners.

International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Riot report lets the police off the hook

A government-appointed "independent" panel published its final report into the August riots last week.

Hull meeting demands justice for Christopher Alder

Campaigners for Christopher Alder protested in Hull last Sunday as part of their continued campaign for justice.

Family of man shot dead by police call for protests

Anthony Grainger, a 36 year old father of two, was in a red Audi with two friends in a car park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on 3 March.

Racist police officer caught on recording

A police officer racially abused a black man in London the day after last summer’s riots. The man turned on his mobile phone to record the abuse.

Trayvon demo at US embassy

About 200 people protested outside the US embassy in London last Saturday over the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.

Pro-choice picket takes on the anti-abortion bigots in London

Hundreds of protesters descended on Bedford Square in London last Friday to defend a woman’s right to choose. Chanting, "They say no choice—we say pro-choice!", they almost surrounded bigots from the 40 Days for Life campaign.

Call the tanker strike

Petrol Tanker drivers in the Unite union are ready to strike in their fight for national minimum conditions.

Bus ballot plan over Olympic payments

London bus drivers could strike over the refusal of bus companies to pay or even discuss bonus payments for the Olympics.

Bootle - the battle goes on

Workers from Mayr Melnhof Packaging (MMP) in Bootle, near Liverpool, protested outside the Austrian embassy in London last Friday against their treatment at the hands of the Austrian-based firm.

Ex Ford/Visteon workers protest for pensions

Former Ford/Visteon workers protested outside Downing Street on Wednesday of last week. They marked three years since bosses sacked 600 workers at three Visteon sites with no notice and no redundancy money.

Landmark ruling over asbestos

Relatives of asbestos victims won a landmark victory in the Supreme Court last week.

TUSC - why we are fighting racism

Gary MacFarlane, part of Trade Unionist and Soclalist Coalition (TUSC) list for the London Assembly, spoke at the protest for Trayvon Martin last week.

Grayrigg train disaster case in court

The fallout from the February 2007 Grayrigg train disaster reaches the courts this week. The Office of Rail Regulation’s case against Network Rail opens on Wednesday at Preston law courts.

Anti-fascists organise campaign against Nick Griffin

Preston Unite Against Fascism held a meeting on Wednesday of last week as part of the campaign against BNP Nazi Nick Griffin in the city.

London joins global protest for Palestinians

About 200 people gathered outside the Israeli embassy in London last Friday in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Boardroom sit-in to save Camden surgery

Around 40 Camden residents and campaigners from Keep Our NHS Public occupied the North Central London NHS primary care trust board meeting last Thursday. They are fighting against the closure of Camden Road Surgery. The closure will leave thousands without a GP within reasonable proximity.

Greek cuts chief heckled in London

Protests greeted Poul Thomsen, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief to Greece, as he spoke at the London School of Economics last Wednesday.

Occupation of Olympic marshes in east London

Local residents and veterans of the Occupy London protests have occupied part of Leyton Marsh in east London.

Housing campaign targets minister

Tenants and campaigners gave out Housing Emergency and Defend Council Housing leaflets outside the housing minister’s office on Wednesday of last week. They got a good reception from staff and PCS union members.

Morning Star conference bashes bankers

Some 200 people gathered last Saturday for the Morning Star’s conference, For a People’s Britain, Not a Bankers’ Britain.

Uprising at Downhills school against privatisation

Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT teachers’ union, last week warned that the whole education system could be privatised by 2015.

Action hits 60 Nottingham schools

Teachers across Nottingham struck on Thursday of last week against council plans to change the term structure. The strike affected around 60 schools.

What's on the agenda at NUT conference

"I don’t have vision, just beliefs," education secretary Michael Gove told a recent headteachers’ conference.

Mersey job centre workers in second walkout

Members of the PCS union in job centres across the Mersey district staged their second walkout in less than a month on Friday of last week.

BBC network operations workers vote for strike

Some 15 network operation centre workers have voted for strikes after being excluded from the BBC’s final pension scheme.

Ealing traffic wardens call two week strike

Traffic wardens in Ealing, west London, have stepped up their strikes by calling a two‑week walkout.

Sheffield refuse workers vote for strikes

Refuse workers in Sheffield could strike over pay.

28 March London pensions strike: schools and colleges shut down

Solidarity from other workers shows the potential to escalate

The level of support and solidarity from trade unionists around Britain shows that workers are willing to take on the Tories.

Fight for national action over pensions

Activists across public sector unions are fighting for coordinated national strikes against the Tories. Workers keep on voting overwhelmingly for more strikes.

Greggs boss does well from Tories

Greggs boss Ken McMeikan has been leading the opposition to the government’s pasty tax. He appeared with Sun journalists and page three models on Friday to open a new store and promote the Murdoch paper’s petition.

Police evidence heard at Alfie trial

The trial of Alfie Meadows and four other student protesters continued at Kingston Crown Court this week.

Cash for access scandal continues to haunt Tories

New revelations have exposed more chummy dinner dates between rich Tory donors and David Cameron.

How Respect won in Bradford West

George Galloway pulled off a spectacular political comeback on Thursday of last week by winning the Bradford West parliamentary by-election by a landslide.

Richard Branson leads the great NHS sell-off

Billionaire convicted fraudster Richard Branson is set to take over NHS community health services in Surrey in a £500 million five year deal.

Private snoops hit your privacy

The Tories want to spend £380 every minute on plans to privatise snooping. They want cops, intelligence officers and council officials to monitor the websites that people visit.

Civil service workers return pension cuts to sender

PCS members collect letters informing them of pension changes outside Euston Tower in London on Tuesday. They wrote angry messages on them before returning them.

Thousands celebrate the Bradford result

George Galloway’s mass victory rally on Sunday brought out 2,000 people to Infirmary Fields in the centre of Bradford.

Performance unrelated pay

Top bosses’ pay is rocketing because nearly half of those on firms’ pay committees are either current or former bosses.

Poor Bob Diamond gets tax support

As if bosses aren’t "earning" enough, some are now even getting their tax paid for them.

£150,000 gift for wax queen

Ahead of the jubilee, even the waxwork of the queen is getting a makeover—at a cost of £150,000.

Busting the myths about why Galloway stormed to victory in Bradford

The political and media establishment have never liked George Galloway—and never understood his appeal.

Total failure to stop gas escape

Oil firm Total repeatedly assured workers on its leaking North Sea Elgin platform that a leak was impossible—until just hours before evacuating them.

Unite union names the day for a national health strike over pensions

The Unite union has called for another national strike over pensions in the NHS.

North London library occupied to stop closure

Campaigners have occupied Friern Barnet library in north London on the day it was set to close.

Michael Lavalette: Our chance to re-shape electoral politics

George Galloway’s stunning victory in Bradford has created an opportunity that we must grasp with both hands.

Teachers' union conference backs June strike over pensions

Teachers at the NUT union's conference have voted to seek to organise another national strike over pensions in June.

International

Syria - revolt threatened by West and Assad

The revolution in Syria has faced a brutal month as the military crackdown on cities and towns reaches increasingly bloody levels.

Celebrations greet Suu Kyi win in Burma, but new dangers await

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be set to join the government.

Anger explodes on the streets of Spain

Our angry, gigantic general strike across the Spanish state last week was a new step forward in the fight against austerity in Europe.

Anti-racists see off Nazis in Aarhus, Denmark

Many of Europe’s key Nazis and Islamophobes gathered in Aarhus, Denmark, on Saturday of last week.

Mass defiance over Ireland's 'poll tax'

Some 10,000 people protested against a 100 euro household charge in Ireland last Saturday.

Appeal is rejected for the Zimbabwe Six

The Zimbabwe Six have had their appeal against their sentence of community service rejected.

Comment

Sikhs unite against planned hanging of resistance fighter

Across the world Sikhs have been angered by the first hanging planned by the Indian judiciary since 2004.

The key lessons of Bradford West

The superlatives have fast run out in attempts to sum up George Galloway’s victory for Respect in the Bradford West by-election.

Features

Bolivia 1952 - a glimpse of workers' power

This month, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of Bolivia’s revolution of 1952. Despite brutal repression, poverty and a low level of development, the stranglehold of the tin barons and the political elite was broken through revolutionary struggle.

Bolivia 1952 - what did the socialists do?

The nationalists were not the only revolutionary opposition in Bolivia. The Workers’ Revolutionary Party (POR) was one of the world’s biggest Trotskyist organisations.

Greece - snapshots of workers' struggles

Potatoes for the people In a disused car park on the former Athens Olympics site, farmers were selling their produce at cost price.

Greece - snapshots of workers' struggles (2)

Keeping workers fed at Greece’s occupied newspaper Eleftherotypia: ‘It’s solidarity coming out of necessity’ Moisis Litsis, Eleftherotypia journalist and workers’ committee member

Is there a new class of worker?

The previous columns in this series looked at how the ruling class tries to weaken the working class by dividing it. It sets employed workers against unemployed, and those who claim benefits against those who do not.

Reviews

Mary Shelley play fuels debate and imagination

The life and politics of author Mary Shelley are laid out in this great new play—now set for a national tour.

The radical vision behind Frankenstein

Mary Shelley was the daughter of philosopher and early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote the landmark text A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Wollstonecraft died in 1797 when Mary was just 11 days old.

A new celebration of Alan Turing's scientific genius

This year marks the centenary of Alan Turing’s birth. Today he is celebrated for his role in cracking German military codes during the Second World War and his pioneering work on computing.