Socialist Worker

Issue: 2337

Dated: 26 Jan 2013

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'Lord Benefits Freud': Tory hypocrites to push thousands into poverty

Tory welfare minister Lord Freud is determined to punish some of the poorest people in Britain for living in homes that are supposedly too big for them.

International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Teachers demand strikes to defend pay and conditions

Leaders of the NUT teaching union will meet this week amid growing calls among teachers for strikes.

'Apolitical' group Edapt targets teaching unions

Academy sponsors are spearheading an organisation to undermine teaching unions.

PCS union ballots for new strikes

The PCS civil service workers’ union is to ballot some 250,000 workers next month.

Brutal reality of Iraq war exposed in torture hearing

Allegations that British troops carried out systematic torture of civilians during the occupation of Iraq were set to be heard in court on Thursday of this week.

Desperate Tories fix figures as yet more retail jobs disappear

Film rental company Blockbuster is the latest firm to go into administration, putting around 900 jobs at risk.

Train cleaners to strike over pay

Train cleaners employed by Churchills Tyne & Wear Metro were set to strike again on Thursday of this week for decent pay and conditions.

Whitstable set for second post walkout

Postal workers were set to strike in Whitstable, Kent, on Saturday of this week.

Police raid in Elm Guest House abuse inquiry

Police investigating allegations of child abuse have seized a list that includes names of government ministers and other prominent establishment figures.

The people demand the fall of Barnet council

Campaigners and local government workers in Barnet, north west London, have called a protest on Saturday 23 March.

500 Wilts and Dorset bus drivers balloted for strikes

Around 500 bus workers in Wiltshire and Dorset are set to be balloted for strikes over working conditions.

After helicopter crashes in Vauxhall, fight Tory plans to slash fire service

Two people died after a helicopter crash in Vauxhall, south London, on Wednesday of last week.

Support new indigenous fight in Canada

Around 20 protesters took to the Canadian High Commission in London on Thursday of last week in support of the Idle No More indigenous movement.

Glasgow fury as cops facilitate racist SDL

More than 200 anti-fascists turned out to oppose the racist Scottish Defence League (SDL) in Pollokshields, Glasgow, on Sunday of last week.

Strike threat saves jobs

Bosses at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have agreed to withdraw redundancy notices against 43 workers—after a successful strike ballot of 800,000 PCS union members.

Solidarity for ‘Halesowen 4’

Lecturers across Britain held protests in solidarity with four sacked lecturers at Halesowen college in the Black Country on Friday of last week.

Jerry Hicks: Unite needs action as well as words

Support is pouring in for sacked aerospace engineer Jerry Hicks in his bid to get onto the ballot paper for the Unite union’s coming general secretary election.

Teachers' union calls off strikes at Dunston

The NASUWT union has called off strikes at Dunston primary school for talks at conciliation service Acas and a temporary suspension of observations.

Maintenance workers strike against ‘bullying’

Around 20 maintenance workers at the Shell Thornton research centre in Ince near Merseyside struck for two hours on Monday morning of this week.

Backlash at Julie Burchill bigotry

Trans people and their supporters demonstrated outside the Observer newspaper’s London offices on Thursday of last week after it published a transphobic article by Julie Burchill.

Shrewsbury builders: Tories continue cover-up

The Tories are refusing to release the documents relating to the "Shrewsbury 24" building workers for at least 10 years.

Ambulances queue up at hospitals threatened by cuts

Ambulances queued outside hospitals across northern England before being able to hand patients over to hospital staff in December and January.

New council cuts spark a fresh round of protests

Councils across England have been drawing up plans to slash local services and implement new Tory funding cuts.

Unite union rejects NHS pay attack

The Unite union has rejected all the government’s proposed changes to the NHS Agenda for Change national agreement on pay and conditions.

Balfour admits Olympic site construction blacklist

Balfour Beatty has confirmed it used a blacklist on prospective Olympic workers.

‘Pickles’ poll tax’ creates postcode lottery for poor

The Tories plan to cut council tax benefit funding by 10 percent in April—and leave councils to decide how to implement the cut.

Scottish docs reject pensions attack

Doctors in Scotland have walked out of talks with the government over planned rises in pension contributions.

Hundreds of firefighters lobby over London cuts

Hundreds of firefighters from across London descended on the headquarters of the London Fire Authority on Monday of this week to lobby against cuts.

Amnesty UK: Job losses on hold after emergency meeting vote

The 40 threatened job losses at Amnesty International UK have been put on hold, for now, after an overwhelming vote at an emergency general meeting.

Liverpool protest takes on Labour

Around 60 people protested against council cuts in Liverpool on Friday of last week.

Five-day strike to hit Yorkshire NHS

Medical secretaries and ward clerks at Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust were set to begin a five-day strike on Monday of next week.

Protest held at anti-choice group

Around 50 pro-choice activists protested at the launch of a new anti-abortion group, the Alliance of Pro-Life Students on Wednesday of last week.

Students protesters to face third trial

Protesters Alfie Meadows and Zak King are to stand trial again on 11 February.

Stephen Lawrence's killers lodge second appeal

The two men convicted of murdering black teenager Stephen Lawrence have lodged a second appeal against their convictions in the High Court

Japan's nuclear leak poisoned fish

Fish caught near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant measured over 2,500 times the legal safe radiation limit for seafood, according to plant operator Tepco.

Strike setback at teachers' union executive

The leadership of the NUT teaching union has narrowly voted against holding a one-day strike in March.

Thousands march to save Lewisham hospital

Over 25,000 health workers, patients, and activists marched yesterday, Saturday, to save the A&E, maternity and child services at Lewisham hospital in south east London.

International

Protests spread across Iraq

Iraq is seeing its biggest protests in years.

South African workers organise against mine closure job losses

Some 5,000 workers for Harmony Gold mines returned to the Kusasalethu shaft after the Christmas break to find it closed "for review".

The West is behind Algeria’s crisis

Western powers have tried to use the hostage crisis in Algeria to show why they must stop the spread of the Islamist organisation Al Qaida.

Thousands of French troops in ‘total reconquest’ of Mali

The French military has escalated its intervention in Mali.

The year the masks fell: Egyptians against the alliance of the Brotherhood, military and capital

The Egyptian people’s great revolution, which threw the dictator and his cronies into prison, is still aflame as it marks its second anniversary. It has already toppled several failed governments, and forced the Military Council to quit after elections which brought Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

Athens metro workers attacked by police, but solidarity grows

Hundreds of police in Athens raided the central metro station early this morning, Friday, which was being occupied by striking workers. They handed every worker an order from the government to return to work or face a prison sentence.

Comment

West's greed in new scramble for Africa

The West is preparing to pull its armies out of Afghanistan. But the French intervention in Mali and the Algerian hostage crisis suggest that a new front is opening up in the Maghreb region, north west Africa. It may last "even decades" according to prime minister David Cameron.

Features

Spielberg’s Lincoln: Emancipation with the slaves left out

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln concentrates on elite political manoeuvring around the 13th Amendment to the US constitution, which sealed the demise of slavery in January of 1865—less than three months before the end of America’s bloody Civil War.

Greek anti-fascist resistance

"Athens will be Nazi free." Those were the words of school student Christine Palioudakis, one of 25,000 people who marched in Athens against the fascist Golden Dawn party last Saturday.

Reviews

Les Miserables: A cry for the wretched to revolt comes to musical life

There’s a reason why over 60 million people have seen the musical version of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables at the theatre. It’s a story about love and loss but also hope and rebellion.

Dancing on the Edge: Did the rich establishment really learn to swing?

Set in the early 1930s, this five part drama opens with a black man, Louis Lester (Chiwetel Ejiofor), in immaculate evening dress sidling into a club.