Socialist Worker

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The great NHS sell off

Tory dreams of dismantling the NHS and replacing it with private healthcare are taking a massive leap forwards.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Villagers come out in force against Tory fracking plans

Locals gathered to stand up to shale gas giant Cuadrilla, reports Dave Sewell

Fracking firms will pay even less tax

Fracking firms will pay just 30 percent tax on future shale production. 

A&E crisis - no doctors, no beds but plenty of profits

News of the growing crisis in Britain’s A&E units finally found its way into parliament last week.

Defend health union rep Charlotte Monro

Health workers and campaigners in east London are angry that Barts Health Trust has launched an attack on Charlotte Monro.

Target the Tory party conference to defend the NHS

The TUC has thrown its weight behind a demonstration to save the NHS at the Tory party conference on 29 September.

Leeds and Bradford lab workers test a longer walkout

Leeds and Bradford Pathology laboratory staff were set to strike on Thursday and Friday of this week against changes to working patterns.

Jersey bus drivers channel anger at bus bosses

Bus drivers and other staff at LibertyBus in Jersey have voted overwhelmingly for strikes. They are members of the Unite union.

Verdict due for Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning, the whistleblower who exposed US war crimes, was due to hear the verdict in his case as Socialist Worker went to press. 

Shaker Aamer threatened with deportation

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held in Guantanamo prison, is being threatened with transfer to Saudi Arabia.

Stansted struggle over grounded pay

Baggage handlers at Stansted airport could walk out over the August bank holiday weekend.

Fast food workers strike over pay in the US

Fast food workers in seven US cities struck for better pay and the right to join unions on Monday of this week. 

Stop the presses against job cuts

Journalists in the NUJ union were being balloted for strikes against job cuts at the Independent as Socialist Worker went to press

Newport UAF meeting after racist attack

More than 40 people attended a very successful Newport Unite Against Fascism meeting on Monday of last week.

McCluskey’s strategy won’t reclaim Labour

The rift and regroupment between union leaders and the Labour Party leadership will rumble on over the summer.

Bosses try to derail East Midlands action

East Midlands Trains is trying to use anti-union laws to stop industrial action by workers in the RMT union.

Court backs bedroom tax - but protests grow

The Tories’ bedroom tax is pushing people to despair but resistance is growing too, reports Dave Sewell

Capita workers fight to upgrade pay

Workers employed by IT contractors Capita struck against a real terms pay cut at six financial companies around Britain on Friday of last week.

‘Caring’ council leader hauls tenants into court over council tax arrears

The Guardian newspaper ran an article on the Labour leader of Leeds City Council Keith Wakefield last week. It told a story of how he has stood up for benefit claimants.

Two years on - still no justice for Mark Duggan

Two years after cops killed Mark Duggan, his family is still fighting for answers, reports Annette Mackin

One Housing strike grows in strength and strength

Around 150 workers in the Unite union struck for three days at One Housing Group sites across London last week.

Hewlett Packard workers strike for two days over job cuts

Government IT workers in the PCS union struck for two days last week over plans of employer Hewlett Packard to cut 1,500 jobs.

NHS Pensions workers walkout over low pay

PCS members working for Equiniti on NHS Pensions administration struck on Monday of this week.

Harsher sentences for rioters

Judges and magistrates were directed to ignore sentencing guidelines for those accused of involvement in the riots of the summer of 2011.

'Being black is not a crime,' say Trayvon Martin protesters

Hundreds of anti-racists rallied and marched in central London last Saturday in protest against racism and injustice.

PCS members protest against Eric Pickles' union attacks

Some 50 PCS union members at the Department for Communities and Local Government held a lunchtime protest on Thursday of last week.

Anti-fascists rally in London and Glasgow

Some 200 anti-fascists easily outnumbered Nazi group the English Volunteer Force (EVF) in Croydon, south London, last Saturday.

ISS cleaners strike over pay and conditions

Cleaners struck for 24 hours on East Coast trains on Friday of last week, demanding better pay and conditions.

Get ready for action to beat post privatisation

What sort of action is needed to defend postal workers from management and government attacks?

List names elite clients of hackers and corrupt cops

Private investigators were able to delete information from police databases, according to the uncensored version of a police report into illegal trade in personal information.

New £1,200 fee for taking on your boss

Workers whose bosses sack them unfairly, discriminate against them or withhold their wages will now have to pay up to £1,200 to challenge them in court.

News round-up

Tory education secretary Michael Gove has appointed a former economist for Goldman Sachs as an advisor to his department.

Strikes not ‘unpopular’ - what the teachers survey really showed

Right wing newspapers made much of a survey on attitudes to teachers’ pay last week.

Angry march to save hospital in Torrington, Devon

Over 300 protesters with banners rallied against proposals to close inpatient beds in the Torrington Cottage Hospital last Saturday.

Protesters urge a fight to defend legal aid

 

'We won!' Campaigners and health workers celebrate Lewisham Hospital court victory

An elated crowd rallied outside Lewisham Hospital in south east London this evening, Wednesday, to celebrate a court victory against the Tories.

Post workers' CWU union announces national strike ballot to stop Royal Mail selloff

Some 500 postal reps in the CWU union voted unanimously today, Thursday, to hold a national strike ballot over privatisation and pensions.

Yorkshire health workers walk out against cost-cutting

Health workers in Leeds and Bradford began a two-day strike today, Thursday, over cost-cutting and changes to their work patterns. The walkout follows a one-day strike last month.

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International

Assassination of activist provokes new protests in Tunisia

Jaouhar Bani and Anne Alexander look at what lies behind the new wave of revolt sweeping Tunisia

Egypt's army can't solve the crisis

Supporters of the army are controlling the streets in Egypt. But if the military fails to meet people’s hopes the revolt could turn on them, writes Judith Orr

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Comment

Coalition keeps us in a cycle of crises

Sometimes the witlessness of the Guardian surpasses all understanding. Last Saturday it carried an article explaining why, after the Office for National Statistics announced that Britain’s economy grew by 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2013, “The future looks bright for Osborne”.

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Features

Rough justice - fighting the Tory attacks on legal aid

The government’s attack on legal aid is an attempt to tip the scales of justice further towards the rich and powerful. Annette Mackin spoke to campaigners and lawyers about the likely effects and what must be done

Gareth Peirce - Cuts to legal aid a real crisis

Campaigning lawyer Gareth Peirce spoke to Socialist Worker about the cuts to legal aid and the impact it will have on working class people challenging the state.

'We would have got life without legal aid,' says miner

Arthur Critchlow, a striking miner arrested at Orgreave coking plant during the Miners' Strike, explained how crucial legal aid was for strikers:

The price of pornography

As the Tories call for censorship, Amy Leather looks at a global porn industry that takes the humanity out of sex—and reflects and reinforces the oppression of women

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Reviews

Ibrahim El-Salahi - a visionary who took modern art back to its African roots

The Tate Modern’s exhibition of Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi helps see past the eurocentric bias of the art establishment, says?Noel Halifax

The Mill - apprentices hit back at Cheshire’s cruel cotton boss

Today Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire is a National Trust property open to visitors. 

Dial M for Murder 3D

This revival of Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder is out and it’s in 3D.

Stockton International Riverside Festival

The largest free festival in Europe is set to take place in north east England this weekend.

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What We Think

Don't let toxic Tories divide us with racism

The Tories love nothing more than to stir up racism and scapegoat immigrants.

NHS crisis - blame cuts, not nurses

The government likes to tell us that nurses don’t care about their patients. This is how it tries and explain away every problem in the NHS.

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Other Categories

Keith Fry 1950—2013

Keith Fry was one of those comrades on which all revolutionary organisations utterly depend.

Letters

Royal hypocrisy, Labour cowardice and a victory against Atos

The things they say

Our pick of the week's quotes

Welby’s Wonga war gets the Bish bashed over dodgy dosh

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, wanted to bring the debt merchants into the temple. But it turned out they were already there.

Encounters with the cops led to dozens more deaths

New figures reveal the year’s toll of deaths during and after police custody—painting a grisly picture of lives needlessly cut short, says Simon Basketter

Scientist slams ‘meaningless excuse’ of a death diagnosis

Excited delirium is a diagnosis used by coroners to explain ten restraint-related deaths that occurred in police custody in England and Wales since the late 1990s.

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