Socialist Worker

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As Tories gloat over recovery - 'We’ve got to take them on' says Ricky Tomlinson

“If they get away with these cuts they’ll cut again before the next election, and I’ll tell you what—people won’t be able to live,” Ricky Tomlinson told Socialist Worker.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Second union joins strike on London Underground

Workers in the TSSA tube workers’ union have voted by 59 percent to join with the RMT union for two 48-hour strikes.

Anger over bonus for Royal Mail boss

CWU union members in Royal Mail are voting on a deal with bosses.

Strike ballot for Torquay post workers

Some 100 post workers in Torquay are set to be balloted for strikes after a colleague was sacked just before Christmas.

Labour campaign backs Scottish independence

Around 350 people packed into the Scottish TUC offices to take part in the Labour supporters for Independence launch in Glasgow last week.

Scotland launch of People’s Assembly calls for more action against austerity

More than 250 people attended the launch of the People’s Assembly in Scotland last Saturday.

London university cleaners strike for three days

Cleaners at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) began a three-day strike on Monday of this week. The action was part of the “3 Cosas” or three demands campaign – sick pay, holiday pay and pensions.

Locals and trade unionists join forces against fracking Barton Moss

IGas is looking for gas near Salford—but opposition is growing, writes Katherine Jacobs

Industrial news in brief

Short reports of action at Renold Hi-Tech Couplings, Yorkshire Ambulances, Fords, First Hampshire and Dorset Busses, Gaymer Cider

Hundreds meet in Llanelli to oppose coal gas plan

Over 300 people poured into a meeting in Burry Port, Llanelli, to voice their anger and concern about plans for underground coal gasification (UCG) in the Loughor Estuary.

Teachers walk out for conditions and pupils at four National Autistic Society schools

Teachers at four schools run by the National Autistic Society (NAS) struck on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week.

Anti-Acadamies Alliance AGM

More than 50 people attended the Anti Academies Alliance AGM. 

Islington teachers say, 'No zero-hours contracts in our schools'

Teachers at the Stem 6 Academy in Islington, north London, were set to strike on Thursday of this week.

Education news in brief

Question Time in Hammersmith, Birchgrove Comprehensive, NUT London-wide rally, Campaign against Brixton free school

Anger on picket lines as lecturers walk out to demand a real pay rise

The strength of the latest university strikes shows the potential for harder hitting action, says Sadie Robinson

All out to get rid of BNP's Nazi Nick Griffin

Unite Against Fascism’s (UAF) Nick Griffin Must Go campaign was out across the North West of England last weekend. 

Campaigns get organised for protest against racist myths about migrants

Campaigners are getting organised to build demonstrations against racism and fascism on Saturday 22 March. 

If obesity is rising, blame poverty, profit and stress

The pressures of our sick society make healthy eating harder for ordinary people, explains John Parrington

RMT calls off DLR strikes

The RMT union this week called off planned strikes on the Serco Docklands Light Railway.

Care workers in Glasgow walk out again over bosses’ attacks

Care workers in Glasgow City Council’s residential homes struck for 48 hours on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The Unison union members came out for the second time in a fortnight to resist pay cuts of up to £1,495 a year. 

Inside Llewyn Davis: The Coen brothers' have made a masterful elegy for wasted potential

The Coen brothers have done it again with new film Inside Llewyn Davis, an understated tragedy set in New York’s 1960s folk scene, writes Dave Sewell

News round-up

Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months for fraud. The racist says he will be in solitary for his own safety. 

Tory spin of a ‘recovery for all’ is far from reality

Millions reeling from wage freezes and benefit cuts won’t fall for David Cameron’s figures, writes Judith Orr

Bedroom tax marchers ‘have got Tories rattled’

Up to 200 people marched through Southwark, south London, against the bedroom tax and benefit cuts on Saturday of last week.

Victory at Islington free school as threat of strike wins union recognition

The workers, at Stem 6 Academy in Islington have forced school bosses to back down and won union recognition after threatening to strike.

'We can win this dispute' - university workers show mood for a fight

UCU union members in universities across Britain took part in a second two-hour strike over pay yesterday, Tuesday. It followed a successful two-hour strike on Thursday of last week. The action saw big picket lines and a clear mood among strikers that the union should escalate to harder hitting action.

Photos of the UCU strike on Tuesday 28 January 2014

Picket lines around the country during the two-hour strike by university workers

Eamonn McCann on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday

The Bloody Sunday March for Justice will take place today, Sunday, in Derry. It marks the 42nd anniversary of the murder of 14 protesters by British troops. The march is part of a series of events that includes the publication of a new pamphlet by Eamonn McCann ‘Go on the paras...!’ Bloody Sunday and the continuing search for justice.

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International

Egyptian army kills activists on revolution’s anniversary

Socialists in Egypt prepare for long struggle amid a deadly clampdown and pro-army rally, says Judith Orr

Nothing good on the table at Syria talks

Talks in Geneva between the Western-backed elements of the Syrian opposition and representatives of dictator Bashar al-Assad were deadlocked as Socialist Worker went to press.

‘Day of rage’ for French right wingers

More than 20,000 right wing protesters marched in Paris last Sunday. They called on unpopular centre left president Francois Hollande to resign.

Concessions fail to stem the crisis in Ukraine

Oligarchs are exerting their power but protests continue, writes Simon Basketter

New platinum miners' strike panics government in South Africa

Tens of thousands of platinum miners began an all-out strike in South Africa on Thursday of last week. 

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Comment

Recovery runs into a new currency crash

The corporate rich, along with their celebrity hangers-on and intellectual apologists, had their annual bash at Davos in Switzerland last week. They should have been starting to feel happier.

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Features

Bosses' state of misrule

What is the state? Does it always act for the bosses or does it have its own interests? In the wake of the Mark Duggan verdict, Annette Mackin explains its role

The First World War: Those who refused

The First World War was a imperialist bloodbath—yet the establishment wants to rehabilitate it as a struggle for freedom. Adam Hochschild has written a book on the brutal reality of the conflict. In a recent talk he discussed people who rejected the call to war from the outset

First World War: ‘I refuse to murder and butcher people that know as little as we do for what end they are fighting’

Thousands of First World War appeals from men of military age arguing for exemption from conscription were released last week, writes Raymie Kiernan

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Reviews

1848: Spirited performance captures a year of revolution

Review of the play, 1848

Reviews in brief

Longbourn by Jo Baker | Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me! | Wapping dispute online exhibition

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What We Think

Counter-revolution can’t wipe out the memory of struggle

Events in the Middle East and North Africa have posed the question of what revolutions achieve. Media commentators are keen to point out that the prospect of a new military president means Egypt is reverting to “business as usual”.

Tax the rich for real

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls’ plan to reintroduce the 50p tax rate on people earning over £150,000 has caused outrage in the media. 

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Other Categories

Pete Seeger 1919 - 2014

Pete Seeger, who has died aged 94, was a giant not just in the world of folk music but of contemporary popular music in general

Letters

Irish TD defends jailed activist, jobcentre worker tells the truth about Benefit Street and teachers campaign against academies and fascists

The Things They Say

Things that they say

Cuts to red tape put bosses’ profit above workers’ safety

The government is planning to scrap or amend more than 3,000 regulations.

London TB scare stories are based on more on racism than fact

The media panic about a rapid rise in new drug-resistant strains of TB in London supposedly linked to immigration is wrong and dangerous

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