Socialist Worker

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Say no to Fortress Europe - vote Leave on 23 June

The European Union (EU) is erecting fences and having refugees rounded up into camps.

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News

Anti-racists build Calais convoy

Anti-racists are preparing for a convoy to Calais on Saturday 18 June. They will bring much-needed aid—and stand in solidarity with refugees.

David King—reclaiming the Russian Revolution of 1917

The designer and photographer David King died last week. Jackie Shellard looks at his political and artistic contribution to the working class movement

Wallander goes to South Africa for township tension

The BBC’s fourth series of detective drama Wallander, the first since author Henning Mankell died last year, remains fresh.

University strike is over more than pay

Some 60,000 university workers were set to strike on Wednesday and Thursday.

Durham teaching assistants defy Labour council’s ‘galling’ raid on pay

Labour-run Durham County Council voted last week to sack 2,700 teaching assistants (TAs) and rehire them on worse contracts with up to 23 percent lower pay.

Establishment Remain and Leave campaigns ramp up fear, lies and racism

The European Union (EU) referendum Remain campaign ramped up its attempts to frighten people with lies and wild claims this week.

Teachers build for strike to defend education

Support is growing for action to beat cuts, academisation and other attacks, reports Sadie Robinson

The battle is on to stop library cuts—now unions must coordinate action

The battle to save libraries is hotting up.

Reject junior doctors' deal and fight to defend the NHS

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to use a new contract deal with junior doctors to break momentum and push more attacks on the NHS. 

Reports round-up

Short reports from industrial disputes and campaigns including Rio cinema strike, Prestwich Arts College, Newcastle University, Post Office job cuts, Croydon Tramlink and Nottingham taxis

Anger over benefits deaths at TUC disabled workers conference

Around 160 delegates attended last week’s annual TUC disabled workers conference.

FirstGroup bosses call for talks after solid strike of bus drivers in Manchester

Some 150 bus drivers joined the picket line at FirstGroup’s Manchester Queen’s Road depot on Tuesday in a row over changes to conditions and bargaining procedures.

Revolt against DWP pay deal at PCS conferences

Also: strike for jobs at BIS

Assaulted photographer condemns far right for Dover violence

A freelance photographer who was savagely attacked in Dover on Saturday 30 January has attacked far-right groups for causing the violence in the town.

Welsh museum fight can beat the bosses

Welsh museum workers fighting to stop an attack on pay look like they are nearing a settlement as they enter their fourth week of an all-out strike. But they still need solidarity to help them win.

English Defence League humiliated in Coventry as its ‘national demo’ flops

Up to 400 anti-fascists, trade unionists and socialists joined a counter protest against the English Defence League (EDL) in Coventry city centre last Saturday.

Workers’ resolve forces Glasgow Labour council bosses to back off

Bosses at Labour-run Glasgow City Council suffered a major embarassment last week as they were forced to reinstate public holidays they scrapped for council workers. The council claimed “significant progress delivering budget savings” meant it no longer planned to convert six public holidays into annual leave.

Housing workers resist pay imposition as activists vow to fight new Tory law

Housing workers in the Unite union struck for 24 hours on Thursday of last week over pay. Housing campaigners also met to plan resistance to the new Housing and Planning Act. Travellers also protested against the impact of the law

Big rally for socialism in Sheffield brings campaigners together

Some 110 people attended a Socialist Workers Party rally in Sheffield last week. It asked, “Is socialism possible?”

International round up: Protests against Syriza’s new austerity measures in Greece

Greek MPs narrowly voted for a new round of austerity measures last Sunday to satisfy European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) blackmail.

Strong support for national Higher Education strike

University workers across Britain began a two-day strike today, Wednesday, over pay and inequality. 

Pickets and protest as university workers strike over pay

Pickets and protest as university workers strike over pay

PCS conference cheers museum strikers and debates Labour

The PCS union conference hailed the museum workers in Wales on all-out strike, and considered its relationship with the Labour Party

EU referendum campaigners unite against racism at Refugees Welcome rally

Around 200 people joined Refugees Welcome Here – Racism out of the Referendum meeting in central London last night, Wednesday.

Striking lecturers fight casualisation and demand fair pay

UCU union members in higher education are highlighting casualisation on the second day of a two-day strike today, Thursday.

Birmingham Pride marchers show solidarity with refugees

Thousands of people marched through Birmingham on the LGBT+ Pride march today, Saturday.

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International

Strikes and blockades in France show how to win

Petrol shortages gripped parts of France at the beginning of this week as the movement against the Labour-type government’s attacks moved to “shut down the economy”.

Jail sentences quashed for 47 activists in Egypt

In clear evidence that organised resistance and solidarity have an effect, 47 of the 101 Egyptian activists recently sentenced to five years in jail have had their custodial sentences quashed.

Huge strikes shut France down—and could bring government to its knees

Electricity production across France dropped yesterday, Thursday, after workers in all 19 nuclear power stations voted to begin strikes to defend workers’ rights.

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Comment

Tory white paper is a blueprint for cashing in on universities

The Tories’ new education white paper proposes cuts to working class access to universities. It gives business more power and will trash higher education (HE).

Don’t abandon the EU referendum to the racists

Should the anti-EU left campaign to leave or hold their tongues? Dave Sewell argues we have to stick to our principles

Radical rhetoric from Labour leaders - but it has its limits

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has pledged that the next Labour government “would surpass even the 1945 Clement Attlee government for radical reform”.

Would leaving the EU really cause a recession?

Remain campaigners threaten mass job losses if Britain leaves the EU. But the bosses’ club won’t save us, says Sadie Robinson

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Features

The only way is Essex? White flight myths and the East End

A BBC documentary this Tuesday says that “Cockney culture” in London’s East End is dying out—and that Muslims and migrants are to blame. East End resident Tomáš Tengely-Evans sorts the fact from the fiction

Exit stage left - why we oppose the EU

Socialists and anticapitalists come out fighting to put their own case against the bosses’ European Union at an international rally in London last week, reports Alistair Farrow

The seafarers' strike of 1966—hope betrayed by Labour

The 1966 seafarers’ strike was a key test for the left wing rhetoric of Harold Wilson’s Labour government —a test it failed by attacking workers, argues Simon Basketter

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Reviews

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What We Think

Put Tony Blair in the dock

The Chilcot Inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the West’s invasion and occupation of Iraq is due to return its findings on 6 July.

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Other Categories

LETTERS: ‘One day longer, one day stronger’ at Verizon strike

Nearly 40,000 of us at Verizon telecoms in the US have been on strike for six weeks. This is a big battle for all US workers.

MPs line their pockets with more cash than ever before

MPs’ expenses claims have soared by more than 40 percent in just five years.

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