Socialist Worker

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Tories’ train crash - rail privateers fail, but are handed more lines

Rail privatisation was once more exposed as a scam this week. Billionaire Richard Branson quit the East Coast rail franchise—and left us to pick up the bill.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Birmingham care workers strike for jobs and services

Over 100 striking Birmingham home care workers held a defiant protest outside the city’s council chambers during their strike on Tuesday.

Southwark protest sees developers’ plans thwarted

Southwark council’s planning committee has postponed a crucial decision about the future of the Elephant and Castle shopping centre in south London.

Avenue School strike in Newham opposes academy

Teachers and other school workers struck at Avenue Primary. It was the NEU members’ first of two days of strike action, an escalation from the previous one day strikes.

Property bosses and Labour right are scared of the revolt against redevelopments

A shiver of fear is running through the boardrooms of property developers—and the cabals of right wing Labour councillors.

Remembering the nurses’ strike of 1988

Thirty years ago this month health workers began a wave of militant strikes that defeated a Tory government. These three nurses tell the story—and say everyone should join the national demonstration to defend the NHS in London this Saturday.

A powerful meeting demands justice for Grenfell

An important meeting injected urgency into the Justice4Grenfell campaign

Activists won’t let cuts fell Yorkshire trees

Outside my front door on a tree-lined Sheffield street, protesters were up against private security guards as police looked on.

Protesters gather in London to say no to Tory attacks on the NHS

Protesters are gathering on Gower Street in central London today to protest against the Tory assault on the NHS.

Tens of thousands on the march in London for the NHS

Deep anger against the Tories, and a determination to fight for change now

A howl of rage at the Tories’ and bosses’ destruction of the NHS

Marchers in London said, 'We are sickened and angered by the NHS crisis, we blame the Tories and we want them out.'

Voices from the NHS in crisis—fix it now demonstration

Some voices from the national NHS in crisis—fix it now demonstration in London

Fight the Tories to win workers’ rights

A new battle over zero hours contracts and other work practices is set to take off  

Muslim parents furious after new attack on hijab by Ofsted’s Amanda Spielman

Muslim parents are angry and worried after Ofsted watchdog chief executive Amanda Spielman backed a head teacher who had banned the hijab.

After Darren Osborne is jailed - Theresa May has blood on her hands

Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) supporters across Britain are building for national demonstrations in London, Glasgow and Cardiff on 17 March.

Strikes can stop Tories’ academies funding scam

Firms that run dozens of academies are relying on emergency handouts from the government to stay in business.

Vote for strikes to defend Virgin Trains East Coast union rep Alex Ajufo

Up to 100 outsourced workers on Virgin Trains East Coast are to begin balloting for strikes this week over the sacking of their RMT union rep.

Mears workers halt their strike

Housing maintenance workers employed by Mears in Manchester returned to work on Monday after a long-running strike.

Councillors tell Corbyn to back off and let them make cuts

Right wing Labour Party councillors are trying to lead a fightback against Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s left wing leadership

Fujitsu fight for jobs continues

Workers at Fujitsu in Manchester were set to launch a week-long strike against compulsory redundancies and victimisation of reps from Wednesday of this week.

Students give support to lecturers’ walkout

The National Union of Students (NUS) has sent its “full solidarity” to university lecturers preparing for strikes.

Royal Mail workers deserve more than the new deal

CWU postal workers’ union leaders and Royal Mail bosses have drawn up a deal to end a long-running dispute that almost led to national strikes.

Reports round up: Students protest against Jacob Rees-Mogg

Drivers at First Bus in Manchester struck on

Victory for anti-fracking in Derbyshire

Tory controlled Derbyshire County Council’s planning committee voted nine to one to reject Ineos’s plans to build a test drill site at Bramley Moor

Panic after big slump on stock markets

Fear gripped the ruling class as US stock markets haemorrhaged £1 trillion overnight on Monday.

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International

Greek right attempt comeback with nationalist rally

A mass nationalist march showed the left needs to keep up the fightback

Donald Trump uses his state of the union address to fight for survival

US president Donald Trump used his state of the union address last week to attack migrants, ethnic minorities and women.

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Comment

Theresa May’s visit to China shows the pressure she faces

No one is likely to write an opera about Theresa May’s visit to China the way John Adams did about president Richard Nixon’s historic trip to Beijing in 1972. Her stay in China was completely obscured by media stories about Tory divisions over Brexit.

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Features

Lies about the single market

Sadie Robinson looks at the new pamphlet by the Labour Party right wingers claiming to bust “Lexit myths”. It weakly accepts the limits of the bosses’ system

Marx’s life of revolutionary theory and organisation

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth. Sarah Bates looks at what his remarkable life can tell us about fighting for change

Exclusive—how ‘free speech’ minister Jo Johnson stifled Palestine debate

The Tories love to cast themselves as brave defenders of free speech on college campuses, but documents prove a minister’s orders prompted Uclan university bosses to ban a Palestine debate

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Reviews

Young soul rebels fighting Israeli apartheid with music

47Soul are unapologetically political.

A Woman’s Place doesn’t seem to know its purpose

This exhibition seems to pose a question in its title, but offers no clear answers or analysis.

Altered Carbon is visually impressive, though gives in to cliche and sexist violence

Netflix’s latest sci-fi offering shows a future where a human’s mind is stored in a disc in the back of their neck, called a stack.

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What We Think

Take stock on pensions

Global stock market gyrations this week should send a warning to millions of workers about their pensions

Don’t let the Tories criminalise dissent

Politicians and commentators have made sure they were seen to celebrate the Suffragettes and others who fought for the vote.

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Other Categories

LETTERS - the state will try the same old tricks in Rashan Charles inquest

Rashan Charles, who died in east London last year, was the latest in a long line of young black men killed after contact with the police.

The things they say

‘Protesters harmed their cause and changed no one’s mind’

Watches, guns and parties in corrupt car union scam

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) executive Alphons Iacobelli approved spending more than £22,000 on a party for former UAW union vice president Norwood Jewell

After new pay figures released - bosses, not migrants, are to blame for lower wages

Right wingers have seized on figures for agricultural wages and immigration to say that migrants lead to lower wages. Alistair Farrow looks at the reality

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