Celebrations as picket lines shut down V&A museum sites

Posted on: September 5th, 2026 by Camilla Royle
V&A museum workers dance a ceilidh on the picket lines

V&A museum workers dance a ceilidh on the picket line

Workers at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) shut down three of the museum’s sites in east London as they struck on Friday and Saturday—and danced in celebration.

The PCS and Prospect union members, who are fighting over pay and conditions, forced bosses to shut the V&A East, Storehouse and Young V&A. 

More than 80 of them rallied in front of the V&A East in Newham on Saturday.

Bosses won’t allow workers to carry water with them during shifts—even during the heatwave.

Eli, a PCS health and safety rep, slammed the situation as laughable.“How is it that our bosses care more about the safety of the objects in these buildings than the safety of their workers?” they told Socialist Worker.

“They need to remember that if we don’t work, these places don’t either.”

Alice, a Prospect member, agreed. “Seeing how we’ve been able to shut down the V&A by coming together has been the most inspiring bit of this strike to me,” she told Socialist Worker.

Workers are demanding a 6.9 percent increase for those at the bottom of pay band 7—and at least 4 percent for those above the lowest band.

This would still only bring the wages of the lowest paid, those on band 7, into line with the London Living Wage.

V&A director Tristram Hunt—the former Blairite MP and biographer of Frederick Engels—pockets at least £150,000 a year.

Strikers are demanding “time-and-a-half” enhanced pay rates on bank holiday weekends—and affordable food.

There isn’t a workplace canteen at the Storehouse site—and bosses have insulted workers by offering them £1 off sandwiches in the museum cafe.“It’s a joke when the sandwiches on sale are £13 to £14 to start with,” Alice explained.

Dylan Law, the Green Party deputy mayor for the nearby borough of Hackney, brought his solidarity to the strikers. “All of you, from PCS and Prospect, have the full support of myself and Hackney mayor Zoë Garbett,” he said.

“The bosses need to come back to the table and negotiate,” he added.

Workers are willing to walk out again—and say they want to go further next time.

“Unless we get a deal, we’re going to shut down the V&A in South Kensington too,” Peter, a PCS member, said.

After the rally wrapped up, the workers clasped hands together and celebrated with a ceilidh dance.  

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Abortion rights protest takes on bigots’ ‘March for Life’

Posted on: September 5th, 2026 by TTE
Drowning out the bigots on the Abortion Rights protest

Drowning out the bigots on the Abortion Rights protest (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Hundreds of people of all genders and generations protested in London’s parliament square on Saturday against the anti-abortion bigots’ annual “March for Life”.

The Stand Up For Choice protest, called by Abortion Rights UK, was backed by numerous campaign groups and trade unions.

Protesters surrounded a group of anti-abortion campaigners from CBR UK who had brought giant “educational” placards with images of foetuses.

They kept up loud chants of “pro-life, that’s a lie, you don’t care if women die” and “our bodies, our choice” for hours.

Protester Gemma raged against attempts to roll back access to abortion. “I don’t want abortion taken away in this country,” she told Socialist Worker.

“Abortion is healthcare. Women and people who can become pregnant will die if abortion rights are taken away. Pregnancy is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to someone. I don’t think people realise how dangerous it is.

“Women in the US are dying horrific and preventable deaths. They can’t even get proper healthcare if their baby has died inside them. Whatever you think about abortion—that is not ‘pro-life’.”

Jan told Socialist Worker, “Abortion is a trade union issue. Middle class women with money can always find a way to sidestep legislation. In Britain we fought in the 1970s and 1980s to make sure every union in Britain has a pro-choice position.

“We will have to do that again if the far right continues to make threats to control our bodies”, she added.

Many of the speakers at the Abortion Rights rally raised the threat of a new attack on bodily autonomy.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said it is “utterly ludicrous” to allow abortion up to 24 weeks.

James Orr, who was the far right party’s head of policy before stepping down over a corruption scandal this week, opposes abortion in all cases. 

Sophia Beach from Women Against the Far Right told the rally, “Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and Prince Andrew are the biggest threat to women and girls.”

“Andy Burnham is neck and neck with Nigel Farage in the polls. And if we want to know what a Reform UK government would look like, all we have to do is look at Donald Trump’s America.”

Danielle Roberts from Alliance for Choice Belfast told the crowd that they had successfully decriminalised abortion in the north of Ireland.

On the counter-protest to the March for Life
Reform UK and the global far right’s war on abortion rights
  Read More

“But there are still three people a week travelling to access abortion that should be free, safe and legal in Northern Ireland,” she said.

Rosie Kelly-Smith from the NEU union said that the rise of the far right means we are seeing the right to choose being targeted.

“To force pregnancy on someone who does not choose it is hateful, it’s misogynistic,” she said. “Those who want to roll back abortion rights want to control us, to control our bodies and futures, and the consequences can be fatal.”

She slammed the March for Life’s claims to be “pro-life and pro-family”. “March for Life says that abortion harms families. But what really harms families? Dead sisters, dead daughters and dead mothers”.

Some 90 percent of people in Britain support the right to choice. This even includes some 86 percent of Reform UK supporters.

But the “March for Life” rally should be a warning sign of the dangers. It draws hundreds of people, including young people. Supporters of far right Restore Britain could be seen among the crowd.

We will have to be ready to defend abortion rights against attempts to roll them back.

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Letters: Privatising public space robs kids of their childhood

Posted on: September 4th, 2026 by Frankie Murden
Don't let profit come before people (Photo: WikipediaCommons)

Don’t let profit come before people (Photo: WikipediaCommons)

Last week, I took a walk through my local park. I’ve lived in east London my whole life and as I walked, I was greeted with a familiar image.

There were kids running, playing football and having fun in the park cage. I’ve played football my whole life and seeing these kids play, I was met with a hundred of my own memories.

I remember playing cricket here with my dad when I was nine. I remember scoring the winner in the local school derby when I was 12. I remember making friends here, being safe here.

I have had the privilege to make these memories on this pitch.

And now those memories are being culled, prevented from being accessed by the next generation.

On the exterior of the cages a sign hangs—“Keep our pitches free”.

The local council is planning on privatising the cage, renovating it and converting it into a place only to be accessed via a paid-for booking system. Allegedly, this will be beneficial to the community.

This is a blatant lie. I know what this is—the community knows what this is.

We cannot allow profits to be prioritised over people.

Young people are constantly told to put our phones down and get out. Well, what can I do when every time I step outside, I have to spend money?

The government claims to care about its youth population. A superficial ban on social media for under-16s will not validate this claim. The continued privatisation of public spaces does not validate it.

This is not an isolated case either. Only ten minutes up the road, another famous pitch, fondly known as the “San Siro”, is closing down.

Where do we expect the children to go? What do we expect them to do?

No more football. No more fun. Nowhere else to go.

Fred Cox, east London

BBC airs far right ideas

The BBC Disclosure documentary conducted an investigation on the so-called “no-go zone” Glasgow City Centre has supposedly become.

The team tries to incorporate the rise of the far right into its investigation in an atrociously underhand way that asserts one side being as bad as the other.

Allowing interviews with racist vigilante group Scots Active with no pushback is not representing their side. It is platforming racist ideas and misinformation in the national media.

There is no denying there are problems in Glasgow—homelessness, drug addiction and violence are real issues—but these weren’t covered in a meaningful way.

This could have been an opportunity to discuss collapsing infrastructure, cuts to essential services and the amazing community work being done across the city. Instead, the BBC chose to regurgitate Reform UK talking points.

The socialists interviewed in the documentary were some of the only ones who spoke against the far right and provided opposition to the narrative being portrayed.

Kathryn Gardyne, Glasgow

Cofnas hid his own lies ­behind accusations

Nathan Cofnas accused Professor Jason Arday of plagiarising material for his doctoral thesis.

The charge was false, but it triggered a frenzy in the racist British media.

Cofnas lost his research affiliation at Cambridge in 2024 for promoting what he calls “race realism”, which is nothing but racism.

Cofnas believes black people are inferior to white people and has campaigned against Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policies. That’s why he hated Professor Arday.

When 30,000 people attended a vigil for Arday in Trafalgar Square, Cofnas set a new low. He posted on X that the vigil was an “anti-Cofnas hate rally”, arguing “If I was in London, there is a real possibility I would be murdered.”

Instead of showing any remorse for his role in Professor Arday’s death Cofnas played the victim.

Like all bullies, Cofnas is a coward, happy to inflict pain but fearful for his own skin.

Cofnas is living proof that eugenics is a racist lie.

Sasha Simic, east London

Dolly in Rotherham

People from my hometown of Rotheram will remember Dolly Parton visiting with her Imagination Library in 2007.

This is a non-profit started in memory of her father, who never learnt to read.

Some 85 percent of Rotherham’s under-5s received their first book from the project.

It’s no coincidence she chose an area decimated by pit and steel closures, being from a similar area herself.

RIP to the queen of country.

Ian Mitchell, Rotheram

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North London bus drivers win ‘significant improvements’ after heatwave strikes

Posted on: September 4th, 2026 by TTE
Bus drivers on the picket line in north London demand air con

Bus drivers on the picket line in north London demand air con (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Bus drivers at Arriva North London have voted to accept a “significantly improved” deal after a series of strikes.

The Unite union members walked out at the height of the heatwave this summer to demand air conditioning on buses.

They voted by 667 to 339 votes to accept the offer after suspending strikes, set to take place at eight garages in north and east London on Friday.

A third of drivers—a sizeable minority—wanted to keep striking. At two garages union members voted to reject even though the overall vote was to accept. 

The details of the offer have not been made public.

A majority of Unite members rejected a previous offer two weeks ago. One striker told Socialist Worker, “Management had offered us some of the things we want, but we wanted more clarity on when the air conditioning would be installed.

“We’ve had talk after talk, year after year—this time we wanted commitments.”

Peter, a Unite union shop steward at Wood Green bus garage, told Socialist Worker this latest offer is a “very significant improvement”.

He said that strikes had put pressure on the bosses and forced them to come back with a better offer. “Everybody is saying London is leading the way,” he said.

“This could be the best improvement in the country—the union wants to try to get it rolled out.”

But bosses were looking for wriggle room about putting everything in writing after verbally agreeing.

Pete said, “When we put across some specific points, they don’t want to agree to it. All of a sudden, they won’t put it in writing.

“Bus workers have done the hard yards. But now they want the detail. So there was a debate about whether to pocket the win or whether to say ‘now they are on the ropes—we are going to knock them out’.”

Speaking before the result was out, Pete said, “If we do accept the offer and they don’t stick to it, we do still have a live mandate for the next 11 months.

“And we only have to give ten days’ notice of more strikes—ten days’ notice and we are out again.”

Workers facing extreme heat can take inspiration from the bus workers’ fight.

Pete said, “The heat in summer and the cold in winter affect every bus driver. It gets hot every summer and cold in winter and the bus companies act like this is a surprise. We have got climate change so we will get more summers like this.

“So fix the buses—or give us an agreement where we don’t have to work freezing cold or red hot.”

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Scandal hits Reform UK conference—but the far right won’t simply implode

Posted on: September 4th, 2026 by Camilla Royle
Nigel Farage

Farage gave his conference speech on Friday

The Reform UK party conference got off to a rocky start in Birmingham on Thursday amid another corruption scandal.

As the delegates gathered, Channel 4 aired undercover footage that showed Nigel Farage’s aide Dan Jukes was willing to accept an illegal foreign donation of £500,000.  

James Orr, the far right party’s head of policy, was in the footage. He is at the heart of a far right network at the University of Cambridge that targeted Professor Jason Arday in a racist witch-hunt.

The pair have stepped down from their positions in Reform UK and the party has launched an internal investigation.

Labour and the Lib Dems have reported Reform UK to the Metropolitan Police.

But Farage appeared unrepentant ahead of his headlining speech on Friday, claiming that Reform UK had “done nothing wrong”. He attacked the investigators as “far left activists” who have “perpetuated hoaxes for many years”.

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson was adamant that Jukes and Orr would not be taking up their positions in the party again.

But deputy leader Richard Tice didn’t rule out the return of the pair. “Let’s wait and see what the investigation says,” he stated. 

The snaring of Orr is a blow to Farage. The Financial Times (FT) newspaper spoke to over 40 people who know Orr, describing how Farage relied on him to build links with the far right.

It said, “As Donald Trump’s early enthusiasm for Farage has cooled, Orr’s connections to the Maga movement, Silicon Valley funders and European populist leaders have become all the more important to Reform UK.”

It quotes one party insider saying, “I’ve always thought that Farage was getting James’s contact book as much as his policy insight.”

Orr is close to US tech billionaire and Palantir chairperson Peter Thiel and US vice president JD Vance, who described him as his “British sherpa”.

He has ties to former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, whose MCC “think tank” threw cash at far right organisations.

The logic is to radicalise further rightwards—and Reform UK is under pressure from Rupert Lowe’s breakaway party Restore Britain.

Racism was front and centre on the first day of the conference as it launched one attack after another on migrants and refugees.

Zia Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, pledged that one of Farage’s first acts as prime minister would be to use the Royal Navy to stop refugees. He pandered to his audience, claiming that Labour and Tory ministers have put these people up in “luxury hotels”.  

Jordan Bardella, from the fascist National Rally (RN) in France, addressed the conference. He claimed that, because of immigration, cities in both Britain and France had become “unrecognisable”.

He promised that the RN and Reform UK would work in lockstep if Marine Le Pen wins the French presidency in 2027.

And he added that an RN government would do “everything in its power to ensure France is no longer the gateway for illegal migration” into Britain.

Farage joined Bardella on stage to announce an “entente cordiale”—friendly agreement—between the British and French far right.

Bardella pledged that the RN would stop small boat departures while Farage promised that Reform UK would intercept boats in the Channel.

“We are about to sign a historic document that will stop the boats forever,” Farage claimed, as the crowd in the conference centre erupted in applause.

France is a warning that, despite scandals or dips in electoral support, the far right can still grow. The Front National (FN), the forerunner of the RN, was the most unpopular party in France for most of its history.

It saw a decline in support after Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine’s father, made it to the second round of the presidential election in 2002. But mainstream politicians such as Nicolas Sarkozy pushed racism—partly in a desperate bid to win the fascists’ votes—and the main beneficiary was the FN.  

In the absence of a powerful anti-fascist and anti-racist movement based on action, the FN and RN could still grow.

In Britain, anti-racists should seize on Reform UK’s troubles to deepen the anti-racist movement’s roots in workplaces, campuses and towns and cities.

Reform UK won’t simply implode—and betrayals by Labour will provide it with fertile ground.  

Building Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) unity marches across Britain and Workers Against The Far Right networks in unions and workplaces is vital.

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Why do we need to be democratic centralists?

Posted on: September 4th, 2026 by Camilla Royle
Socialists voting at SWP conference

Voting on the best course of action

Many activists are suspicious of political organisation, fearing that leaders always betray their supporters.

Such fears are born out of the long history of sell-outs by reformist political leaders and the authoritarianism of Stalinism.

But genuine socialist parties aspire to both represent their members’ experiences and beliefs and be effective in action. Those two aims can only be fulfilled through democratic centralism.

This means that, after discussion across the membership of the party, a decision is made on the best course of action. Once that decision is taken, everyone tries to implement it in the best way they can.

The collective experience of implementing decisions means that the strategy can be assessed and modified as necessary through ongoing discussions.

Democracy means experiences are shared and debated. Centralism means decisions are implemented.

Democracy and centralism do not contradict each other—they are interdependent.

The Labour Party claims to be democratic. It debates resolutions at party conferences. But the leadership can ignore those decisions. This formal democracy means little in practice.

Often the most undemocratic organisations are those that lack any centralised structure.

Those with the loudest voices or the biggest bank accounts exercise more influence than others. And nothing gets done.

A centralised organisation does not mean a hierarchy or a concentration of authority in the central committee.

The authority of the central committee depends on its ability to win the support of the members. Discipline in a revolutionary party is 99 percent conviction.

The need for centralism flows out of the character of the class struggle itself. The only power workers have is our collective power. That has to be centralised to be effective.

For example, the union members at the Institute of Cancer Research voted to strike. They have to fight continually for every worker to join that strike for it be effective. This is centralisation.

Democratic centralism cannot inoculate party members from clinging to outdated methods of organising or failing to recognise the significance of new struggles.

New political events throw up new arguments and challenges. In such situations, the role of the party leadership is not simply to reflect the will of the whole party.

It must campaign vigorously for shifts and changes in perspective. And, it has to show what is possible in practice.

The history of revolutions confirms that the existence of a democratic centralist party, capable of taking decisive action at key moments, is crucial.

The Bolshevik Party was vital to the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917—the only successful socialist revolution.

But centralism is not just a method of organising for the future uprising. Every campaign we are involved in needs a centralised response if it is to win.

A small revolutionary organisation like the Socialist Workers Party cannot be the embryo of a new society. We are a voluntary organisation of socialists who want to unite those who hate the system into an organisation that can challenge it.

The aim of internal democracy is to encourage the most effective ways of engaging in campaigns and winning more people to socialist ideas.

Building a democratic and centralised party means standing against the stream, learning from others and generalising from the best experiences. We depend on having active discussions and disagreements while continuing to work together.

Revolutionaries aspire to be leaders who have the best practical ideas and political arguments to build the confidence of others.

And they develop ways to link every act of resistance to a wider socialist vision of how ordinary people can take control of their lives.

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Cancer research bosses forced to concede—but the fight’s not over

Posted on: September 4th, 2026 by Frankie Murden
The strikers decided to all go into the negotiation meeting together

The strikers decided to all go into the negotiation meeting together

More than 40 striking workers at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) went into negotiations en masse on Friday.

The Unite union members began striking over pay in early June—and went on indefinite strike last month. They are determined to reach a deal that doesn’t leave behind the lowest paid workers.

The ICR is a charity. Yet there is a vast disparity between the wages of those at the top and the lowest-paid.

In 2020, 36 of the top earners raked in £4.6 million between them. Five years later, there were 71 people in this category. Their collective earnings have more than doubled, to £10.1 million.

But things have been very different for the workers who keep the place running. Many of the lowest-paid are forced to work second jobs and are chronically eating into their overdraft.

Members of the SI Cobas union on strike for Palestine earlier this month (Photo: @si_cobasnaz on X)
Why are unions still important?
  Read More

Mahmood, who works in the ICR storeroom, told Socialist Worker, “I worked here for ten years and I’m on the same pay band as when I joined. There is no chance of progression.

“The cost of living means every time you go to the supermarket things have gone up. Everything is more expensive, but not our pay.”

Mahmood said that during the strikes, bosses sent workers who didn’t have any experience to run the stores.

“They messed up everything. When we go back we will have to sort out all the errors. Management should realise that this will damage the institution,” he said.

But, Mahmood added, “The spirits of the strikers are still high and there is a lot of support from the union.”

Jose, who works in facility services, explained that he had made the decision to join the union after the strike started. Bosses tried to pressure those still inside to take on more work.

“I decided to go outside and join my colleagues. It’s important for everybody to be here on the picket line. We need to be united,” he told Socialist Worker.

Unite members tried to negotiate a deal with bosses that would uplift the pay of those on the lowest pay bands. The strikers say they want a resolution. But the bosses have been avoiding them and dragging things out. They are hoping they can outlast the strikers.

When the bosses came back with an offer they had been working on a completely different model to what was discussed with strikers last week. It doesn’t address the low pay and even adds a new entry level pay point below the current minimum.

“I’m so angry, how dare they?” said striker Heather at the rally on Friday. “I am so tired of them but so proud of us. We strike together, we are united.”

The strikers marched through Kensington in west London to chants of “No offer, no respect. Guess the strike’s not over yet.”

When they got to the ICR building, they discussed what to do. The strikers decided to all go into the negotiation meeting together rather than just sending four people to negotiate on their behalf.

They included workers from across the different departments of the scientific research institute.

The strike has started to force the bosses’ hand. But the workers will need to keep up the pressure on the picket lines to win what they are asking for—and the whole labour movement need to build solidarity for their fight.

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Royal Parks gardeners say ‘Prune your profits, not our pay!’

Posted on: September 3rd, 2026 by Camilla Royle
GMB members at the Royal Parks on strike over pay

The GMB union members are on strike over poverty pay

Gardeners at The Royal Parks in London struck this week against poverty pay—just as ministers handed a £50 million “pay” rise to the king.

As people passed by on their way to work through St James’s Park, the GMB union members chanted, “Prune your profits, not our pay!”

“It’s a labour of love working here. But we need to be able to live on what we’re paid,” Steve, one of the strikers, told Socialist Worker.

The workers maintain four of the Royal Parks—Brompton Cemetery, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and St James’s Park.

These are four of eight parks owned by King Charles whose “Sovereign Grant,” paid out of the public purse, will top out at almost £100 million for 2027-28.

The workers only take home 55p an hour more than the London Living Wage of £14.80.

The Royal Parks, a registered charity, doesn’t employ the workers directly—they’re outsourced to Idverde. “The Royal Parks contracts out to companies like Idverde to keep wages down,” Anna, a GMB official told Socialist Worker.

“It also allows them to maintain a distance whenever a dispute like this comes up. They say, ‘We don’t employ the workers in the parks,’.”

Idverde boasts of being the biggest “provider of green environmental services and ground maintenance” in Britain and Europe. And in 2025 the company recorded revenues of nearly £1 billion.

The GMB members overwhelmingly voted to strike—by 95 percent on a 75 percent turnout—after bosses offered them a paltry pay rise of only 70p per hour.

Another striker told Socialist Worker, “The bosses want to use the fact that inflation’s gone down—slightly—to say that we’re asking for too much.

“But there’s never any talk of the cost of living crisis. We live and work in London, and that’s becoming more and more expensive. The cost of food and rent is through the roof.

“Some of the people I work with, younger people especially, have to live their parents. It shouldn’t be like that,” he said.

The work that they do in the parks can be hard. Another striker explained, “With one heatwave after another this summer, we started coming in at 6am.

“That was just so we could do what we needed to get done before the worst of the heat hit.

“It’s been a challenge, with the hosepipe ban, to keep all the plants watered. We’ve been pumping water out of the ponds to keep everything alive. But it’s dirty work.

“We work in all weather. It can be tough on the body. But we’re not entitled to paid sick days with Idverde.”

Steve said the public appreciate the work they do—and are supportive of the strike. “But they’re often shocked at how little we make doing it,” he added.

With negotiations resuming on Friday, the workers are ready to walk out again if Idverde doesn’t pay up. 

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