Action over housing
5 October 2015
The phrase “housing crisis” is a daily media prod to the London commuter. Blink and it’s still there. But we’ve been stood immobile and blinking for far too long.
Junior doctors in revolt over proposed contracts
29 September 2015
Junior doctors flooded Westminster in their thousands last night (Tuesday) to protest against planned changes to their contracts as the British Medical Association ballots members on industrial action.
Refugees: how to create a crisis
29 September 2015
NATO governments are scheming to win support for intervening in Syria – using the refugees to create chaos in Europe and provide the excuse for an illegal war.
A liveable state pension for the older generations?
20 September 2015
1 October is Older People’s Day, when the National Pensioners Convention will make the case – in leaflets to be distributed across the country – for a state pension that people can live on.
U-turn as Germany closes borders
19 September 2015
Germany wants to dictate immigration policy to Europe – and it is causing chaos across the continent. On 13 September Merkel had to introduce temporary border controls.
Finns strike against government pay cuts
19 September 2015
Finland’s national trade unions held a mass demonstration on 18 September at Helsinki Railway Station, combined with widespread strikes, against government plans to cut pay and benefits.
London teachers launch housing campaign
19 September 2015
Teachers can’t afford London, says the newly formed London Teachers’ Housing Campaign, as tthe average price of a home soars above £500,000 and rents continue to rise by over 10 per cent a year.
EU referendum: first moves
13 September 2015
A referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU will happen by the end of 2017. There’s no chance of the EU restoring powers to Britain beforehand and no prospect of a revised treaty.
EU migration shambles and the drive to war
9 September 2015
Capitalism is waging war against workers worldwide to wreck countries and uproot their peoples. We look at how the “migrant crisis” started.
Rolls-Royce aero engines: fight to keep British jobs
5 September 2015
In the midst of significant investment on the back of large order books workers at aero engine giant Rolls-Royce have cooperated with the company during closures, restructuring and redundancies. But where has this left the British workforce?
Where have all the teachers gone?
2 September 2015
Statistics quietly released at the end of August tell a devastating story: we are heading for a full-blown teacher supply crisis. For the third year running, ministerial recruitment targets fell woefully short.
Disbelief as BBC dumps Met Office
31 August 2015
The BBC’s decision to exclude the Met Office from tendering for its weather forecasts has been met with general incredulity from the forecasters’ union, Prospect.
River staff threaten strike action
31 August 2015
Crew members and others who staff some of the Thames river boats, such as Thames Clippers and City Cruises, have voted unanimously to go out on strike for improved pay and conditions.
For employers, subsidies are forever
The assumption that the national minimum wage was good for workers was always wrong.
False hopes
It’s time to stop magical thinking, time to allow experience to conquer false hope.
The war against youth
A forward-looking, optimistic, collectively minded society will nurture and encourage its youth, ensuring they know how important they are now and for the future.
A young person’s place is in their union
Young people are not enthused by traditional politics – but that doesn’t mean they are apathetic. Harnessing and directing interest where young workers have economic power is not easy.
Progress in tube fight
The long-running dispute over the introduction of a 24-hour rail service on London’s underground took a positive turn when RMT, TSSA and Unite called off two further 24-hour strikes scheduled for the last week of August.
Tested to destruction?
Why are governments (Tory, Labour) so obsessed with school testing? The latest wheeze is to test the youngest children within a few weeks of starting full-time school, when most are still just four years old.
No work, no rest
Workers leaving school or university now have to pay individually to fund a non-guaranteed pension due in forty years’ time. That would seem an odd idea to previous generations of British workers.
No care, no shame
In their election manifesto, the Conservatives said that by April 2016 they would cap charges on residential social care and limit the liability of any individual needing long-term care, along with a rise in the level of personal assets above which people would be ineligible for state help.
They want us to disarm and surrender
The Trade Union Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech has resurrected every wish-list governments ever had of smashing the working class. It embodies every anti-worker measure they’ve previously tried to implement and every shred of vindictive class hatred they have had in their ranks reaching back to day one of modern capitalism.
News Analysis - The Luxembourg follies
The EU elite have now taken to styling Luxembourg City the “Capital of Europe”, building themselves a whole district to help them feel comfortable in their capital.
TUC - Lobby call
The Trades Union Congress has announced a national union mobilisation against the government’s Trade Union Bill – starting with a lobby of parliament on Monday 2 November.
Parliament - The glorious rebuild
If it came from local authority leaders or senior NHS managers, the proposal to spend between £5.7 and £7.1 billion restoring the Houses of Parliament over a 40-year period would lead for calls for them to be sectioned.
Death Rates - Highest for a decade
Britain’s death rates for January to July 2015 were 30,000 up on similar figures for 2014 – the highest for a decade.
NHS contract challenged
The NHS is facing a legal challenge from private provider Care UK, after four GP-led clinical commissioning groups awarded an elective care contract instead to a local NHS Trust in East London.
Still fighting over the Co-op Bank
The “Save our Bank” campaign – the cooperative and mutualists who have seen the demise of the Co-op Bank and control passing to private equity and hedge fund – is still trying to fight back against the new owners.
Not a real change
25 August 2015
This book by Christian Felber, an economist and university lecturer in Austria, outlines an “alternative” to the economic chaos and social suffering caused by financial capital. Some of his ideas are utopian; but there’s also stimulating thought about how to mitigate capitalism’s callousness.
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