Away with parliamentary illusions
The run-up to an election is a strange time. There is much talk of democracy while in reality a range of tactics is deployed to remove citizens from the electoral roll.
Workers March/April 2015
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Unions consider health vote
Unions in health will be meeting at the start of March to consider the results of the ballots on the government’s offer in the NHS pay dispute.
TTIP's drive to war
Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is growing. And no wonder: it would have dangerous economic, legal, and political consequences.
Why Britain needs an independent energy policy
Want a country without enough energy to prevent blackouts? Fancy a return to the 18th century? Just stick with the muddle of complacent governments and environmental extremists...
In supermarket wars, we are the first casualty
The drive to increase supermarket profits has led to low pay, waves of redundancies, zero hours contracts and intolerable squeezes on agriculture.
The strange death of language centres
The Home Office originally funded language centres to help schools cope with large numbers of families with little or no English. And then came a pernicious reversal in policies…
The EU tries again on trade deal
A worried EU Commissioner for Trade came to London on 16 Februar to maintain the EU position on growth and jobs despite all evidence to the contrary, and to repeat previous attempts to revive support for TTIP.
Rotherham: more than a local problem?
The publication of the Jay report into the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham has lifted the lid on what happens when professionals stay silent rather than stick their heads above the parapets of political correctness…
The 5 are back again!
The Miami Five are now all free and back home in Cuba with their families, we look at the background to this great victory…
Private sector myths
Professor Mariana Mazzucato has made a fascinating study of the roles of the state and private enterprise in innovation. Her book challenges the false image that business is innovative while the state is full of inertia.
Ukraine - The big lie
Ukraine (desperate for a ceasefire) – Russia, Germany and France concluded a peace agreement in Minsk on 12 February. Notably, the main warmongers – the US, Britain and the EU – were absent.
Accounting for money in the Soviet Union
During Socialist transition some workers were in more mechanised workplaces than others, some less rationally organised or working with less up to date equipment etc. So the same product(s) produced from different locations could not at this time be directly exchanged with other products solely on the basis of the number of hours worked.
Bolshevik finance
How to run industry and finance without capitalism was one of the things the Bolsheviks learned how to do in the Soviet Union after the October Revolution – and we can learn something from studying how they did it.
Capitalist destruction
Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, has written another challenging book. In this one, the Canadian author and journalist shows how capitalism is destroying our environment.
Libya - The authors of chaos
In an act of supreme irony, the US, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Britain have said the forces of disruption “will not be allowed to condemn Libya to chaos and extremism”.
Minimum wage - A handful of prosecutions
The government has made great play of naming and shaming employers who fail to pay the minimum wage. Yet just 92 employers have been prosecuted over the past two years
Housing - empty investments
London has tens of thousands of “safe deposit boxes” positioned on its public streets – houses and flats bought for investment but untenanted.