On Monday 13th October, thousands of workers in the NHS and the Royal College of Midwives came out on strike to protest against years of low pay. We publish here two interviews with health workers on the picket lines in Coventry.
Over the past few weeks, membership to the Scottish National Party has skyrocketed on the back of the momentum from the pro-independence campaign. Recent events, in which the SNP-led government has overseen the re-privatisation of the Scottish rail network, have exposed the divide between the SNP leadership, which is wedded to capitalism, and the radicalised rank-and-file, who are looking for a genuine alternative to austerity.
The Shetlands, the most northerly point of the British Isles, was battered over the past week by high seas and storms. This however did not prevent successful meetings, called by the Laggan Tomore Construction branch of UNITE to discuss blacklisting and other political issues, from taking place. These meetings were addressed by Dave Smith from the Blacklist Support Group and Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal.
The forces of ISIS are closing in on the besieged town of Kobane on the Turkish-Syrian border. While the rest of the world looks on, the people of Kobane are threatened with an unspeakable bloodbath. The international labour movement must rally to the defence of the Kurds who are faced with a genocidal massacre.
The struggle of the Kurdish forces that have been defending the town of Kobane against the onslaught of ISIS forces, which outnumber and outgun them, has been nothing short of heroic. These latest events, however, expose the cynical manoeuvres of the Ergodan government in Turkey and the hypocrisy of the Western imperialists.
At a recent meeting of the Sussex Marxists, Adam Booth – editor of www.socialist.net – discusses the events surrounding the Scottish referendum and analyses the question of independence and nationalism, putting forward a Marxist perspective on the way forward for workers and youth in Scotland, Britain, and internationally.
We publish here an analysis of the history and programme of the Black Panther Party – the militant organisation that was at the forefront of the Black Power movement in the USA in the 1960s and 70s – by John Peterson of Socialist Appeal USA. In the wake of the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, now is an important time to ask: which way forward for the fight against racism and oppression?
Rosa Luxemburg was one of the most important figures in the history of the international workers’ movement.Reform or Revolution was one of the most important of her early writings. Written in 1899, it provides a devastating demolition of the theoretical and practical basis of reformism. It was completely valid at the time when it was written and it remains completely valid today.
British MPs have voted overwhelmingly to involve UK military forces in yet another imperialist adventure in Iraq. So successful have previous efforts at ‘stability’ and ‘democracy’ been, that the military is being sent in once again in a desperate attempt to prevent Iraq from spiralling out of the control of the Western imperialists. Rob Dransfield examines the hypocrisy and real motives of imperialism
Eighty years ago in the US, a branch of the Teamsters union, Local 574 lead a magnificent struggle against ruthless bosses and their backers in government. Critically, the branch had within its ranks a revolutionary leadership able to organise the fight at every stage. Bob Faulkes looks back at a strike that has inspired union militants over the decades.
Many in the West are justifiably horrified by the atrocities being perpetrated by the ISIS gangsters. But imperialist intervention, which led to this wreck in the first place, is no solution. There is no short-term way out. John Peterson of Socialist Appeal USA discusses the only genuine alternative: a socialist revolution that can transform the region and the world.
We publish here an open letter from Darrall Cozens, President of the Coventry TUC and lifelong member of the Labour Party, who responds to the Labour leader, Ed Miliband’s, justification for supporting the recent vote in Parliament backing military action in Iraq.