ScotRail: Workers fight back
Workers at ScotRail are due to take strike action over the Christmas period. We publish here a report from a worker at ScotRail, who explains the background and reasons behind the strike.
How to fight the cuts – Labour needs militant stand
The capitalist crisis has posed things in a point blank fashion. Austerity cuts have hammered local government and public services across the board. There will be no let-up in these cuts. Now is the time for the labour movement to rise up, reclaim the militant traditions of the past, and fight back.
Triple-A Gloom
The New Year will be ringing in not joy but woe for working class people. It is the year that the cuts really begin to bite. It is the year that many people lose their jobs. It is the year that, in the words of Nick Clegg, “painful” Universal Benefits are introduced. It is the year that many lose their housing benefit and become homeless. It is the year the capitalist crisis deepens in Europe, with Spain, Italy and France following in the footsteps of Greece. Britain, however, is not far behind.
Marxism and the Media – Part Two
As with the sites of production of other commodities, the sites of media production are simultaneously sites of struggle. Journalists and other media workers can and must struggle against the domination of capital over their professions and over humankind.
Attacks on Sick Pay Rights in Further Education
The FE
employers organisation, the Association of Colleges (AoC) has announced that it
is withdrawing from national agreements where it gives advice to FE colleges on
sick pay agreements. This is another step in attacking term and conditions of
FE staff that began almost 20 years ago
Venezuela regional elections: PSUV candidates win 20 out of 23 states
Candidates of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the governor elections on December 16 in 20 out of the country’s 23 states, including in 5 which were ruled by the opposition MUD. The regional elections came after the victory of Hugo Chávez in the October 7 presidential elections. It is time for the working class and the poor to go on the offensive and complete the Venezuelan Revolution.
Connecticut Shooting Reveals Deeper Illness in Society
The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut has prompted a public outcry and heartfelt mourning across the country. The media will surely be flooded with every minute detail of the killer’s life in the coming weeks, and the issue of gun control will once again come to the fore. But what will not be seriously discussed is the root cause of shootings like this, and why they have become so commonplace.
Pat Finucane murder – report points finger at state collusion
British Prime Minister, David Cameron uses words such as “shocking” to refer to the activities of his own security forces then you know something is up. He was responding to the publication of the de Silva report, a review of the papers accumulated from different investigations carried out by different agencies of the British state into the death of Pat Finucane, which show that there was indeed collusion between the British state and those who murdered him back in 1989.
“Bad Pharma” – A Review
Pharmaceutical companies bend or withhold scientific data and lie about their drugs, in ways which endanger, harm or kill sick people, to make a profit. That is the shocking reality laid bare in Ben Goldacre’s new book, ‘Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients’. This is a prime example of the way the profit motive rewarded by Capitalism stands in front of human progress.
Tesco Drivers Strike Update
THE
long-running Tesco lorry drivers’ dispute has come to an end after
workers agreed a new redundancy package. The bitter dispute at Doncaster
’s Middle Bank distribution depot began in August after the firm’s
transport workforce was switched from Tesco to hauliers Eddie Stobart
Limited with 180 drivers promptly issued with redundancy notices. This
sparked a string of one to 8 day strikes leading to an all out strike
last week.
The Great Game in the Arctic
The imperialists are struggling for control of the Arctic. This plundering of resources, accompanied by a huge waste of money on military spending, will not bring prosperity to the peoples of the Arctic.
Venezuela: capitalists want to use Chávez’s health problems to strangle the revolution
On Saturday, December 8, Venezuelan
president Chávez announced that he would have to undergo another
surgical intervention in Cuba. Adding that “there are always risks in
processes like this” he explained that “if anything happens to me that
hinders me [from performing as president]”, vice president Maduro is his
preference to replace him.