On
Monday, May 17th, 1.3 million ballot papers will go out for an election
that has the potential to worry the ruling class even more than the
general election, which we were told had world financial markets in
jitters.
No sooner has the dust started to settle on the fall out
from the 2010 general election and the decision of Gordon Brown to fall
on his
sword both as PM and Labour leader than we are already seeing names
being put
forward as “suitable” choices to become the new leader of the labour
Party.
We continue our analysis of the 2010 General Election with a look at the issues raised by the results in Northern Ireland.
A joint press conference by Jerry Hicks and Paul Holmes was held in London on Thursday. Click here to watch a video of Jerry speaking.
It was one of the surest things in British politics: when an election
comes around, no matter the national trend, Scotland will always vote
Labour. But with the SNP managing to form a minority government,
winning one more seat than Labour in the 2007 Scottish Parliament
election, and then their shock by-election victory in Glasgow east in
2008 it seemed, to some, that the Scottish working class was switching
their allegiances.
David Cameron has been crowned. After days of torturous
negotiations, the Tories have finally cobbled together a “principled” deal with
the Liberal Democrats “in the national interest”. Cameron is now Prime
Minister, with Nick Clegg his ever-so-thankful Deputy PM. Five cabinet posts
are to be given to the Liberal Democrats to cement together this unholy
coalition, the first coalition in 70 years, since Churchill formed the war-time
government. Gleggameron is upon us!
A decisive battle has been going on within the PSUV in Venezuela, a
battle over who are to be the parliamentary candidates for the party in
the elections later this year. The left have been fighting an unequal
battle, where more right-wing candidates have had much more resources
and official backing locally than candidates who genuinely represent
the workers and poor. It is a key battle in the Venezuelan revolution.
As a new Tory/Liberal coalition takes office – in reality an accomodation of two capitalist parties – on a programme of austerity and attacks on the public sector, we look back at the lessons of the election and what it means for the Labour and trade union movement. (Photo – Flickr)
BELFAST: The
Draft Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill which is ostensibly
designed to create a framework for resolving the question of
controversial parades and demonstrations, especially during the
marching season is generating opposition from workers in the North
because of its implications for Trade union and political
demonstrations organised by the Trade Union Movement and protests
against the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as community protests
such as anti racist demonstrations like those that took place last year
on the Lisburn Road after the racist attacks in Belgravia Avenue and Wellesley Avenue.
Severfield Reeve workers in Yorkshire have won a significant concession in their struggle
In 1999, the government set a target of eradicating child poverty
within a generation and of halving child poverty by 2010. Progress has
been made and (according to a government report ‘Ending child poverty:
everybody’s business’) 600,000 children have been taken out of relative
poverty, and absolute poverty has fallen by 1.8 million to less than
half the 1998-99 level. But many children still live in poverty and
this is unacceptable. (Photo – flckr)
Who has won the election? Everybody has lost. The ruling class was
quite clear what it wanted and needed. There is a crisis. They need to
unload the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the working class.
To achieve that they needed a strong majority Conservative government
ready and willing to put the boot in to jobs and public services. The
election hasn’t delivered it. Here is the editorial from the new issue of Socialist Appeal.