The first Northern weekend school was held on the 12th-14th September,
organised by Yorkshire supporters of Socialist Appeal. The school took
place in Saddleworth, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The theme of the school was "The Class, the Party and the Leadership". The
weekend proved tremendously successful, both in terms of political
education and bringing together socialists in the movement and young
activists.
In
response to coup plotting in both Bolivia and Venezuela, the Hands Off
Venezuela Campaign, together with several other Latin American
solidarity organisations, organised a picket outside the US Embassy in
London followed by a highly successful public meeting, where all
speakers and participants condemned the manoeuvres of US imperialism
and pledged themselves to keep up the solidarity activity.
PCS members in the RPA have
gained an important success in the dispute with their employer over the
imposition of a flawed and incomplete staff reporting system.
With the beginning of the 2008/09
academic year fast approaching, students will soon be settling in to the
realities of student life. For new students this means at some point they’ve
made a choice: between studying away from home on the one hand and continuing
to live with their parents on the other. Almost a third of students choose the
latter option. This often means a long commute to a university chosen on the
basis of its location instead of its merits – but at least these students have
the security of a roof over their head. For those who have chosen to study away
from home, often unaware of the true cost of student life, this means moving in
to student accommodation and an ongoing struggle against poverty, unscrupulous
landlords and, more often than not, appalling living conditions.
In the first part, Ed dealt with the housing shortage, the renting crisis and the attack on public housing. Here he deals with home ownership and outlines a socialist programme.
In the absence of decent rented accommodation, thousands of people look to
buy in order to get a roof over their heads. But this is a major problem for
people. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors estimates that
affordability for first-time buyers has fallen by 351% over the last 10 years. Equally,
repossessions were up 20% during 2007, which hit an eight-year high.
Alan Woods’ new book ‘Reformism and Revolution – Marxism and socialism of the 21st Century’ has its official launch in the UK at Bolivar Hall on Wednesday, October 1st, in London. It defends the ideas of Marxism and the class struggle against the revisionism of Heinz Dietrich and the bureaucracy who are determined to hold back the movement and water down their programme. Download and print off this A4 leaflet and distribute it as widely as possible.
As I write, financial markets in Wall
Street, New York, the City of London and all over are in turmoil. In just 24 hours, two out of the four largest
investment banks in the US have disappeared.
Lehman Brothers, around for 158 years, has declared bankruptcy and
25,000 employees around the globe have lost their jobs.
Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest
investment bank, has been taken over by the largest high street bank in
America, the Bank of America. Bank
America was virtually ordered by the US financial authorities to take over
Merrill Lynch, paying $50bn. Otherwise,
that bank too would have gone bust, putting thousands more out of work. Even worse for capitalism, it would have
meant that both Lehman and Merrill Lynch would have defaulted on their contracts
and obligations and thus brought down many other banks (15 were rumoured to be
in trouble).
Living in Britain in the 21st century we should all at least expect to have decent a
decent place to live at an affordable price. Having your own place should not be
down to luck or to a ‘dream’ of owning your own home: it should be your
right. We all should expect that amidst the massive wealth of British
society all people who live here can at least have a decent home – is
this really too much to ask?
Join us for a picket of the US embassy and public meeting on Wednesday,
September 17, in London to defend the Bolivian and Venezuelan
revolutions! Download and print off this A4 leaflet and distribute it as widely as possible.
Thirty
five years ago on 11th September 1973 a coup eliminated the
democratic Popular Unity government in Chile and killed the elected President
Salvador Allende in the presidential palace. In the days, weeks and months that
followed tens of thousands of activists were murdered and dumped in unmarked
graves by the military. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned and tortured –
many in Santiago football stadium. This was a catastrophe for the Chilean and
international working class.
The £145
million profit declared by the Go-Ahead Group is a direct drain on fare-payers’
and taxpayers’ cash that should be invested in the bus and rail industries. The group’s profit was funded by nearly £200
million in subsidy for its three rail franchises over 2007/08,
inflation-busting fares hikes and untold amounts of public money finding their
way into the group’s bus operations from local authorities.
The American education company Kaplan has announced plans to open a
profit seeking university in the UK. Although only a small beginning,
this opens the way to a profit-driven higher education system. The
first move was the government’s, who recently relaxed laws on who can
award degrees. They are in effect trying to open up the concept of a
degree to market speculation and commodification.