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Back to boom and bust

For ten years Gordon Brown has been mouthing the
phrase “no return to boom and bust”. Now we see it is meaningless. Darling in
his Mansion House speech in June also brushed off the threat of recession,
asserting that “our
economy will continue to grow.” But there has been a boom and it has
turned to bust. Brown and Darling are denying what is going on in the real
world before their eyes. They can’t do anything about the recession since they
are not prepared to act against the source of the problem, the capitalist system.
More and more people will begin to see that if the only way we can control the
economic system and make it work in our interests is if we own it.

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Market and Public Organisation

The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, based at the University of Bristol, has found that almost half of all public sector workers put in unpaid overtime, equivalent to the efforts of hundreds of thousands of workers. Naturally New Labour wants to reward public sector workers with a good kicking, in the form of below-inflation wage rises.

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Tesco: anti-union

What are Tesco up to in the USA? They hired a union buster who had previously distinguished himself by locking out 19,000 workers and rehired 1,000 under false identities and social security numbers. These are criminal offences. The US United Food and Commercial Workers report Tesco advertised for someone to get involved in ‘union avoidance activities’ and maintaining non-union status.’ They said it was a ‘mistake.’ They’ve just declared £2.8bn profit. Is that a mistake?

Hammer and sickle the communist featured image

Selling of the NHS…

Those whom the gods destroy…New Labour Health Minister Ben Bradshaw says the government will hand over failed hospitals to the private sector. The British Medical Association complains that ‘would effectively see parts of the NHS privatised.’ John McDonnell MP says such privatisation goes ‘beyond anything Thatcher even dreamt of.’ And Paul Kenny of the GMB promises, ‘we will resist this move with every sinew.’

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Asbestos scandal

The
judicial House of Lords has recently ruled that pleural plaque (scarring of the
lung – a condition caused by breathing in asbestos) is not an industrial
illness for which compensation can be claimed. This reverses twenty years of
common law practice. What do the Law Lords know about it? Asbestosis related
conditions are not exactly an occupational hazard for judicial bigwigs.
 

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124th Durham Miners’ Gala

Over 70,000 people gathered to
march, or to enthusiastically cheer, as 160 trades union and socialist banners
were paraded through Durham at the 124th Durham
Miners’ Gala. Known throughout Durham as “The Big Meeting”, this wonderful
event was threatened with disappearance when the Tories destroyed the Durham
mining industry. But the working class is tenacious and has turned the annual
Miners Gala into an international trades union festival, with banners even
coming from Australia!

 

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Marxist Day School in London

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Even the bourgeois press has admitted that
the sudden shift in world economic fortunes has brought Marxism ‘back from the
dead’ – the Sunday Times ran an article last week under the title ‘The credit
crunch is bringing Marxism back into fashion’. From our perspective, Marxism is
not a fashion or a strange breed of animal, as the bourgeoisie like to kid
themselves, but the only answer to today’s problems. And as the deep crisis of
world capitalism comes more and more to the surface, more and more people will
seek our ideas. This was shown by the turnout of more than 30 at ULU Marxist
Society and Socialist Appeal’s Marxist
Day School on Saturday 12th
July.

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The Glasgow East by-election and memories of Red Clydeside

The unexpected by-election in the Glasgow East constituency
has focussed the attention of the political parties and the media on a part of
Clydeside which it has long been fashionable to ignore. At the
general election Labour obtained a majority of 13,500 over the SNP candidate,
gaining 60.7% of the vote. If ever Labour had a safe seat it was Glasgow East.
This has led to the constituency being taken for granted and systematically neglected.
In Greater Glasgow, life expectancy is below the national average at 70.7
years. In the Calton ward of Glasgow East it is just 53.9 years, a figure
comparable with many ‘third world’ countries.

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New Marxist economics website – check it out now

www.marxisteconomics.com

This new website is now operational. Set up by
supporters of the International Marxist Tendency, it is intended as a service
and an educational tool for the entire labour movement. The website sets out Courses, Information and Resources. You work through the Courses, which are really at the
heart of the educational project. At present there are two Courses – ‘Basic
Concepts and Ideas’ and ‘Looking at Value.’ More are promised. There are
hotlinks to definitions within the Courses. There are already signs of interaction and questioning
among the first users. There is a section. ‘Latest posts.’ Feedback is
welcomed.

 

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Save the Post Office

A government Report has confirmed what everybody already knew. The
‘liberalisation’ of the postal service has benefited big business, but
not ordinary people. This is no surprise. The Post Office works on a ‘one price goes
everywhere’ principle. The monopoly on letters enables the huge volume
of business to business mail from and to central London head offices to
in effect subsidise highland crofters and little old ladies who live on
remote Scottish islands keeping in touch with their loved ones. Does
anyone have a problem with that?

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UNISON strike – leaflet here

Hundreds of thousands of local authority workers will
be on strike on Wed 16th and Thurs 17th July. We believe
the UNISON action this week will be an important new phase in the class
struggle. This is a downloadable pdf leaflet for Socialist
Appeal supporters, around which to plan our intervention. We would like
supporters in every area to start planning now what you will be doing on those
two days.

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Why you should worry about Fannie and Freddie

Fannie  and Freddie Mac sound like two characters
out of the old West – with her in a gingham dress and him in a check shirt. But
Fannie Mae is the Federal National Mortgage Association and Freddie Mac is the
Federal Home Mortgage Corporation. They’re both in big trouble and, if they’re
in trouble, so are we.

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