Long hours on the up
The TUC reports that long hours’ working is on the up. More than one in eight of the workforce puts in more than 48 hours. In London it’s one in six.
USA – 28 million people on food stamps
In the richest country in the world, the USA, 28 million people depend on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families. In Michigan it’s one in eight households. Food stamps are just supposed to supplement the cost of groceries. But now food prices are soaring and the value of food stamps is not keeping up.
Why are so many people going hungry?
There are about 1 billion people in the world subsisting on
$1 a day or less. These people typically spend 80% of their income on food. For
them the present food price rises mean catastrophe. Why are so many going hungry? Why are food prices going up
all the time? These are the questions the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation has been asking at its meeting this June. So far it hasn’t come up
with any solutions.
East Midlands senior conductors strike
THE FIRST of three
24-hour strikes by more than 130 East Midlands Trains senior conductors
began at a minute after midnight on Saturday 7th June after talks at
conciliation service
Acas failed to resolve a breakdown in industrial relations with the
company.
UNISON Health Pay Deal Accepted
UNISON’s
425,000 members in Health have voted to accept the Government’s 3 year pay
deal, which will deal a significant blow to the chances of a generalised
campaign on pay across the public sector this summer. The deal offers 8.1% over
three years, with more for some members.
Defending the Russian Revolution
"Petrograd is in an unprecedented catastrophic condition. There is
no bread. The population is given the remaining potato flour and
crusts. The Red Capital is on the verge of perishing from famine,"
stated Lenin. "The political situation has become extremely critical
owing to both external and internal causes." This view of Lenin’s summed up the horrendous plight of the
Russian Revolution in May 1918, some six months after the successful
Bolshevik insurrection and the introduction of Soviet rule. The
"external and internal causes" which threatened the Revolution were the
aggressive actions of the imperialist powers, foreign blockade, the
organisation of internal counter-revolution, and the economic sabotage
of the landlords and capitalists.
Report: Lal Khan speaks in Birmingham
Lal Khan was speaking
in Birmingham on June 1 at a meeting organised
by the local PTUDC, where he outlined the developing crisis in Pakistan and
highlighted the need for socialism as the only answer to the problems of the
workers and peasants.
The Poverty of Life in Britain: The social wage
In the first part of this article on the poverty of life in Britain
we looked at the experience of working people in the workplace. In this
section our focus is on what is called the social wage. This is the
social provision of goods and services that working people cannot,
unlike the rich, provide for themselves individually. It includes such
things as health services, education, pensions, support if you become
unemployed, and local services such as swimming pools or meals on
wheels for the elderly.
GMB votes against strike action
Yesterday the GMB announced that their Local Government
members had voted 4:1 against strike action in the wake of management’s offer
of 2.45% with strings. The result is significant for a number of reasons, not
least that UNISON members have just commenced voting in a similar ballot that
began on June 2nd and finishes on June 20th.
President Chávez on national TV twice quotes Alan Woods’ book on Bolshevism
Speaking to a gathering of
national leaders of the PSUV on May 30, President Chavez explained that he was
reading a book by Alan Woods, Bolshevism – the road to revolution, and
raised a copy for everyone to see. He referred to Alan as a friend and a
British Marxist theoretician. He then quoted a couple of passages from the book
on the role of the revolutionary party.
[From HoV] – Report of film screening “The hour of the furnaces” in London
Over seventy people
gathered on Wednesday, May 21, at London’s
Bolivar Hall for the opening of the film season Venezuela: a revolution in film, which is organised
by Hands off Venezuela in association
with the Venezuelan embassy in the UK. (Also in Spanish).
A policeman’s lot; the police and industrial action
The recent ballot by members of the Police Federation who
voted overwhelmingly to press for full industrial rights including, ultimately,
the right to strike is evidence of the understandable anger and disillusionment
currently felt by rank and file police officers at the derisory pay increase
they have been offered, at a time when the price of many of life’s essentials
is rising so sharply.