New Socialist Appeal leaflet available
Over 100,000 Members of
the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are on strike together with up
to half a million other public sector workers including teachers and lecturers.
We are all protesting at the government’s policy to cap public sector pay below
inflation which has resulted in cuts to living standards across the civil
service.
With preparations for war in full swing the
small Workers’ International League gathered around Ralph Lee and Ted Grant was
the only voice that stood out defending a real internationalist position. Here
we provide our readers with the lead article of the August 1939 edition of Youth
For Socialism, signed by Ted Grant.
The immediate cause of the sliding dollar
is not far to seek. It’s the US
deficit with the rest of the world. Last year the USA imported nearly twice as much
as it exported. Their current account deficit stands at 6% of national income.
If a country is spending more than it’s earning, then it has to pay for the
difference.
This is a really valuable book for socialists. Ironically its
strength, as well as its weakness, is that it’s not written from a ‘political’
position. Nick Davies is an established and excellent investigative
reporter. He writes from the point of view of a practitioner defending
professional standards, seeking to explain, within those terms, why so much
British journalism is so wrong.
On
Wednesday April 16th our second meeting of students trying to set up a
Socialist Society at the University of Wolverhampton took place.
Karl Marx was a man with a family to look after, and a revolutionary
who no country acknowledged as citizen. A giant thinker of the modern
era who transformed our outlook in philosophy, economics and political
thought, Marx’s revolutionary activity was hobbled by poverty. Steve
Higham chronicles his hardships and achievements a century and a
quarter after his death.
They’re back from the dead. We thought we’d driven a stake
through their rotten hearts in the Labour landslide of 1997. Now they’re 13
points ahead in the polls. They should be history. So why are they making a
comeback? Because New Labour have been rumbled. They said they were being
prudent with the economy. They talked about, ‘no return to boom and bust.’ Now
we can see that they were just lucky. Don’t
let the failure of New Labour be the opportunity for the Tories. Reclaim the
Labour Party. It was set up as our party, as a party for the working class.
Fight the Tories with socialist policies.
We will work an average of the first 70 days of this year just to earn the money needed to pay interest charges on our debts (not to repay the debts). We collectively pay £1.5 billion on interest each year.
Marxism
is a not a moral code and is more than a set of ideas. It is a method that, if
applied correctly to the concrete situation, acts as a compass for the movement
towards the transformation of society by the working class in the interests of
humanity as a whole. Anyone can use a compass but it is still necessary to
decide whether to continue heading north or to change direction. Trotsky’s
short article, Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay, though unfinished, contains some vital lessons for the class conscious
workers and youth.
Cheatneutral is a spoof website that takes the mick out of the idea that we can save the planet by trading carbon emissions. Here’s the comparison. “At Cheatneutral, we believe that we should all try to reduce the amount we cheat on our partners, but we also realise that fidelity isn’t always possible. That’s why we help you neutralise your cheating…By paying Cheatneutral, you’re funding monogamy-boosting offset projects – we simply invest the money you give us in monogamous, faithful or just plain single people, to encourage them to stay that way.”
For those unacquainted with Marxist philosophy, dialectical materialism may
seem an obscure and difficult concept. However, for those prepared to take the
time to study this new way of looking at things, they will discover a
revolutionary outlook that will allow them an insight into and understanding of
the mysteries of the world in which we live. A grasp of dialectical materialism
is an essential prerequisite in understanding the doctrine of Marxism.
Dialectical materialism is the philosophy of Marxism, which provides us with a
scientific and comprehensive world outlook. It is the philosophical bedrock –
the method – on which the whole of Marxist doctrine is founded.
The government is pushing plans for a third runway and a sixth
terminal. The fifth terminal will open soon. The fifth terminal on its
own is the third biggest airport in Europe. When the go-ahead for a
fourth terminal was given in 1979 Glidewell, the Chair of the Inquiry,
stated, "In my view the present levels of noise around Heathrow are
unacceptable in a civilised society." Right first time. The fourth
terminal was given the nod on the grounds that that was it. No fifth
terminal. Ever. It seems all governments, not just the present one, are
terminal liars.