The ‘Shock Doctrine’, the latest from Naomi Klein, is the story of "blank is beautiful – three
decades of erasing and reinventing the world". It is about how natural disasters have given capitalists the opportunity to
reconstruct cities like New Orleans according to their own whims. But it is not just natural
disasters which have given the capitalists the opportunity to advance their
interests – there are man-made disasters as well – economic crises and wars.

Ian Aylet of the Socialist Appeal talked recently to Fire Brigades Union General Secretary Matt Wrack on the challenges facing the FBU at the present time, including the recent tragedy at Warwickshire where 4 Firemen were killed. As well as the ongoing fight against government cut-backs, Matt also spoke about his recent attendance at the Hands off Venezuela conference and the unions ongoing solidarity work with the Venezuelan revolution.

After a 2 month strike by Glasgow City Council
Day Care workers, the City’s grave diggers are the latest group of workers who
have been forced to strike following the Council’s refusal to have meaningful
talks with the GMB union who represent the workers.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. That is all written history. For the majority of human history man did not live in a class society. The development of technique allowed for the production of a surplus of wealth over and above the means of subsistence. This produced a flourish of art, science and philosophy as part of the population was freed for the first time from the toil of everyday labour. Mick Brooks talks on the application of Marxist philosophy to the development of society.

The findings of a report conducted by the Sutton Trust into the educational achievements of working-class and poor children compared with their better-off peers were recently published. The Trust tested three-year-olds to determine their intellectual capabilities, their intelligence and ‘brightness’ in other words. It may come as no surprise to learn that those children who came out top but were from working-class families had, by the age of seven,  fallen far behind children from middle-class and well-off families who had been in the bottom segment at the age of three.  

Labour Research has looked at the 2006-7 pay round. We’re getting poorer! “the median (midpoint) increase in pay was 3.6%, well below the 4.1% average Retail Price Increase growth reported over those 12 months.” So over the past year wages have fallen behind the rise in prices.

Metronet bosses have been paid out £1.2 million to get rid of them. Metronet went belly up in the summer leaving us with a farewell present of £2 billion debt. Metronet got the contract to maintain two thirds of the tube network, despite the opposition of Mayor Livingstone and pretty well everyone who lives in London. Metronet is not actually a firm. It’s a consortium of companies such as Balfour Beatty and Thames Water. They contracted  the work out to firms who actually did the repairs, firms such as Balfour Beatty and Thames Water. Presumably they cut cards to share […]

The papers have been reporting that people all over the country have been pulling out their own teeth with pliers and filling their cavities with Polyfilla. It seems they can’t find a NHS dentist anywhere near where they live.What happened to a health service free at the point of use?

In the present financial volatility, American bank Merrill Lynch has lost between $8 and $12 billion. The man who made it all happen by betting on the sub-prime mortgage market was chief executive Stan O’Neal. He’s got to go. The bank is paying him $159 million to go. The reward for failure?

From the Guardian October 25th: “Last week India’s biggest real estate dealer made a paper fortune of £500m in a day. Government figures show that the average expenditure of countryside household India to be just 500 rupees a month or about 20p a day.”