Uncategorised articles from The Communist archives.
Gordon Brown wants the UK to be 'the most
attractive location to do business.' He has a problem. Every other finance
minister in the capitalist world wants the same for their own country. What is happening is a race to the bottom. The rich get richer, the poor pay more.
London
Underground has announced plans to close 40 main ticket offices, various
secondary offices and restrict opening times on many others.
On Wednesday the 24th of May there was a meeting of nursing students at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. This came about after sustained pressure by the increasingly militant trainee nurses, who demanded answers to the compulsory redundancy (read sacking) of 18 members of staff.
On Tuesday 15th
May Hands off Venezuela travelled to Brighton to attend the annual PCS
conference. The intervention was a success, helping to raise awareness of the process taking place in Venezuela, particuarly the plight of the workers of Sanitarios Maracay.
Bullying Tesco bosses have plumbed new depths sacking 65 drivers involved in
a lawful, official trade union dispute. The 150 drivers at the Tesco
distribution centre in West Lothian will be on strike from midnight tonight.
Taxi's arrived at drivers homes on Monday night with letters telling the men
they were sacked.
Earlier this month Socialist Appeal reported on strike action to be taken by Tesco drivers in West Lothian this May 24th. Rather than sitting down with the representatives of the union and working out a solution, mangement attempted to use other drivers to break the lawful strike by their own innocent workers.
The ranks of the Labour Party and trade unions have been
denied the right to vote on who they think the next leader of the party should
be. This has been achieved by convincing a handful of Labour MPs not to
nominate John McDonnell. But this is not the end of the story. Now is the time
to redouble efforts to build up the left of the Labour Party in the coming
period.
Tesco is to close its two distribution plants in Dundee and Livingston and open a 'super-distribution centre' in West Lothian, offering their current workforce a take it or leave offer: Move to West Lothian or you won't have a job. Following talks with the Transport and General Worker's Union Tesco stated they no longer recognised the union. This is illegal and a contravention of the Human Rights Act, to which Britain is a signturee.
The second edition of Reason in Revolt will shortly be going to the printers. Here we publish the new Preface which deals with some of the more important scientific findings since the book was first published. Again, they all confirm the validity of dialectics in a remarkable manner.
As expected Labour took a hammering in both the elections for the Scottish Parliament and in the local elections. The only way forward for the left in Scotland is to support the urgent need to build socialist programmes within the Labour and trade union movement.
The armed struggle is over. Class struggle is the only option. Those who ignore the class question and stand alone on their "republican principles" stand condemned to remain in splendid isolation. We now live in different times and the old certainties now no longer hold. We all on the left need to forget our petty differences and become relevant to the lives of the working classes in Ireland while keeping alive our vision of socialism.
