In today’s budget, George Osborne promised that all schools in England will become independent of local authority control by 2022 – an extension of the academy system that has already been rolled out. This is a further step towards privatisation and the squeezing of teaching staff in this epoch of austerity.
“Britain’s Year Zero” was the banner headline in the i newspaper for 10th March. It was a sharp reference to the new official figures showing a sharp rise in the number of UK workers on zero-hour contracts. The zero-hour contract scam is just one part of the growing low-pay culture of capitalism in Britain
According to recent reports, the cost of becoming a barrister has risen to up to £127,000 in various student fees. More and more people are being priced out of the legal profession, whilst austerity and cuts to legal aid are even forcing this previously privileged layer to begin to unionise and take strike action.
After being initially denied membership of the Labour Party, two of Britain’s left-wing trade union leaders have been allowed to join the party this month. This is indicative of the shifting balance of power within the party, which is bolstering Corbyn’s position. Nevertheless, deep divisions in the party still remain.
Jeremy Corbyn’s statement in favour of the decriminalisation of prostitution last week once again brought the wrath of the Parliamentary Labour Party against him. Right-wing female Labour MPs have hypocritically used this issue as another opportunity to strike a blow against Corbyn.
This year’s Young Labour conference comes in the wake of the transformation in the Labour Party that began with the election of Jeremy Corbyn. The overall picture of the conference confirms that there has been a shift to the left in the Labour Party and its youth organisation. Now is the time to put socialism back on the agenda.
Like many council estates around the country, Cressingham Gardens in Lambeth, London, has fallen into a state of disrepair, with Lambeth council claiming that they do not have the money to maintain it. Nathan Taylor reports on the campaign to save Cressingham Gardens and its residents from eviction.
In a desperate attempt to hold his party together, Cameron has risked everything by allowing a referendum on EU membership. In doing so, he has set loose forces that are beyond his control – forces that could lead to an implosion in the Tory Party and an acceleration of the disintegration of the EU.
A number of British universities have demanded that they should be exempt from the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act. The FOI Act has been recently used by student campaigners to highlight the inequalities within higher education salaries, and now university management is trying to squash such campaigns.
The Tata Steel plant at Port Talbot in Wales recently announced plans to lay off 750 of its 4,000 workers. These are only the latest casualties in the crisis of the British steel industry. As the global crisis of capitalism continues, the social fabric of working class communites is being torn apart.
Since Corbyn’s landslide victory to become the leader of the Labour Party, a furious battle has opened up within the party. Tens of thousands have signed up to Momentum in order to defend Corbyn and argue for his policies. The task now is for Momentum to become a vehicle to transform Labour and fight for socialism.
With the endless coverage of Labour in-fighting in the media one could be forgiven for assuming that the rest of British politics was a sea of tranquillity. But over the last few months the burgeoning split in the Tory Party over the question of the EU has burst to the surface.