This
year’s national sellers conference of ‘Socialist Appeal’ was held in London on the
weekend of April 16th and 17th. Supporters from all over Britain, from Aberdeen
to Torbay, came together against the backdrop of a year of class struggle and
revolution in Britain and internationally. Without doubt, the conference marked
a new period in the development of the Marxist voice.
Saturday 26th March 2011 marked a watershed point for the modern Labour
Party. The Trade Union Congress had called for workers, students,
pensioners and all those affected by the coalition cuts to converge on
the capital. The question was: would Labour show up to the party too?
In all this talk of Career Average Pensions an important element has
been missed in all the media reports that women will come out worse when
the pension calculation is done. Hutton has not taken into account the
normal working life of women when making his proposals and the very act
of using Career Average Pensions is sex discriminatory.
We have received news from students at Glasgow University of an
attempt by police to put an end to the 7-week long occupation of the
Hetherington Club by the forcible removal of the students.
A million workers on strike. This is the minimum response that should be given to plans being drawn up by the government to implement Hutton’s report on public sector pension ‘reform.’
According to a news report, an expert has warned of "food riots" coming to the UK
Council workers supported by other public sector trade unionists
lobbied Gateshead Councillors prior to the budget setting meeting on
Thursday March 3rd. The council has a yawning budget deficit
of £70 million over the next two years. £32 million of cuts are set to
fall this year and up to £38 million over the next two years.
Six Labour councillors from Hackney in London have signed a statement against carrying out any cuts. Socialist
Appeal welcomes the stand taken by these Labour councillors and
calls on other elected representatives to make a stand now and join
them. A concerted drive of this nature would have a tremendous effect on
the anti-cuts campaign and deliver a serious blow to the government’s
attempt to “pass the buck” for the cuts programme to the local councils.
The biggest cuts in living memory are creating massive opposition
everywhere, even in the leafy Tory shires, as the £81bn of cuts start to
bite. While the Coalition’s austerity policies have been cheered on by
the big business institutions of the IMF and the OECD, rage is bubbling
up amongst ordinary people. No wonder support for the Coalition
government has crashed. Even Cameron has been forced to recognise this:
“It will not make us popular. It will make us unpopular. It will make me
unpopular.”
Thousands gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Saturday (12th
February) to celebrate the departure of the hated, now former
president, Hosni Mubarak. The gathering was actually called as a
demonstration against the regime and to demand the resignation of
Mubarak. However, events have moved at such a rate that the despot had
tendered his resignation the day the before. Therefore, the event was
now a party in the centre of London to concur with the one in Tahrir
Square.
From students to pensioners, private to
public sectors workers, unemployed and disabled, the march represented all of
Worcester residents threatened by the cuts. As one of the placards said,
“Cameron, Unions are the Original Big Society.”
On Saturday (5th February) around one
thousand people – Egyptians, Londoners and others ‑ gathered outside the
United States embassy and later marched through central London to the
Egyptian embassy. The protest was called to show solidarity with the
revolutionary struggle of the people of Egypt.
NEXT DEMO: RALLY AT TRAFALGAR SQ THIS SAT. 12.00 – 14.00