Last week, the CWU postal workers union announced a huge majority for strike action over attacks by Royal Mail on workers’ pensions and work conditions – a staggering 89.1% majority for action on a huge 73.7% turnout amongst the 110,000 postal group union members. Socialist Appeal supporters in the CWU discuss the issues at stake.
Picturehouse workers from Brixton, Hackney, Central, Crouch End and East Dulwich came out in force yesterday, as their struggle for a living wage continues into its second year. Dan Langley reports from the protest at the BFI London Film Festival.
Members of the RMT rail union are taking strike action again this week in their struggle to defend passenger safety and jobs. Mike Hogan of the Liverpool Marxists reports on the background to the strike, which is taking place amongst RMT members working for Merseyrail, Southern, Greater Anglia and Northern Rail.
On Sunday 1st October, around 50,000 protesters marched in Manchester to demonstrate against the Conservative Party conference, scheduled to begin today, under the banner “Tories Out! No More Austerity!”. Nick Hallsworth of the Manchester Marxists reports on the mood at Sunday’s anti-austerity, anti-Tory demonstration.
As tens of thousands of workers, activists, and youth gather in Manchester this weekend to protest outside the Tory Party conference, Rob Sewell discusses the eye-watering inequality in modern-day Tory Britain, and the fight against the crisis-ridden Conservatives and their failed programme of austerity.
Budget airline Ryanair recently announced the cancellation of nearly 2,000 flights over the next 5-6 weeks – about 40 to 50 flights a day. Officially, the company blames various delays, air traffic control strikes in France, weather conditions and a modified holiday schedule of pilots and cabin crew. However, this is all a smoke screen to hide the real chaotic situation of a mass exodus of its pilots.
Rob Sewell provides another contribution on the debate about the way forward for the unions and the Left in the fight against the Blairites, the Tories, and the cuts. The position of Socialist Appeal is clear: all forces on the Left should get organised, support Corbyn, and fight to transform the Labour Party into a genuinely socialist party.
Friday 8th September saw the first strike by UK airline pilots since the mid-1970s, in a dispute over pay. The British Airline Pilots’ Association has announced three more strike days in the autumn. With organised and united action, pilots could hit the bosses’ where it hurts – in their profits – and win an important and inspiring victory.
This year’s Trades Union Congress is taking place in Brighton from 10-13 September. We look here at some of the issues being raised in conference motions, and discuss the way forward for the labour movement in the fight against the Tories and their programme of cuts and attacks on the working class.
Yesterday, on 6th September, nurses descended upon Parliament Square in their thousands for a demonstration organised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to demand the pay that they deserve. Dan Langley, a leading grassroots nurse activist, reports on the mood amongst nurses in the fight against Tory-imposed austerity.
Today sees the “Scrap the Cap” protest in Parliament Square, with thousands of nurses demonstrating against the 1% pay cap that is currently imposed on those working in the public sector as a result of the Tories’ austerity programme. Dan Langley, a leading nurse activist, discusses the steps needed in the campaign against the cap.
A bitter struggle is back on the cards after Birmingham City Council shockingly announced, on 31st August, that it is to backtrack on previous assurances that over 120 refuse workers would not be made redundant. This surprise turnaround by the City Council comes after two months of industrial action by the refuse workers.