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The verdict by the jury into the deaths of 96 people at a football match on 15th April 1989 now stands as a damming indictment of the police and the whole establishment, including the then Tory government. The struggle continues now to bring down this whole rotten system!
A massive protest movement in France has been taking place since February. Sparked by the announcement of a reactionary new “reform” of the labour laws, this movement is mobilising hundreds of youth, and has given birth to a new method of organisation called the Nuit debout (Night Stands Up). A new generation is being drawn into the struggle.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, junior doctors in England came out on strike once again in defence of their terms and conditions, and in a struggle to save the wider NHS from Tory cuts, attacks, and threats of privatisation. The task now is for the entire labour movement to get behind the junior doctors in defence of the NHS and against the Tories and their austerity programme.
We publish here an extended letter from a Socialist Appeal supporter and nurse within the NHS, who describes the shambolic conditions that have developed within the National Health Service as a result of years of underfunding and mismanagement by the Tories. As the junior doctors continue with all-out strike action, the letter is a poignant reminder of the need to fight to defend the NHS.
This week, England’s junior doctors will undertake industrial action for the fifth time this year. In contrast to strike action taken earlier this year, this time a full withdrawal of labour will occur between 8am and 5pm on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th April. Tomasz Pierscionek, a junior doctor in London, discusses the latest action being taken by medics and points out the way forward in the fight to defend the NHS.
Today sees Americans in a number of states vote in the primaries for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. In this recent editorial for Socialist Appeal USA, John Peterson analyses the result of last week’s New York primary, in which Bernie Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton, and points the way forward for those seeking a fundamental change in US society.
On Sunday 17th April, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian President, was approved on Sunday by a united front of bourgeois parties in order to establish a new government to act in the interest of the capitalists. But the impeachment has unleashed the forces of class struggle in Brazil, and the new government will be unable to stabilise the situation.
This year’s National Union of Students (NUS) Conference, held in Brighton from 19th-21st April, was the most militant in years, reflecting the waves of radicalisation sweeping across the student and youth movement. Joe Attard, a delegate at the NUS Conference and a member of the Marxist Student Federation, reports on the notable shift to the left seen this year.
The past couple of weeks have seen an intensification of the civil war inside the Tory Party, as rabid reactionary Eurosceptic MPs savage their pro-EU colleagues. Daniel Morley looks at the nationalist delusions of the Brexit camp in the Tories and UKIP, and highlights the limitations of the arguments of left-wing Leave campaigners.
Today, Thursday 21st April, marks 90th birthday of the Queen, bringing with it the media’s outpouring of praise for the ‘People’s Queen’. But why does the Queen mean so much to the Establishment? What purpose does the Monarchy serve for the ruling class? And how successful has it been?
Next week, on 26-27th April, junior doctors will be escalating their industrial action with two days of full walk out, in defence of their terms and conditions and the wider NHS. Dr Yannis Gourtsoyannis of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee puts out a call to join teachers, junior doctors and other healthcare workers for a march and rally in London.
After eight long years of Boris Johnson, Londoners will finally have a chance to elect their new Mayor on 5th May. Boris leaves behind an appalling legacy of reduced living standards for working class Londoners. The task for Corbyn supporters is to ensure a Labour Mayoral victory, and use this as a platform to fight for socialist policies.