On Wednesday March 12th some 18 students and visitors met in the Wolverhampton
University Students Union building to discuss the topic "Capitalism in Crisis –
More of the Same or Revolution?."
School students, Ewan Gibbs and Nathan Morrison, give their views on the latest proposals on British citizenship. In this report issued by Lord
Goldsmith it states that school-leavers should take an oath of allegiance to ‘Queen
and Country’ and suggests that schools should hold citizenship ceremonies for
leavers. These proposals were made by a big business Labour government desperate to cover the glaring cracks in our public
services, below inflation pay rises, the imperialist military adventures in
Iraq and Afghanistan and the Northern Rock farce by resorting to flag
waving.
Alan Woods was invited to speak at Eton, the
most prestigious private school in Britain (known as a “public” school in
English), by the school’s Orwell Society. Alan gave a very clear explanation of
why society needs to be changed and why the only direction in can go in is
socialism. We believe the points raised and the answers given provide a very
good outline of what Marxism stands for today.
On Tuesday 5th February the Manchester Hands of
Venezuela held a successful meeting with over 60 people attending. The meeting
was held jointly with the Green Party of Manchester to raise awareness of Venezuela,
discuss the revolutionary situation and look at changes and developments in the
country and more widely in South America as a whole.
This is a letter submitted to the US section of the International Marxist Tendency , the Workers International League. In this letter, Roberto Carlos depicts his experience working in a
movie theater and the problems young workers have to put up with on a
regular basis.
Since 1979 UK child
poverty has doubled. In 2006, 3.8 million children were living in poverty in
homes on less than 60% of average income. Although this is a fall of about
600,000 since 1998, this still leaves 500,000 children above the Government’s
own target. This is not the whole picture either – poverty in the whole
population is increasing.
After the government has pursued a series of attacks on the poorest
section of the working class in recent years, they have apparently
decideded to try and give something back to the poor by launching a new
Child Poverty Unit. This is a way of the government showing its
willingness to end child poverty which was, believe it or not, a stated
Labour policy in 2007. In Scotland for instance one in four children
still grows up in poverty. This nakedly displays the utter bankruptcy
of New Labour’s market orientated policy.
On
Monday the eighth of October the Edinburgh University Hands Off Venezuela
society showed Hands Off Venezuela’s new film No Volveran. The film was well generally well received by those that attended. After the film show
there was a brief discussion on issues such as the new constitution and workers
control.
On the 26th September Norwich comrades helped promote the University of East Anglia Socialist Society at the Freshers Fair. The day was a big success, a lot of hard work and preparation was put into the days efforts. For another year socialist ideas at UEA looks set to gain a wide audience among students and young people.
The Socialist Youth Network (SYN) launched its COFUP! campaign (Coalition Fighting Unfair Pay) in the House of Commons last night. The campaign seeks to make it a Labour party policy that pay discrimination based on age is abolished, and that the minimum wage is adjusted to 2/3 of median male earnings.
In
the House of Commons last night around 40 people met for the ‘Launch of
International Support for Mexico’s Public Trial of Crimes Against Humanity’.
The meeting was organized by The Global Woman’s Strike and hosted by John
McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn.
On Thursday 18th July comrades of the British section of the International Marxist Tendency, Socialist Appeal, showed their solidarity with the Peoples Youth Block (BJP) by protesting outside the embassy of El Savador against the repressive measures employed by the government. A letter of protest was received, signed by leading trade unionists from the NUJ, PCS, CWU, ASLEF, UNISON and the TGWU.