A hearing is pending in the
Royal Courts of Justice, London, on Wed. 21st, October at 10.30am, at which
Scottish and Southern Energy is applying for an injunction against Steve
Acheson. The Injunction is being sought to prevent Steve from protesting at
Fiddlers Ferry power station about his dismissal from the project because of
the now notorious construction industry blacklist.
Waste, big salaries and huge pensions, that’s the image the
Tories are trying to present of the public sector in Britain today. It’s a bit
rich coming from them, at a time when their rich backers in the City of London
have been exposed as a bunch of greedy parasites.
It was only a few months ago that public anger against the banks and an
unprecedented crisis of capitalism seemed to have an almost
revolutionary tone. Public consciousness and official opinion seemed to
have shifted decisively to the left. Yet this rage seems not to have
effected any political change at all and somehow the public debate
(i.e. the editorial line of the press and the rest of the media) has
swung far to the right. But the anger and opposition to bank bailouts
has not disappeared.
In 1929, the New York stock exchange panic began, kickstarting a financial meltdown and opening up a decade of global depression. Only Marxism can explain the real cause of this crisis.
Further
to their mass demonstration in Barnsley on September 28th firefighters in South Yorkshire
will stage two 24-hour strikes next week after talks between unions, management
and members of the county’s fire authority broke down.
Figures published today (Wed) show a continuing rise in UK unemployment,
hiting 2.47 million as at the end of August. This figure is supposed to
be lower than expected – indicating that the recession is coming to an
end – but for those involved it is still high enough – not least for the youth!
Lord Adair Turner is head of the UK’s Financial
Services Authority, the body in charge of regulating the banks and other
financial institutions. Some weeks ago, he was interviewed
by Prospect magazine, a small mouthpiece of the Blairite wing of New Labour. In that interview, Lord Turner blurted out a
telling truth about finance capital that its proponents did not want to
hear. The reaction from
financiers has been apoplectic.
The
Green Party in Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to support the new proposals that
their leadership has negotiated with Fianna Fáil. As we explained
recently, the reality is that the new programme offers nothing
substantially different from what was on offer before, merely a few
tiny reforms to the programme that FF set earlier. Its a cold plate of
lame duck with wilted greens!
The recent elections in Greece saw a
massive shift to the left in Greek society, with a total of 56% of the
electorate voting for the left parties. The PASOK alone received almost
44%. This is a vote that rejects the austerity measures of the outgoing
conservative ND government. The problem is that the PASOK leaders are
promising more of the same. For the workers this vote was a victory –
but they did not vote for more cuts. This now opens up the prospect of
renewed
class struggle in the coming period.
Postal workers across the UK have voted
3-1 in favour of national industrial action over Royal Mail’s failure to reach
a national agreement covering the protection of jobs, pay, terms and conditions
and the cessation of managerial executive action.
Leeds refuse workers strikers have been out for nearly a month now.
Rubbish is piling up and the dispute has started to hit the national
headlines with reports in the main daily papers and on BBC Breakfast
(which noted that the strike has strong local support). Socialist
Appeal supporters in the Yorkshire area have been involved in giving
support to the strikers and have been visiting the various picket lines.
As the current economic
climate worsens the government and county councils are targeting education as a
means of saving money. Privatisation, redundancies and funding cuts are
tarnishing the education system that so many other countries strive for. Now, with tuition fees on
the increase – the yearly cap of £3,200 soon to be lifted – competition to get
into what remains of higher education is becoming progressively biased towards
only the more privileged members of society.