Despite a desperate effort from the
Scottish Government, trade unions, the main opposition parties and many
celebrities, Diageo has pressed ahead with plans to cut up to 900 jobs in the
west of Scotland.
The plans will see the closure of the famous Johnnie Walker whisky bottling
plants at Port Dundas in Glasgow and Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.
On Monday 7
September UNISON Branch Secretary, Jim Board was suspended by Doncaster
council for allegedly “failing to follow a reasonable management instruction”
relating to an e mail to all employees not to speak to the media about the
Edlington trial. But support for
Jim came this Saturday as over 300 demonstrated outside the
Mansionhouse in the centre of Doncaster to
protest against his suspension.
Details have just been announced for this years conference of the
Labour Representation Committee (LRC), meeting on London on Saturday
14th November. Socialist Appeal supports the work of the LRC and will be at the conference again this year. Why not come along?
Today is the 11th
day of the teachers’ strike at Tower Hamlets College. It is the
first continuous teachers’ strike, with picket lines every day,
that has been seen in the UK for 12 years and it seems to be picking
up a great momentum. The strike is taking place at all four sites of
the College, that is, at: Arbour Square, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel
and Poplar.
Last Saturday’s special meeting of the United Left – the
broad left grouping in the two-million strong UNITE union – ended in a split
after supporters of left-winger Jerry Hicks were excluded on spurious grounds.
The reason for the meeting was to choose the left’s candidate to run for
General Secretary in 2010.
During his election campaign,
President Barack Obama promised to be all things to all people. After
eight years of Bush and Cheney, Americans desperately wanted to believe
that real change was coming. In this statement from the Editorial Board of the US Marxist paper, Socialist Appeal, they ask – what change and who is benefiting?
In Will Hay’s classic farce ‘Oh, Mr Porter!’ the new stationmaster arrives to
be greeted at Buggleskelly ticket office with the words “Next train gone.” For thousands
of travelers on the modern day farce of London Midland network last Sunday it was a case of “No
trains coming.”
As
the consequences of the capitalist crisis continue to unfold before our eyes,
it is becoming clear just how much of an impact this recession is having on
education. The main focus of this article
is on just how much of an impact debt forced on parents is having on their
children’s education and therefore their future.
We are republishing this appeal from
Syrian left-wing activists which has been widely circulated and first
appeared on www.marxist.com. The appeal calls for clarification of the
whereabouts of
several left-wing activists who have disappeared over the last months
and the release of all those imprisoned. We encourage our readers to
support their appeal and write letters of protest.
Refuse workers in Leeds are taking action in response to an
appalling attack on their wages and conditions – the sort of thing we
may well see more of as public sector workers are forced to pay for the
bank bail-outs. Socialist Appeal supporters in the region have produced
a leaflet in support of the workers, the text of which we are reproducing on this site.
The capitalist system is passing through its deepest crisis since
the 1930s and the Great Depression. The apologists of capitalism –
including those in the labour movement – had completely ruled out such
a scenario In the main article from this month’s issue of Socialist Appeal, Rob Sewell looks at the background to the crisis.
Hard on the heels of Donald Trump’s Aberdeen golf complex for
the rich and famous comes an even more exclusive playground, not for the rich,
poor things, but for the super-rich! According to a report in the Scotsman newspaper: ‘The Dall
Estate, on the shores of Loch Rannoch, is set to become a "mini
Monaco" in the heart of the Scottish countryside – a home from home for
billionaires, Russian oligarchs, heads of state, the international glitterati
and Hollywood and sporting superstars.’