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Coming of capitalism killed 1 million



‘Shock therapy’, or rapid mass
privatisation, in the former Soviet bloc 1990s was responsible for the early
deaths of 1m people. This is the principal conclusion of a paper published in the
medical journal ‘The Lancet’ (15.01.09). Not
only did privatisation devastate the economy and the means of feeding, clothing
and housing their people; it also shredded the social welfare system and all
the social support mechanisms built up over decades. As a result unemployed, desperate
people with no hope just went to pieces.

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Defend Jobs and Education at London Met



UCU (the University and College
Union – the main union for lecturers) and UNISON are battling to save London
Metropolitan University from management plans to cut at least 330 jobs. ‘Times
Higher Education’ puts it higher, estimating it “could mean up to 500
individuals (between one in seven and one in five of the current staff)" losing
their jobs(22.01.09)

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Stop wasting our money!

A recent report by professor Paul Gregg calls for benefits to be stopped for anyone who “does not co-operate” in looking for a job. Gregg wants those who show insufficient zeal to be held in “work equal activities.” This is similar to “school detention.” The miscreant would have to get on a computer and start searching.  Minister Purnell welcomed this “independent” report. In fact he had commissioned it himself to confirm his own reactionary prejudices. “The direction of travel is the right way,” he declared.

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Jobs Threat at South West Trains



South West
Trains has declared its intention to slash 480 jobs on its operations. SWT’s
parent company is Stagecoach, which is owned by the fabulously wealthy Brian Souter.For years winning a franchise to run
one of the train operating companies has been a license to print money. Profit really
comes from the fares paid by passengers and the government subsidies, handouts
from taxpayers. Now that recession is here, passenger numbers are set to fall.
The railway companies are feeling the pinch. They have decided to make their
staff take the burden of the fall in revenues

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Firing The Boss: An Interview with Chicago Factory Occupation Organizer



On December 5, 2008 over 200
recently-fired workers at the Republic Window and Doors factory in Chicago occupied
their plant, demanding that they be paid their vacation and severance checks.
The occupation ended victoriously six days later when the Bank of America and
other lenders to Republic agreed to pay the workers the approximately $2
million owed to them.But the workers didn’t stop there. They are now
seeking ways to restart the factory and potentially operate it as a worker-run
cooperative.

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Lenin’s Last Struggle

The year 2009 marks the 85th anniversary of the death of the man who, together with Leon Trotsky, made a decisive contribution to the cause of socialism and the working class in this century, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. To mark the occasion, we are republishing this article which was originally written to commemorate the Lenin centenary in 1970.

Robert Burns - Man, poet and revolutionary

Robert Burns – Man, poet and revolutionary

Robert Burns (1759-1796) the poet needs no further introduction. But Robert Burns the revolutionary democrat is another matter. It is a matter of great regret that nowadays it seems to have become the fashion among certain left circles in Scotland to renounce Burns. To some degree this is understandable. After his death, Burns was hijacked by the Scottish Establishment, who turned him into a harmless icon. On Burns’ night each January, upper class Scotsmen in kilts (!) make use of the great man’s anniversary to eat and drink to excess, declaim poems to the haggis, and generally make fools of themselves. This grotesque parody would, of course, have had Rabbie Burns splitting his sides with laughter. His poems, his politics, his philosophy, his life and his death – all bear witness against these stage Scotsmen and hypocritical Pharisees.

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“Public service pay cuts will be considered.” Warning from Ireland



Well, sooner or later it had to come. As we have been
saying recently sooner or later the bourgeoisie, and not just the Irish bosses,
would come for their pound of flesh. After all, someone is going to have to pay
for the crisis and it doesn’t take Einstein to work out that it’s us.So the Irish government is looking for €2bn worth of cuts and that means pay cuts for
public sector workers.

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Report on Edinburgh Gaza Demo

 

 

n light of the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, people in Britain and around the world have come out to demonstrate and show their disgust at the imperialist attacks of the Israeli state and its funding and support from both the UK and the USA. On the 10th of January supporters of Socialist Appeal attended the Palestinian Solidarity demonstration in Edinburgh.

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Jerry Hicks: from no chance to every chance

Unite Amicus General Secretary Election.


On Friday January  16th Jerry Hicks learned that he
had enough nominations to stand as candidate in the election . Jerry spoke of his great pleasure and pride at
having received official notification.

 

 



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Balance sheet of the 2008 struggle

For the past 4 years PCS members in the civil service have been in
dispute over threats to their pensions, attacks on their sick leave,
massive programmes of job cuts, privatisations and endemic low pay.
Through united campaigning and strike action a number of concessions
have been won. This is testament to members’ willingness to fight back.

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