Rank and file pressure must be brought to bear not only within the unions, writes Michael Copestake, but on the Labour leadership too The June 30 strikes involving up to 750,000 public sector workers may only have been for one day, and may only have involved unaffiliated unions, but they gave the Labour tops much pain ...
Hopefully it will be a rather hot autumn, writes Ben Lewis (first published in the Weekly Worker) The June 30 London demonstration, which made its way from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, through Parliament Square and down to Westminster Abbey, was a lot bigger than I expected. An estimated 30,000 striking workers hit the streets. In terms of ...
Next time, coordinated strike action by millions, writes Dave Isaacson (first published here) The strikes in Milton Keynes showed signs of the potential for involving wider layers of workers in future action. Many onlookers were enthusiastic in their support. Along with other members of the Coalition of Resistance, I visited a number of the PCS union’s picket ...
Callum Williamson reports from Southampton on the day four public sector unions walked out Thursday 30th June saw the largest-scale industrial action in Britain for decades, in the context of intensifying class struggle throughout Europe and beyond. At the heart of this conflict is an attempt on the part of the capitalists and their governments to ...
Unions must reject the terms of debate established by government, media, and Labour opposition, argues Michael Copestake So the June 30 strikes are upon us, with four teaching and civil service trade unions out on strike against the vicious class-war cuts programme of the coalition government. Although this initial action should be seen as more of ...
Ben Lewis reviews director Stevan Riley's 'Fire in Babylon' (2011, DVD, £12.99) Those who labour under the illusion that cricket is the dull and dreary preserve of the British establishment, that the gentle thwack of willow on leather should hold no interest for the workers’ movement and should be confined to the fields ...
The IMT is beginning to grapple with the problems of sectarianism and bureaucratic centralism. The 'Towards a New International Tendency' statement marks a step forward, notes James Turley The International Marxist Tendency - which in 1992 split from the Militant Tendency and its Committee for a Workers’ International over the issue of whether to ...
Targeting Muslims under anti-terror laws freezes intellectual enquiry and needs to be opposed by all radicals, oppositionalists, and leftwingers, urges Michael Copestake (first published in the Weekly Worker) Running in parallel with the government’s revamped ‘Prevent’ strategy for managing parts of the British Muslim community through its religious and community organisations (under ...
Harley Filben reviews Owen Jones 'Chavs: the demonisation of the working class' Verso, 2011, pp298, £14.99 (first published in the Weekly Worker) This book, at first glance, appears to have come out of nowhere to dominate the world. Owen Jones is a supporter of the Labour Representation Committee, one of the main hotbeds of ...
Three CPGB members, two also members of Communist Students attended the Friday June 17th rally organised by the Sheffield Anti-Cuts Alliance (SACA), where rebellious Labour MP John McDonnell was the keynote speaker. Over 150 people turned out, and it was one of those rare occasions when most of the Marxist left in Sheffield could be ...
No candidate to replace the USA exists or looks likely to arise, writes James Turley. First published in the Weekly Worker. In recent years, there have been no end of occasions for military strategists to wonder what, exactly, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is actually for. It used to be pretty obvious: with the Soviet ...
Michael Copestake discusses AC Grayling's New College of the Humanities Did he know what he was in for? This is the first question that springs to mind at the sight of the do-gooding liberal philosophy professor, AC Grayling, formerly of Birkbeck College, judging by the uproar and opprobrium that his plans for a ...
Laurie Smith reports on a split in the student anti-cuts movement. (first published in the Weekly Worker) The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty and Workers Power have vied for influence in the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) since its formation over a year ago, but their tense marriage of convenience appears to ...