|
By Socialist Appeal
|
|
Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
|
 New Socialist Appeal leaflet available
Over 100,000 Members of
the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are on strike together with up
to half a million other public sector workers including teachers and lecturers.
We are all protesting at the government’s policy to cap public sector pay below
inflation which has resulted in cuts to living standards across the civil
service.
|
|
|
By Ted Grant in 1939
|
|
Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
 With preparations for war in full swing the
small Workers' International League gathered around Ralph Lee and Ted Grant was
the only voice that stood out defending a real internationalist position. Here
we provide our readers with the lead article of the August 1939 edition of Youth
For Socialism, signed by Ted Grant.
|
|
|
By Mick Brooks
|
|
Monday, 21 April 2008 |
 The immediate cause of the sliding dollar
is not far to seek. It’s the US
deficit with the rest of the world. Last year the USA imported nearly twice as much
as it exported. Their current account deficit stands at 6% of national income.
If a country is spending more than it’s earning, then it has to pay for the
difference.
|
|
|
By Ian Aylett
|
|
Monday, 21 April 2008 |
 This is a really valuable book for socialists. Ironically its
strength, as well as its weakness, is that it’s not written from a ‘political’
position. Nick Davies is an established and excellent investigative
reporter. He writes from the point of view of a practitioner defending
professional standards, seeking to explain, within those terms, why so much
British journalism is so wrong.
|
|
|
By Socialist Appeal students in Wolverhampton
|
|
Friday, 18 April 2008 |
|
On
Wednesday April 16th our second meeting of students trying to set up a
Socialist Society at the University of Wolverhampton took place.
|
|
|
By Socialist Appeal
|
|
Friday, 18 April 2008 |
|
 They’re back from the dead. We thought we’d driven a stake
through their rotten hearts in the Labour landslide of 1997. Now they’re 13
points ahead in the polls. They should be history. So why are they making a
comeback? Because New Labour have been rumbled. They said they were being
prudent with the economy. They talked about, ‘no return to boom and bust.’ Now
we can see that they were just lucky. Don’t
let the failure of New Labour be the opportunity for the Tories. Reclaim the
Labour Party. It was set up as our party, as a party for the working class.
Fight the Tories with socialist policies.
|
|
|
By Steve Higham
|
|
Friday, 18 April 2008 |
 Karl Marx was a man with a family to look after, and a revolutionary
who no country acknowledged as citizen. A giant thinker of the modern
era who transformed our outlook in philosophy, economics and political
thought, Marx's revolutionary activity was hobbled by poverty. Steve
Higham chronicles his hardships and achievements a century and a
quarter after his death.
|
|
|
By Matt Wells
|
|
Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
 Marxism
is a not a moral code and is more than a set of ideas. It is a method that, if
applied correctly to the concrete situation, acts as a compass for the movement
towards the transformation of society by the working class in the interests of
humanity as a whole. Anyone can use a compass but it is still necessary to
decide whether to continue heading north or to change direction. Trotsky’s
short article, Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay, though unfinished, contains some vital lessons for the class conscious
workers and youth.
|
|
|
By Rob Sewell
|
|
Tuesday, 15 April 2008 |
 For those unacquainted with Marxist philosophy, dialectical materialism may
seem an obscure and difficult concept. However, for those prepared to take the
time to study this new way of looking at things, they will discover a
revolutionary outlook that will allow them an insight into and understanding of
the mysteries of the world in which we live. A grasp of dialectical materialism
is an essential prerequisite in understanding the doctrine of Marxism.
Dialectical materialism is the philosophy of Marxism, which provides us with a
scientific and comprehensive world outlook. It is the philosophical bedrock -
the method - on which the whole of Marxist doctrine is founded.
|
|
|
By Eric Hollies
|
|
Tuesday, 15 April 2008 |
 The government is pushing plans for a third runway and a sixth
terminal. The fifth terminal will open soon. The fifth terminal on its
own is the third biggest airport in Europe. When the go-ahead for a
fourth terminal was given in 1979 Glidewell, the Chair of the Inquiry,
stated, "In my view the present levels of noise around Heathrow are
unacceptable in a civilised society." Right first time. The fourth
terminal was given the nod on the grounds that that was it. No fifth
terminal. Ever. It seems all governments, not just the present one, are
terminal liars.
|
|
|
By Hands Off Venezuela
|
|
Monday, 14 April 2008 |
 As part of their
bi-monthly meeting, the Greater London Labour Representation Committee (LRC)
invited the Hands Off Venezuela campaign to lead a discussion on the recent
events that have taken place in Venezuela. The LRC, originally formed in 1900
to fight for political representation for the Labour Movement, was re-formed in
2004 to secure a voice for socialists within the trade unions, the Labour Party
and Parliament. Will Roche from the HOV campaign gave a summary of events
dating from the re-election of President Chavez in 2006, in particular, the
development of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
|
|
|
By UNISON Socialist Appeal Supporters
|
|
Monday, 14 April 2008 |
 Whether you are a nurse
who’s been offered a 3 year deal starting with 2.75% or a council worker with
2.45%, you are on the receiving end of Gordon Brown’s pay restraint squeeze. As
threatened last year the government is desperate to try and stick to its 2%
target for pay costs. At the moment UNISON, the GMB and other unions are
consulting and despite the down beat mood of the UNISON Local Government
Service Group executive, there are a lot of reasons why members will vote to
reject the offers.
|
|
|
By Mick Brooks
|
|
Friday, 11 April 2008 |
 The Financial Times has reported a debate among accountants
about giving a ‘fair value’ to company assets.
What does this mean? As we know, finance capital has a slight problem at present.
Banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions have assets on their books
that they have found out are actually not worth as much as they thought when
they paid for them.
|
|
|
By Heiko Khoo
|
|
Friday, 11 April 2008 |
 Heiko Khoo talks on the revolution in Germany in 1989. The defeats suffered by the German working class laid the ground for the rise of Nazism and World War 2. After the war Berlin became the focal point for the cold war. On November 9th 1989 the Berlin Wall was opened after the German Communist Party bureaucracy buckled under pressure from East Germans demonstrating for the democratisation of society.
|
|
Last weekend the Socialist Appeal held its national
conference, the proceedings of which revealed important steps forward in the
development of the tendency in both the youth field and the trade unions. The
mood was one of enthusiasm and determination to build even further on the past
year's successes.
