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By Steve Jones
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Thursday, 02 February 2012 |
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When things get bad the ruling class has been known - if all else fails -
to turn on its own "for the greater good." With all the anger
continuing to boil up over the cuts and the role of the bankers, the
government decided it was time for a sacrificial lamb to come forward.
So this week "Fred the Shred" - Fred Goodwin - got his knighthood taken
away from him. The former head of RBS was told that he was being
punished for helping to bring down the world financial markets.
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By Walter Leon (Unite member)
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012 |
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In what could turn out to be a significant turn of events,
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey fired an angry broadside last week at
Labour leader Ed Miliband, taking issue with Miliband’s recent support for a
public-sector pay-freeze. After twenty years of uncritical support by
trade-union leaders for the right-wing Labour leadership, such a missive is
certainly welcome. It has also helped reopen the debate about the relationship
between the Labour Party and the trade unions.
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By Socialist Appeal
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012 |
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The Coalition of millionaires is continuing with its onslaught against
working people. Billions of pounds have been slashed from public
spending, destroying essential services, cutting pay and conditions and
throwing tens of thousands of workers on to the dole.
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By Daniel Morley
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Tuesday, 10 January 2012 |
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Ed
Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party is turning into an elaborate
parody of the emptiness of reformism. With capitalism unable to afford
any reforms, he is like the school pupil who works extremely hard to
avoid working whilst giving the impression of being studious. He is
trying very very hard, tossing and turning, to give the impression that
reformism can work without any actual reforms. Unfortunately for Ed, in
this case the illusion does not work.
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By Socialist Appeal
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Tuesday, 10 January 2012 |
The government has been hard at it coming up with new ideas to punish those who are unemployed and on benefit. The latest such idea involves forcing people to work for nothing or starve . This is now being legally challenged as it breaks laws against bonded labour i.e. slavery!
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By Steve Jones
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Monday, 09 January 2012 |
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When Tony Blair left office (and then parliament itself) he set about
doing what all ex-PMs tend to do - earn a little bit of extra cash.
Well, as it happens in Tony's case, quite a lot of extra cash.
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By Socialist Appeal
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Monday, 09 January 2012 |
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Just 10 years ago, 88 of the top 100 companies in the UK offered final
salary pensions. Today Shell is the last company in the FTSE 100 to
offer such a pension to its new employees.
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By Steve Jones
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Friday, 06 January 2012 |
From time to time governments like to pretend that they are indeed aware
of the problems of society and truly wish to resolve them. This normally
takes the form of some announced "action" or "task force" aimed at
getting to grips with whatever problem they have identified.
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By Socialist Appeal
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Wednesday, 04 January 2012 |
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Here are some links to pictures and reports of the Nov 30th Day of Action.
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By Steve Jones
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Saturday, 31 December 2011 |
“We’re all in it together” is the constant message from the government.
Yet the reality is very different. Workers are facing pay freezes or
even cuts, those in need are seeing benefits cut back and services shut
down, prices are rising month on month. Unemployment continues to go up
with women and youth being hit particularly hard. Every survey indicates
that job prospects for the coming year are grim, not least due to the
continued job losses in the public sector.
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By Rob Sewell
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Saturday, 31 December 2011 |
Margaret Thatcher is a hate figure for millions in Britain who suffered
under 13 years of her rule. We, who opposed Thatcherism to the bitter
end, will never forget the mass unemployment, the cuts, wholesale
privatisation and the attacks on the trade unions as well as our
democratic rights.
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By Socialist Appeal
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Saturday, 31 December 2011 |
Working people are facing the biggest attack on their living standards
for generations. They are being presented with a bill for a crisis not
of their making. In the meantime, millionaire bankers and financiers
have gotten away with murder.
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By Steve Jones
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Thursday, 15 December 2011 |
For the last few days Prime Minister Cameron has been full
of himself. Having exercised the veto in Europe, he has been receiving fulsome
praise from ultra-right wing Tories and the gutter press for “standing up to
Europe.” On Wednesday the real world returned with the announcement of shocking
new unemployment figures.
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By Andy Fenwick
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Friday, 09 December 2011 |
The constant excuse of Cameron and the government for
attacking public sector pensions is that workers in the private sector do not
have access to final salary pensions but have to rely instead on the
fluctuations of the money markets to provide the pension funds with enough
income to give to its members a miserly pension. But it was not so long ago
that the majority of private sector workers had the opportunity to enrol in
final salary schemes. It was only after 1998 that schemes started to close to
new members so that today only 15% of private sector workers are covered by
final salary schemes.
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