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The UNISON Local Government Service Group Executive
has voted to reject the employers’ 2.45% pay offer. The outcome of the
consultative ballot was 45% to accept and 55% for rejection. The issue will now
go to the Industrial Action Committee with a proposed timetable of a ballot
beginning 27th May and strike action to commence on 8th July.
The class struggle arises from the conditions of life of human beings.
It's a struggle of living forces; there are complicated and
complicating factors. Different industries have different conditions;
there are different traditions of struggle, different forms of
organisation, different political conditions over time and different
leaders.
Arms spending is vast. In 2008 global arms spending will be a record
£561 billion. This is seventeen times as much as the world spends on famine
relief (£32 billion). Obviously spending so much money has its effect on the
world economy. A central plank of the theory of the Socialist Workers’ Party is
the theory of the permanent arms economy. Mick Brooks looks at the view of
classical Marxism on arms spending and assesses the SWP’s theory.
Forty years ago the world was experiencing upheaval on a world scale that hadn't been seen for a generation. In the US opposition to the war in Vietnam gathered momentum, as it did in Britain. In Pakistan revolution was on the order of the day, and in Czechoslovakia we saw the Prague spring and Soviet Invasion. In May there was the glorious rising of the French working class, that saw 10 million workers down tools in a general strike.
A name etched into the collective consciousness of the labour and trade
union movement is that of the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs', a case which clearly demonstrated that the State is
not a neutral instrument, but the means by which the ruling class will
use peaceful means by preference and violence if necessary in order to
maintain its power. So who were the Tolpuddle Martyrs,
what did they do and what lessons do they have for socialists in the
twenty-first century?
There's an old saying that, 'When the USA sneezes, we all catch
cold.' Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown know that the USA is already
in recession. They know that the financial crisis is causing the
hatches to be battened down all over the world. But, they say, Britain
is immune. They've even commissioned a Treasury report to try to prove
it. Don't believe them. The chill winds of economic crisis are
coming our way. The parallels between the US, which is already in the
mire, and the UK are stark.
The latest attempt
to criminalise young people by "framing and shaming" them and
"filming and repeatedly stopping identified persistent offenders on
problem estates" owes more to the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
than it does to evidence based practice. But what are the real reasons that "Youth Disorder" takes
place and what works?
Wendy Alexander, leader of the Labour Party in Scotland has
declared that the SNP Government should “bring on” a referendum on independence
and has gone as far as to not rule out a bill calling for a poll earlier than
the Nationalist administration’s proposed date of 2010. This has resulted in
the issue of Scottish independence making a large impact on the national media
for the first time since the SNP’s victory in the Scottish Parliament elections
in May of last year. It has also unleashed a potential Pandora’s Box that is
threatening to divide the Labour leadership in Scotland from the national
leadership.
Staff at the British
Library (BL) have voted to accept a 3 year pay offer that is significantly
below the cost of living. The trade unions (PCS & Prospect) finally
received an offer from BL management after a delay of 9 months, due entirely to
management's decision to postpone all pay talks until the outcome of
the government's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
Food prices have gone up worldwide by 75% since 2005. Since Gordon
Brown became prime minister (not that long ago) milk prices have gone
up by 17%, eggs by 28% and bread by 34% in this country. Other items
have shown even sharper increases. There's no sign of any letup. In the same way as we seem to have seen
the end of cheap oil, this could be the last of cheap food.
