Last Wednesday August 20th, 150,000 Scottish public sector workers from UNISON, UNITE and the GMB took unified action against a below-inflation pay offer of 2.5%. They were joined by PCS workers employed by the Scottish Parliament, who the SNP have also been trying to fob off with a real pay cut. Bins remained uncollected, council offices stayed closed, Caledonian MacBrayne ferries did not run. A thousand schools were closed across Scotland and, in some cases, teachers refused to cross picket lines.

The Observer (17.08.08) ran a front page headline “Health chief attacks drug giants over huge profits.” Sir Michael Rawlins hit out after the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was accused of ‘barbarism’ for refusing to approve expensive kidney drugs. NICE said the drugs ‘only’ gave the patient an extra few months of life. We wonder if they would be so insouciant if it were their lives on the line?

“We are told we are being mean all the time, but what nobody mentions is why the drugs are so expensive,” Rawlins commented.

A Review of ‘There Will Be Blood’, the film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson And ‘Oil !’, the novel by Upton Sinclair

The poster for this film says that it is based on Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel. Socialists, and lovers of American literature, should be grateful to Anderson for being responsible for Sinclair’s novel being back in print and in the shops. But not for much else.  Indeed, I would advise anyone who has read and enjoyed ‘Oil!’ to steer well clear of the much lauded film.

RMT Station Staff working at eleven Tube stations between Plaistow and Upminster on London Underground’s District Line and at Elephant and Castle, Charing Cross and Lambeth North on the Bakerloo are to strike for 24 hours from 04:30 tomorrow, Friday August 22 in two separate disputes.

More than 90 staff on the East Ham group voted by a margin of more than 20 to one to take action over a breakdown of industrial relations sparked by local management ignoring procedures, the victimisation and harassment of staff and union reps and the sacking of station assistant Sarah Hutchins who had taken time off for pregnancy-related illnesses and after being assaulted at work.

In Part Five we examine how and why the Independents around Fairfax and Cromwell, previously the more left-leaning elements of the bourgeoisie, carried out a balancing act, trying to develop their own interests while manoeuvring between the Presbyterians on their right and the Levellers to their left. Eventually they felt compelled to try to eradicate the Levellers altogether.

Colonel Rainborough: "The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he; and I think it is clear that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his consent to put himself under that government."

The outcome of the military struggle was largely decided by the result of the Battle of Naseby in June 1645 but the war and the embryonic revolution continued. In Part Four we examine how a radical wing developed to the left of the Independents - who consisted of the more ‘moderate’ protestant elements on the Parliamentary side.
The most prominent radical democratic grouping was the Levellers. In simple terms the twin demands of the Levellers were freedom of conscience in religious matters and the inalienable right for citizens to choose the government they wanted. Such a government therefore owed its power to the people’s consent. With unprecedented boldness the Levellers advanced the idea that the people must be sovereign. 

Tube Lines boss Terry Morgan should stop throwing petty insults around and get around the table to negotiate a solution to the current pay and conditions dispute, London Underground’s biggest union says today.

Some 1,000 RMT members are set to down tools from noon on Wednesday in the first of two 72-hour strikes called after the company tabled a pay and conditions offer substantially below that agreed by Metronet for people doing identical work.