History and Theory
|
By Steve Kelly, Amicus UNITE London Construction Branch
|
|
Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
|
It has
recently been agreed by the government after intensive lobbying by the entire
trade union movement that agency workers should get the same rate of pay as
directly employed workers after 12 weeks. Has it gone
far enough? I believe the legislation
should apply from day one and should also include the same terms and conditions
as directly employed full time workers.
|
|
|
By Eric Hollies
|
|
Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
|
At present gas prices are going up by 13.6%
in Britain. They’re rising by just 2% in the Netherlands. Prices are 25% higher
here than on the continent. By the end of the year household bills will be
£1,323 a year. This is twice as high as when Labour was elected in 1997. Some
estimate household bills could hit £1,500 next winter.
|
|
|
By Anthony Healy
|
|
Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
Public
sector pay is big news this summer. In fact, contrary to what the weather
forecasters might tell you, it could be a decidedly warm one. It doesn’t take a
lot to work out why either. Public sector workers are being made to pay for the
New Labour meltdown. Pay restraint is intimately tied into the government’s
finances and that means dinner ladies and civil servants footing the bill not
only for the ongoing occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan but also for the black hole
in public spending courtesy of the ex board members of Northern Rock. Alistair
Darling’s plea that the need to keep inflation under control "applies to each
and every one of us" will ring hollow in the ears of the civil servants
and other workers on the minimum wage or a marginally better pittance.
|
|
|
By Andy Blake
|
|
Wednesday, 02 July 2008 |
This year's Conference held in Liverpool in June debated vital issues facing postal and telecommunications workers in this country.Delegates from Coventry and the Welsh Valleys moved a resolution calling for an end to funding the Labour Party and a campaign for the creation of a new workers' party. The proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by Conference, which recognised that 'now was not the time for a split'.
|
|
|
By Socialist Appeal
|
|
Tuesday, 01 July 2008 |
|
The bosses
are over the moon. “Boris Johnson’s London
will be a Tory laboratory” trumpets the Daily Telegraph (May 4th). That makes David Cameron their Doctor
Frankenstein. Don’t let anybody
fall for the line that it can’t get worse after Blair and Brown. Already one of Johnson’s top aide’s has had to
resign for saying about immigrants who don’t like Tory policies "Well,
let them go (back) if they don't like it here."
|
|
|
By Rob Sewell
|
|
Monday, 30 June 2008 |
|
Terry was a larger than life figure and a
fine representative of the Liverpool working
class. A ‘salt of the earth’ man who dedicated his efforts to the cause of the
working class. Always smiling and joking, he was always seen wearing his black
leather jacket, even in Parliament, a place he pretty much hated. He served his
time there from 1983, when he was elected along with Dave Nellist and later Pat
Wall as part of the Militant trio, until 1992. This was the culmination of
decades of work by Militant supporters in the Merseyside labour movement. They
had refused to abandon the struggle within the Labour Party.
|
|
|
By Ewan Gibbs
|
|
Monday, 30 June 2008 |
|
Brief as it was woeful, Wendy Alexander’s
leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland has come to an end.
Alexander was forced to resign after being given a one day ban from parliament
for breaking rules regarding donations for her campaign to become Labour Party
leader. Her actions were illegal – no doubt about it. No one is quite sure why
such large sums of cash were needed for what in effect became a coronation,
given the lack of an opposition candidate.
|
|
|
By Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
|
|
Friday, 27 June 2008 |
Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Vahed Bus Company drivers, has serious
health problems and yet the Iranian authorities show no mercy, treating him as
if he were a dangerous criminal. He needs the solidarity of workers around the
world.
|
|
|
By Ron Graves
|
|
Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
|
In the Mental Health Trust
where I work, now a Foundation Trust, the primary anxiety for workers is not
about pay but about the future of their jobs. Of course, rising prices and
a lousy pay deal - coupled with the Trust's intention to hold an across
the board 'banding review' - piles on the pressure, but the fact that
repeated structural changes, resulting in cuts in the management structure,
have saved no real money and, now, all vacant posts have been abolished
(rather than frozen, as has been usual in the past) has drawn attention to
a very pressing threat to jobs.
|
|
|
By George Galloway MP
|
|
Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
An undercover police officer tried to provoke violence at the 'Stop
Bush' demonstration. These are the allegations made by George Galloway
MP. We publish below his letter to the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. We
find his evidence compelling and the allegation disturbing. Is the
British state using provocateurs against us? The labour movement will
want an answer.
|
|
|
By Rick Grogan (RMT)
|
|
Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
|
THE TYNE and Wear Metro is a public-sector success story and should be
kept that way, delegates at the annual conference of Britain's biggest rail
union insisted today. As RMT's AGM called on the government to implement Labour policy on
public ownership, RMT general secretary Bob Crow and Northern TUC secretary
Kevin Rowan issued a joint plea for an end to the threat to fragment and
privatise the northeast's Metro network.
|
|
|
By Socialist Appeal
|
|
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
|
World Perspectives 2008
The following is an audio recording of Alan Woods on World Perspectives
which was recorded in April of this year at the National Conference of
Socialist Appeal. We have clearly entered a new stage of the world
crisis of capitalism, which is characterised by colossal volatility at
every level. Perspectives are a guide to action, and therefore this
particular contribution is very important in orientating Marxists to
the likely developments which can unfold on a world stage.
To download the audio file click on part 1, part 2 and part 3 with your right mouse button and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As".
|
|
|
By Mick Brooks
|
|
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
The government is trying to push a proposal through Parliament to
increase the length of time a suspect can be detained without charge to 42
days. What argument does the government use as excuse for eliminating rights
and liberties we have defended for hundreds of years? Not much. The authorities
present the ‘war against terror’ as one that demands secrecy on their part.
They hint darkly that lives are at risk if they tell us what they know, but
that the situation is grim. Trust us!
|
|
|
By Alan Woods
|
|
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
Listen to Alan Woods speak at a recent meeting of the Socialist Appeal. "...what capitalism shows us is the enormous potential that exists in our hands. In the first decade of the 21st century you can say for the first time in history all the fundamental problems that we face can be solved now, today. For example for the first time in history it is possible to say their is no need for anyone to starve in this world. There is plenty of possibility to produce food for everybody. As a matter of fact if you check the records for the last 30 or 40 years in Europe and the United States they have been destroying food in huge quantities in order to keep the prices artificially high for the capitalist farmers."
|
|
|
By a PCS activist
|
|
Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
PCS union reps in the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Efra) Group are currently gearing up for an industrial action ballot in the
Rural Payments Agency (RPA), the civil service body that is responsible for
making subsidy payments to farmers. The RPA is based at several large offices
in Exeter, Reading, Northallerton, Newcastle, Workington and Carlisle.
Members are angry that they are having a flawed reporting system
imposed on them without agreement of their union.
|
|
| << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
| | Results 106 - 120 of 1275 |
|
New Book - 'Reformism or Revolution' - now available
Latest International News
Marxist International Review
Send us reports!
Send us your letters, articles or workplace and trade union reports!
Please get in touch and wherever possible we will publish submitted articles on our website or in our monthly paper Socialist Appeal.
|