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By Ewan Gibbs
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Wednesday, 06 May 2009 |
 Recent weeks have seen Ireland bear witness to two factory occupations that subsequently inspired similar actions across Britain. These events are significant developments in class struggle in that they pose the question of whether power resides with the boss or the workers. It is fitting that these events should coincide with the ninetieth anniversary of the Limerick Soviet. The events that took place in the small Munster town during April 1919 have all too predictably been written out of the official history of Ireland. They have also been largely forgotten in the labour movement due to the role of a conservative bureaucratic leadership that has sought to bury the history of the Irish working class’ most potent challenge to capitalist rule.
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By Terry McPartlan
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Wednesday, 06 May 2009 |
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 In 1983 Labour lost the election by a landslide. This gave the right wing in the Party their opportunity to fight back. The New Labour cry that the 1983 Labour Manifesto was the “longest suicide note in history” is utter nonsense. If anything the manifesto was less radical than the 1974 manifesto. There was a huge amount of Tory luck in the 1983 general election, Thatcher had managed to pull off a military victory and the SDP traitors had divided the Labour vote.
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By Socialist Appeal
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
 The May edition of Socialist Appeal is now available!
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By Terry McPartlan
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
 "Where there is discord may we bring
harmony..." said Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago this May when she was
elected as British Prime Minister in 1979. Some politicians are remembered for
their achievements, in Aneurin Bevan's case the founding of the NHS; others
like Tony Blair will be remembered as warmongers and traitors to the ideals of
the Labour movement. Meanwhile John Major will be remembered, if at all, for
his ineffectual personality and his blandness. But very few will have been
hated by working people with such intensity as Margaret Thatcher.
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By Michael Roberts
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
 The United States of America is the greatest capitalist economy in the world. What does capitalism bring? Does it bring better standards of living? Does it bring happiness? Does it bring justice and fairness? Those questions have been answered elsewhere, but the short answer is ‘no’. But one thing it definitely does not bring is equality of income and wealth.
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By Ewan Gibbs
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
 On the day that the Pakistani army continued to be bogged down in a ferocious battle against the Taliban inside its own borders and yet another British soldier was killed in Afghanistan, the one hundred and fifty third since 2001, it is evident that the British military is engaged in a war it cannot win. Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth has outlined desperate measures which entail a wholesale reform of the Territorial Army. Gone forever will be the image of a glorified Dad’s Army as the TA is to be integrated with the rest of the army and better prepared for wars abroad.
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By Rob Sewell
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Sunday, 03 May 2009 |
 Workers at Visteon,
following a four-week battle, have gained a victory. After the
occupation of the Visteon plants and 24 hour picketing when the
company announced its liquidation, Ford/Visteon bosses were finally
forced to concede to the workers' demands. Workers in Enfield and
Basildon have already voted in favour of the deal, while those at
Belfast will be voting soon. Rob Sewell interviewed Rob Fitch, shop
steward at the Visteon plant in Basildon, who was also one of the
national negotiators that secured the new deal.
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By Steve Jones
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Sunday, 03 May 2009 |
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Supporters of Socialist Appeal from
Romford paid a solidarity visit to the pickets outside the Visteon
plant at Basildon on Sunday. Although the workers have voted to
support the deal conceded by the Visteon bosses (see report posted
above this one) they are staying on the line until they are 100%
certain that the deal will go through
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By Michael Roberts
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Friday, 01 May 2009 |
 It makes your blood boil! The only good news to come out of the UK budget announced by New Labour Chancellor Alastair Darling last week was the slight increase in tax rate that would now be levied on those earning more than £100,000 a year. The rate was being raised from 40% to 50% to help raise a little more money from those who have benefited most from the credit binge that has now gone bust around the world.But what a barrage of criticism and rage has erupted from the great and good and from the news media on Darling’s action.
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By Matt Wells, PCS
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Friday, 01 May 2009 |
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 Sacked Visteon workers are currently in the fifth week of a struggle to obtain what is rightfully theirs having been shown the door by the company after many years of service for Fords.
I spoke to Mick Juric on the picket line at the Enfield plant. He’d put in 20 years service and had been told that he was ‘too important’ to the company to be given a voluntary redundancy package earlier this year. The company told him that they looked forward to working with him in the future. A few weeks later he was summarily dismissed with no payout from the company for the years of service.
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By Steve Jones
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Thursday, 30 April 2009 |
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Rob Williams, a well-known union activist
and Unite union convenor at the Linamar car
parts site in Swansea,
was called into the management office last Tuesday and without warning given
the sack. Why? Officially because of a ‘breakdown in trust and confidence’ (what
ever that means!) but in reality because of the role of the union in
challenging the bosses attempts to run the factory down.
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By Will Roche, BECTU
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009 |
Landing a job in British Television would be considered by most to be a
real prize. The industry has long since been associated with decent
wages, prestige, and glamour. It’s no surprise then that thousands of
young people compete to get into the industry each year. But the
industry is hiding a dirty secret. Many of these young applicants, who
have often gone to great effort and e xpense to gain media degrees, are
given their first job in the industry paying them… wait for it… £0.00.
That’s right. Nothing!
Over the past decade, as budgets have shrunk in an ever more
competitive market, privately owned production companies, collectively
known as the independent sector, have been cheating applicants into
accepting unpaid ‘work experience’ positions. Lured by the shallow
promise of ‘promotion’ later down the line, ‘work experiencers’ are
often held for many months before being offered paid work. In many
cases companies never offer them pay at all.
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By A UCU Activist
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009 |
 A year before the next general election is due the Labour Government is
proposing another increase in top up fees for UK students. Currently
universities can charge up to £3,000 per year. It is being proposed
that they can be raised to £7,000.
The record of New Labour on higher education has gone from bad to
worse. In 1998 student grants were abolished and loans introduced. Then
fees were introduced at around £1,000. A proposal for top fees up to
£3,000 was introduced in 2004, to be implemented after the general
election in 2005. This was done in 2006. Nearly all universities and
colleges chose to move to maximum top up fees and now charge students
£3,000 for their courses. Not even the Tories had dared to carry out
such measures.
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By David van Wyk
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Monday, 27 April 2009 |
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The workers and poor of South Africa voted massively for an ANC that had
been purged of its right wing. Now that the ANC is once more in office,
the bourgeois – having failed to stop this – are putting enormous
pressure on its leaders to steer away from any radical pro-worker
policies. What is required is a struggle within the South African
labour movement to anchor its organisations to genuine socialist
policies. David van Wyk in South Africa looks at the election results and what they mean for the working class.
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The following letter from a Socialist Appeal reader was published in The Times
letters page for May 5th as part of a series of responses to an article
on Thatcher's legacy in a previous issue of the newspaper. We are
reproducing it here for those who missed it.
