Socialist Appeal 175 out now!

 A new issue of Socialist Appeal is now out. Read more about it or to order your individual copy online . 175coversmall.jpg
 
Thatcher: the real legacy Print E-mail
By David Brandon   
Wednesday, 06 May 2009
margaretthatcher.jpgThe 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.
 
The Limerick Soviet of 1919 Print E-mail
By Ewan Gibbs   
Wednesday, 06 May 2009
limerick.jpgRecent 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. 
 
Thatcher: decline and fall Print E-mail
By Terry McPartlan   
Wednesday, 06 May 2009

mt.jpgIn 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.

 

 
Socialist Appeal 173 is out now! Print E-mail
By Socialist Appeal   
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
sa173coversmall.jpgThe May edition of Socialist Appeal is now available!
 
Thatcher: Thirty Years On Print E-mail
By Terry McPartlan   
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
thatcher-and-cameron.jpg"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.
 
Inequality grows Print E-mail
By Michael Roberts   
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
povertyus.jpgThe 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.
 
Guns before butter Print E-mail
By Ewan Gibbs   
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
ta.jpgOn 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.
 
Workers Score Victory at Visteon Print E-mail
By Rob Sewell   
Sunday, 03 May 2009
md-visteon010.jpgWorkers 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.
 
Visteon: Visit to Basildon picket line Print E-mail
By Steve Jones   
Sunday, 03 May 2009
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
 
Budget: Fifty per cent is too much! Print E-mail
By Michael Roberts   
Friday, 01 May 2009
darling.jpgIt 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.
 
Ford must pay up! A solidarity visit to the Visteon picket line Print E-mail
By Matt Wells, PCS   
Friday, 01 May 2009

visteon_plackard_small.jpgSacked 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.

 
Swansea Union Activist Victimised (Updated) Print E-mail
By Steve Jones   
Thursday, 30 April 2009
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.
 
Exploitation in TV Industry worse than ever Print E-mail
By Will Roche, BECTU   
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 ebbc.jpgxpense 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.
 
Reject Increases In Top up Fees Print E-mail
By A UCU Activist   
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
university1.jpgA 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.
 
The 2009 Election Results: Reflecting the state of the class struggle in South Africa Print E-mail
By David van Wyk   
Monday, 27 April 2009
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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Audio

miners-strikesmalll.jpgThe Miners strike 1984-5

At the University of East Anglia recently Rob Sewell of the Socialist Appeal gave a talk on the Miners strike in Britain 1984-5. The strike was a culmination of the inevitable build up of tension between the ruling and working class. In the post-war period the decline of British imperialism had occured. The Tories of the 1980s were a rabid reaction to that phenomenon, determined to destroy the organised labour movement by taking on its most militant section, the National Union of Miners.

Listen here to Part 1 and Part 2 .

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