• Editorial: A Vicar to the World
  
• Trade unions: nearly six million Trade Unionists Support HoV Campaign and Civil Servants support revolution
  
• News: Brown courts big business and Mr Davies (and other Tory rats), you are not wanted!
• Schools: Army gets it marching orders and How to profit from our children
• Smoking: IThe smoking ban - more state interference or good for our health?
• Economy/Book review: Reclaiming Marx's capital: A refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency 
• Venezuela: Furore over RCTV: US imperialists join the attack
  
• France: Legislative elections mark the end of the honeymoon period
  
• Marxism: Inmemory of Ted Grant
  
• Russian Revolution: From July to September: Revolution and Counterrevolution
• Indian independence: Role of the Communist Party during Partition
  

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Fighting Fund 

Keep it up - your support is needed

Last night as I was thinking about what to put in this column, a news item came on the TV which said that a new study had revealed that young people today are less likely to benefit from social mobility than those born in the 1940s and 50s. In other words, your parents had a greater chance of becoming reasonably well off, despite being born working class, than you can now ever expect.

So all this talk we are always hearing about greater opportunities and possibilities for people today seems to be total rubbish. The reality is that although society now offers more to working class people, it gives less in practice. This generation of working class youth is probably the most educated ever, yet the options to make something with this have been pushed back. The vice like grip of poverty has tightened not lessened over the last few decades particularly since capitalism started to retrench in order to protect its margins. They do not want you to make something of yourself, they want to make something from you - more profit.

So investing instead in a socialist future remains the best bet and one of the ways you can do that is to give a donation to the Socialist Appeal fighting fund. So far this year we have raised over £5,000 but we have a long way to go to hit our £10,000 target by the end of the year. It can be reached - and passed - if every reader and seller plays her or his part. So please consider what you can give to help us in our work.

Donations can be made in a number of ways:

•  By cheque to us at PO Box 50525, London E14 6WG (made payable to Socialist Appeal SC).

• Cheques and cash can also be paid in over the counter at any branch of Abbey National quoting account number K2018479SOC.

• TransCash payments can also be made at any Post Office into Alliance and Leicester account number 562 528 601, sort code 72 00 00, account ref BBC.

If you wish you can also ask your bank to pay a regular amount by standing order each month into our accounts. Simply use the information above when instructing your bank (non Alliance and Leicester customers should quote sort code 72 00 05 and account number 625 286 01) or contact us and we will send you a special form you can just fill out and send in. After that everything is automatic and you can change or cancel the SO at any time, it remains under your control and no-one else, ourselves included. Your support is appreciated - thank you in advance.

Steve Jones