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News
Average wages recover to pre-crisis levels – but we’re still over a decade behind
Average wage levels in the UK have, for the first time, recovered to the level they were at before the financial crisis.
Bezos gives $10bn for climate – nationalise the rest!
A $10 billion ‘Bezos Earth Fund’ is the biggest ‘giveaway’ yet by owner of Amazon and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos.
A jury in New York City found Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault on 24 February. More trials are ahead for the multimillionaire film producer.
What we think
Immigration: For a system that meets the needs of the majority, not a rich elite
Universities strike
Solidarity with striking university staff
It is time for students to coordinate action with striking staff, as our struggles against casualisation, the commodification of education, and attacks on trade unions are a struggle against the same enemy – the Tories, the bosses and their system.
University workers’ strike over pay, pensions and workload escalates
Workers at over 70 universities have been taking strike action against pay inequality, casualisation and workload, and in defence of pensions. The University and College Union (UCU) is out for 14 days throughout February and March.
Council cuts
Coventry: A socialist councillor who will vote against cuts
Socialist Party member Jane Nellist is standing as a candidate for Coventry council in the Upper Stoke by-election on 19 March. We print extracts from her leaflet
Number of women killed by current or ex-partner rises
Leicester: We can’t take any more cuts, any more misery, and we are fighting back
In one of the poorest cities in the country, the cuts will disproportionately affect those on low incomes, particularly women and the disabled – as stated in the council’s own budget report!
Students and workers out together on Budget Day, 11 March
150-200 angry council workers met outside Stoke Town Hall on 19 February to protest against cuts that will leave some workers £5,000 a year worse off.
Council cuts could cost Labour another general election
150 people tuned out in Birmingham to hear Rebecca Long-Bailey’s pitch for the Labour leadership.
Workplace news
Packed meeting of workplace militants, strikers, socialists and trade union leaders
A packed London meeting of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) on 18 February brought together 80 workplace militants, strikers, socialists and leading left-wing trade unionists to discuss some of the most pressing questions facing the working class since Boris Johnson’s victory.
All out to win Royal Mail strike reballot
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is about to reballot its 110,000 postal members for industrial action.
PCS union relaunches pay campaign
A meeting of the PCS union national executive committee on 19 February agreed to relaunch the union’s national pay campaign.
Workers call on Interserve bosses to recognise union
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union protested outside Interserve’s London headquarters
The anti-academy strikes in east London are growing. St Bede’s in Redbridge is joining St Michael’s and St Bon’s already on strike.
International news
Germany: Right-wing terror attacks – fight racism, fight capitalism!
The murder of nine people in two shisha bars in the German town of Hanau by a fascist gunman is the third fatal right-wing terrorist attack in the country in just nine months. But as Sasha Staničić (Sol – CWI, Germany – national spokesperson) explains, the laments of establishment politicians over such attacks will not eradicate the far-right threat.
Northern Ireland’s strike wave
Northern Ireland’s government was suspended between 2017 and 2020 after the sectarian parties refused to reach a power-sharing agreement following the ‘cash for ash’ scandal. Now a strike wave has forced them and the bosses to give ground.
The BBC
This is the BBC: fight the cuts – and the capitalist media
The UK’s public broadcaster, the BBC, is facing renewed threats to funding and jobs. James Ivens looks at how the workers’ movement can defend employment – and overcome the establishment media’s anti-worker propaganda.
Campaigns
Congress 2020 appeal: Donate to help us renew vital resources
We are asking all our members to donate to the Congress 2020 appeal. Delegates and visitors from across England and Wales and internationally will be coming together on 29 February and 1 March for the Socialist Party congress.
We gathered outside Peabody Head Office on the evening of 19 February to make the point that cuts to the community and neighbourhood services cost lives, and are counter-productive.
Readers’ opinion
Letter’s to the Socialist’s editors.