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What we think
Turn Carillion crisis into movement against privatisation and capitalism
Warning: known thieves operating in all areas: Outsourcing, PFI, privatisation, as in Carillion, is ‘reverse socialism’. It is nothing other than a highly efficient wealth transfusion system.
Socialist Party news and analysis
Welsh NHS crisis – we cannot go on like this
We cannot go on like this. That is the substance of a letter from A&E consultants to the Welsh government to draw attention to the huge crisis in Welsh hospitals this winter.
£2m to remove Grenfell-type cladding: residents to get bill
100,000 stuck on ambulances: Many of us are terrified of coming down with one of the many viruses hitting Britain this winter. Or there is a sense of dread at the possibility of joining the people in queues of ambulances outside A&E departments
Leeds playing fields rescued from Blairites
Labour-run Leeds City Council appears to have finally retreated in the face of mass community opposition to the plans to build on Fearnville playing fields previously reported in the Socialist.
May’s “war on plastic” still puts profits before the planet
A rapidly growing mountain of plastic waste is polluting the world’s land and oceans
News in brief including segregated playgrounds, benefit cuts and oil worker wages.
Vietnam war
Vietnam War: 50 years since the Tet Offensive
On 30 January 1968 the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the People’s Army of Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive against US and allied troops in South Vietnam.
Socialist Party workplace news
Lecturers vote for strikes against pension cuts
88% of University and College Union (UCU) members in 68 universities have voted for national strikes on a 58% turnout.
PCS executive agrees next steps in pay campaign
Brum care workers protest council attacks
Picketers and their supporters demonstrated outside Birmingham council house on 20 January. Socialist Party and Socialist Students members joined over 100 people gathered at Victoria square to stand up to the latest council attacks against the homecare workers.
Amy Murphy Usdaw campaign meeting
Reps and activists from five Usdaw branches came to a public meeting in Leeds held to promote the election campaign of Broad Left candidate for Usdaw president, and Socialist Party member, Amy Murphy on 17 January.
Ballots against Bromley privatisers
Controversial outsourcing Bromley council faces strike action by workers at two of its contractors that could hit libraries and care services.
Ferrybridge: Workers down tools over unpaid wages
International socialist news and analysis
Punishment of Tamimi family awakens wave of international solidarity
Israel/Palestine: Sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi and her 21-year-old cousin, Nur Tamimi, were arrested during a military raid on their house in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on the night of 19 December.
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Defend Louise Harrison – save Yorkshire women’s services!
Louise Harrison, now ex-staff member of South Yorkshire Women’s Aid, was dismissed from her job on 19 January by a trustee vote of three to one not to renew her contract.
Victory against government’s war on eastern European homeless
Gentrification scourge hits Kent
So-called ‘gentrification’ is on its way to parts of north Kent that are being packaged as the ‘Thames Gateway’.
Kirklees council opens consultation of library services
For the third year running, Kirklees council is looking to make cuts to its library services. A further £1.9 million is to be cut from the library services budget for 2018-19.
Southampton: Pay rise for uni boss, job losses for lecturers
Universities in England have become a microcosm of capitalism. At Southampton University the vice-chancellor has awarded himself a pay rise to £424,000, while at the same time making plans to sack over 50 lecturers.
Obituaries
Longstanding Doncaster Socialist Party member Mary Jackson was a working class fighter and an eternal optimist in a socialist future
Obituary: Maureen Mulhearn 1945-2018
Opinion
Carillion and the construction industry
The following letter by Socialist Party member and construction worker Jimmy Tyson was published in the Liverpool Echo earlier this week
Carillion crisis exposes PFI chaos
Universal credit: set up to fail
Only a few days after the roll-out of the Tories’ new ‘universal credit’ benefits system, the working poor, disabled and most vulnerable in our society are already suffering.
Letters to the editors of the Socialist including one NHS worker forced out of the health service and tower block health and safety concerns in Belfast