Articles
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Whilst the fall out from the war in Ukraine has increased opposition to US policies in many parts of the world, the biggest, long-standing imperial powers have fallen into line behind its war aims. The UK has gone further than others in stoking up the war. After the United States it supplies the most resources to Ukraine, including vast amounts of military equipment. The UK’s active involvement not only extends to arms supplies, there are British troops deployed in the country and British intelligence is being provided to Ukraine. There are reports that Britain has been involved in major incidents such as the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines.
Monday, January 30, 2023
Though they managed to wriggle out of the crisis caused by Liz Truss’ disastrous premiership, the Tories still face multiple problems. The party remains riven by divisions. Simply allowing public services to fall apart and taking a confrontational stance towards strikers doesn’t seem to be going down well. Many more people support the strikes than oppose them, with striking nurses achieving over 60% approval ratings. There is an opportunity for the working class and the trade unions to take advantage of the Tories difficulties, to build greater unity of strike actions and campaigns and make gains.
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Liz Truss will be even worse than Johnson – however hard this might be to believe. Truss has already declared war on the trade union movement by proposing to bring in even more restrictive anti-union legislation which would make it virtually impossible to take legal and effective strike action. She has shown a total lack of understanding the threat from the cost of living crisis to working class people. She proposes to slash taxes, but without taxes there can be no hope of improving our collapsing public services, including the National Health Service, nor infrastructure which has been neglected over decades. The crisis facing the British people is, at least in part, a product of the Thatcherism that Truss seeks to emulate. She doesn’t even pretend to have a “levelling up” agenda and has expressed herself content that the rich will benefit far more from tax cuts than the poor.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
The cuts to peoples’ living standards are so dire that workers have been forced to strike for pay increases to ensure their survival. The battles that are happening are immense and unprecedented in recent decades. They represent a new self-confidence in the working class which can provide a basis for building class consciousness. Union membership is growing and inroads are being made into smaller private sector enterprises and with self-employed contractors in the gig economy.
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) exist across the world, where national laws and rights are suspended and companies operating in them are more or less free to do as they please. SEZs – sometimes referred to as ‘open zones’ – take different forms; freeports and charter cities are both forms of SEZ. All this means bigger profits for the companies operating in these zones and worse conditions for workers.
Friday, September 30, 2022
In 1972, after a national strike, building workers achieved the largest single pay increase ever negotiated in the building industry: an immediate pay increase of £6 per week for craftsmen and £5 per week for labourers. This was on a previous national minimum rate of just £20 for a skilled worker and £17 for a labourer. It was a magnificent victory for the workers and their trade unions. In achieving this victory, however, leaders of the strike were imprisoned on trumped up charges with the state intervening on the side of the employers.
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Unsafe working conditions and a lack of safety reps have led to accidents among construction workers on the HS2 rail project. with some success, trade unions have fought to gain recognition against determined opposition from employers.
Monday, May 30, 2022
While people at home face a horrendous cost of living crisis the UK government is pouring arms into Ukraine as well providing training to its armed forces. This includes British military personnel being present in Ukraine itself. This is not entirely new, however, and is an extension of long term collaboration between the two countries.