Sick of capitalism
New research from the worlds leading authority on health inequalities highlights the links between inequity in society, poverty and ill health.
Features
Features
Ambulance emergency
In November the Care Quality Commission gave the London Ambulance Service its lowest rating. What’s going on? And what is the way forward?
1: Caught in the check off trap
Rail unions learned just how vulnerable their finances were many years ago when British Rail summarily ended the check-off facility to RMT during a dispute in 1993.
2: Half a century of attack
“Kill the Bill!” was the slogan adopted by trade unions more than forty years ago, in opposition to the Industrial Relations Bill – which came perilously close to being accepted in toto by British trade unions.
India's loss
Before Theresa May added nursing to the shortage occupation list the Indian Health Ministry was expecting to gain from the implementation of her previous immigration rules which had been due to take effect on 6 April 2016.
Union prophecy proved right
From a Unison Branch Secretary letter in 2014: “The trickle of staff leaving that we saw nine months or so ago has developed into a tidal wave. A tidal wave that, if not stopped, will take our Service down.
No energy policy = no British industry
Without a credible energy policy Britain’s entire industrial future is at risk. Events in steel and power hammer home that truth…
TTIP – the mask slips
Opponents of TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership treaty currently being negotiated on our behalf by the European Union, have consistently noted how secretive and undemocratic the process is.
The lie of Social Europe
Many unions seem wedded to the EU. Yet look closely, and it’s clear the EU has been a disaster for workers…
It shouldn't be if Britain leaves the EU, but when
Even before an actual day was set for the EU referendum, the mongers of doom are predicting disaster if Britain leaves. Yet the opposite is true…
Struggle off the stage
A long-running dispute over front of house staff wages and conditions at the Globe Theatre in London has been “settled” – for the time being. This follows a one-day strike in May 2015, with the threat of further action. A degree of progress has been made.
The atomisation of England
Never mind that whenever the people have been asked they have said they don’t want it – devolution is to be forced on England…
Bidding to devolve
Separately, all these would-be devolved authorities published proposals before chancellor Osborne’s September deadline, aimed at joining up between 4 and 19 local authorities. Note the imperial ambitions of “Greater” Essex and Yorkshire.
Big blow for carbon capture
Innovation? What innovation? The government has effectively washed its hands of the White Rose carbon capture and storage (CCS) project based at Drax power station in Yorkshire
Junior doctors make a stand for the NHS
The British Medical Association (BMA) announced that ballot papers would go out to its members in early November. It is a ballot which, should it go ahead, could well result in the first national strike action by junior doctor members since the 1970s.
Capitalism will damage your mental health
Unemployment is clearly related to poor mental health in young adults. Students worried about studying and money – and these concerns are increasing – also have relatively poor mental health.
Locked out of housing
Young people struggle to find decent housing. Few are able to build up the cash for a deposit, so they are locked out of the housing market.
The war against youth
A forward-looking, optimistic, collectively minded society will nurture and encourage its youth, ensuring they know how important they are now and for the future.
A young person’s place is in their union
Young people are not enthused by traditional politics – but that doesn’t mean they are apathetic. Harnessing and directing interest where young workers have economic power is not easy.
Progress in tube fight
The long-running dispute over the introduction of a 24-hour rail service on London’s underground took a positive turn when RMT, TSSA and Unite called off two further 24-hour strikes scheduled for the last week of August.
Tested to destruction?
Why are governments (Tory, Labour) so obsessed with school testing? The latest wheeze is to test the youngest children within a few weeks of starting full-time school, when most are still just four years old.
No work, no rest
Workers leaving school or university now have to pay individually to fund a non-guaranteed pension due in forty years’ time. That would seem an odd idea to previous generations of British workers.
No care, no shame
In their election manifesto, the Conservatives said that by April 2016 they would cap charges on residential social care and limit the liability of any individual needing long-term care, along with a rise in the level of personal assets above which people would be ineligible for state help.
What’s in the bill?
New restrictions on the right to strike, including a 50 per cent voting threshold for union ballot turnouts, plus in some “essential public services” 40 per cent of those entitled to vote must vote for industrial action.
They want us to disarm and surrender
The Trade Union Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech has resurrected every wish-list governments ever had of smashing the working class. It embodies every anti-worker measure they’ve previously tried to implement and every shred of vindictive class hatred they have had in their ranks reaching back to day one of modern capitalism.
Take part, take heart
How heartening to be in a united and determined group of workers who successfully resist a move against them or gain an improvement. What could be better?
Who needs the EU? Not the motor industry…
The British motor industry is bucking the trend of decline – even though there are no longer any major British-owned motor manufacturers. It is an industry that thrives outside of the EU and demonstrably would thrive even more without the EU’s destructive restrictions.
Why Britain needs an industrial policy
Britain can’t properly provide for its people without a complex web of manufacture and technology. For all the talk of services, it needs industry.
Yes to Britain, no to the EU
This Party is for the union of England, Scotland and Wales in Britain. We are against separatism, because for a part of the British working class to leave Britain is not independence but secession, splitting. We are for Britain’s unity. We are also for Ireland’s unity.
The facts about what leaving the EU would mean
The EU is an organisation that was formed, and is run, by the employing class for itself. We are for the interests of the working class in Britain.