Hurricane Matthew reduced a Cuban coastal town to rubble. Yet not one person there lost their life – a testament to the power of organisation and class mobilisation.
19 October 2016
After decades of decline in the number of British-registered vessels, Britain’s merchant navy is becoming so depleted that our economy could be held to ransom by other nations with stronger shipping industries, according to Nautilus, the maritime union.
18 October 2016
European countries are extending sanctions against Russia because of the secession of Crimea from Ukraine. This belligerence is causing difficulties in Europe and Britain as well as for Russia.
11 October 2016
RMT Scotrail members have a victory in their fight for safety. Those working on Southern face the same problem, but their employer has escalted the dispute.
3 October 2016
Real wages in Britain have fallen by more than 10 per cent in the last ten years according to government figures. The current generation of new workers will be the first since records began to earn less than their parents.
3 October 2016
A review of the state pension age is due to be released in early 2017. We can expect the media to trail snippets to prepare the ground. But the apparently independent review will simply copy the World Bank and IMF line on how to bust up a country’s state pension system.
22 September 2016
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee report into Britain’s role in the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi is a stunning indictment of the British state’s attack on Libya in March 2011.
18 September 2016
Hundreds of thousands of French workers demonstrated in major cities again last week against the imposition of new labour laws.
16 September 2016
Residents of some of Britain’s drier areas have been waking up to find water meters being installed outside their front gates.
12 September 2016
The government’s plans to force councils to merge and to accept elected mayors has come off the rails in the North East of England.
12 September 2016
The Artists’ Union of England, launched in London and Newcastle two years ago with advice based on the Scottish Artists’ Union Rule Book, has just been granted certification.
5 September 2016
Hospital doctors have begun a new phase of action in response to the government’s attempt to impose new contracts. Strikes planned for the autumn will take place unless the government halts the imposition and restarts meaningful talks.
The mere fact of the vote to Leave looks set to benefit thousands of young British people looking for a place at the university of their choice.
Post Office workers have voted overwhelmingly to strike against office closures, job losses and threats to their pensions.
25 August 2016
Moves to create a European Army are accelerating – despite the assertions of the Remain campaign that the idea was purely Leave hysteria.
23 August 2016
Cooperatives, according to their backers. Some even think they can blunt the effect of privatisation. The reality is somewhat different.
The government is to review the astronomically expensive Hinkley C nuclear plant deal with France and China.
Election fraud is growing in Britain, says a report headed by former communities secretary and now anti-corruption czar Sir Eric Pickles published on 12 August.
Figures published in August show that over £9 billion a year is now paid in housing benefits to people living in private rented accommodation.
Planning permission for the world’s largest wind farm has been agreed 55 miles off the Flamborough coast – but the developer wants even higher subsidies than normal.
As the 2016-17 pay claim looms. Unison, GMB and Unite cannot agree what the claim should be – so Unison has decided to go solo.
23 August 2016
London's Mayor Sadiq Khan has reacted to reports of a rise in cases of abuse in the aftermath of the EU referendum result – with an extension of state snooping.
5 August 2016
Londoners are falling ill and dying because the capital has levels of nitrogen oxides comparable to those of Shanghai and Beijing, according to a new report published in July.
14 July 2016
More than 200 Unite and RMT workers in the Wood Group working on Shell’s North Sea platforms have voted in favour of strike action over pay.
11 July 2016
The NHS’s Primary Care Support Services were privatised in April, transferred to multinational profit-sucker Capita, along with over a thousand workers – and things have not gone well.
11 July 2016
If any British workers doubted that the EU and NATO are two sides of the same coin, the EU–NATO leaders’ declaration of 9 July 2016 to deploy more troops and weapons on Russia’s borders should remove them.
3 July 2016
The Brexit decision has thrown government plans for electricity generation into further turmoil, with renewed concerns over the future of the proposed nuclear power station at Hinkley Point.
1 July 2016
Voting ends today (1 July) in the "Members Referendum" of junior doctors on whether to accept the terms negotiated by their union, the British Medical Association, to settle their long-running dispute with the government over seven-day working.
Teachers have long railed against their growing workload, whose bureaucratic nature, ironically, means less time in the classroom.
30 June 2016
After two months of falls in France’s jobless totals, the number out of work rose again. Meanwhile, the government is imposing drastic changes in labour legislation to meet EU fiscal targets.
