24 October 2016
Belgium cannot sign the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the EU’s proposed trade deal with Canada because of opposition from local elected bodies. That may block the whole deal.
24 October 2016
This account of the Remain campaign by David Cameron’s PR man opens up a fascinating insight into its fundamental contradictions.
The government wants massive cuts to staffing on Britain’s railways regardless of safety. ASLEF is to ballot train drivers in Southern rail against that threat, joining RMT guards in their increasingly bitter dispute.
Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail company, has axed nearly 900 jobs, a quarter of its British workforce.
Unison’s go-it-alone stance on local government pay has hit the buffers. Its additional pay claim for 2017-18 is not supported by other unions. Employers have refused the claim. New thinking is needed by workers to make progress.
The economic troubles of the EU will not go away, despite the sustained denials by politicians, echoed by some here in Britain. One expert tells a different story, explaining that struggling through crisises cannot go on endlessly.
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.
