News

lgsm

Gays and miners: the enemy within

Clive Bradley is a socialist and a screenwriter ( Trapped, Castlevania: Nocturne ). In the 1980s he was a member of Socialist Organiser (the forerunner of Workers’ Liberty) and an activist in Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), a campaign group which supported the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) during the year-long strike of 1984–5. LGSM is depicted in the film Pride (2014) which brought the story to a wide audience.

Clive spoke to Ruth Cashman.

wapc picket

Women and the miners' strike 1984-5

The 1984-5 miners’ strike is a moment ripe with lessons and with stories that are devastating and inspiring in equal measure. Among them is the incredible story of the coalfield women.

The women’s support movement whirred into action only a few short weeks after the strike began on 6 March 1984. Support groups were set up in every coalfield by local women, predominantly the wives, sisters and daughters of miners. They would keep the strike going for 12 long months.

Class

communist

Alan Woods and his "born again" RCP

Socialist Appeal (about to be renamed Revolutionary Communist Party) says that 5,000 copies were sold of no.1 of its renamed paper, The Communist. Where, we don’t know. The paper does now carry photos of street stalls, though the paper is not much seen at demonstrations, let alone at workplaces or labour-movement meetings. But the group says it had over 1,000 members by the end of 2023 and now aims for 10,000 soon.

nhs

Fight for a workers' government

The very-mainstream Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that the Tory government’s current plans mean real-terms cuts of around 1.2% in NHS day-to-day spending.

That is the largest reduction for over 50 years, and from a position where the NHS is already staggering — with big staff shortfalls and record waiting lists, and a backlog of repairs needed to hospital buildings.

Local councils are being pushed into dramatic cuts.

navalny vigil

Two years later, anguish, anger, acceptance

It’s been over two years now that troops arrived and tanks rolled into Ukraine: the country, and the world, awoke to a full-scale Russian invasion. Two years ago we spoke with several Russians to hear their thoughts on the war, and a year ago, we caught up with them to see how their lives had changed.

In what has become a grim tradition, we today once again: what’s changed, what hasn’t, what’s next?

Challenges & Change

pcs pay

PCS: undermining a fightback

The Left Unity leadership (LU) of the PCS civil service union is conducting a “survey”, over just two weeks, to gauge membership support for its 2024-25 pay demands and for strike action.

LU failed to consult branches about the demands, sprang the survey on them without providing campaign materials, and has not given them time to campaign effectively for members’ support. The survey was issued to members on 20 February on a non “https” secure server. Some members expressed security concern for the handling of their data and this has meant they have not completed the survey.

starmer shame

Labour and Gaza: now back Standing Together

The Labour leadership has moved to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. That is good, although very, very late: local Labour Parties have been passing ceasefire motions since October, and Labour councils have come out in favour too.

The procedural chaos surrounding the UK Parliament vote on 21 February does not reflect well on any party involved (see Antidoto column, page 4).

lee anderson

It's the rich who make "no-go areas"

In February 2018, Lee Anderson was suspended from a council Labour group after hiring a digger and placing concrete blocks to stop Travellers camping in a car park. The Tories welcomed him in, and made him deputy chair of the Conservative Party in 2023.

Now many Tories are agitating against Sunak’s embarrassed withdrawing of the Tory whip from Anderson for ranting: “the Islamists have got control of... [London mayor Sadiq] Khan and they’ve got control of London, and they’ve got control of Starmer as well...

delivery

Couriers to strike every Friday

Drivers for Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat have announced strikes every Friday and bank holiday over pay. This comes after two successful strikes in February.

The demand of the strike is £5 minimum for each order. Because food couriers are designated as “self-employed” they have no guaranteed basic pay, getting variable fees for each delivery. They also don’t have automatic rights to sick pay, holiday pay, pensions or parental leave. A recent report looked at pay in the sector and found most platforms couldn’t provide evidence that workers’ pay was minimum wage after costs.

nhs banner

The cuts and the rich

The Tories are talking about tax cuts in the Wednesday 6 March budget. They will “balance” those with notional public spending cuts from 2025 which (they reckon) will be someone else’s problem to implement.

The Labour leadership has pledged itself to uphold the “fiscal rules” and also not to raise taxes on the rich and big business beyond spots like repealing the “non-domiciled” exemption. That puts Starmer and Reeves — and, more importantly, the working class — in an impossible trap.

kazan

When the workers awakened in Moscow and Petersburg

Fourth in a series around the anniversary of the death of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) in 1924

All populism, in theory, “denied a future to Russian capitalism. The proletariat was assigned no independent role at all in the revolution. It happened accidentally, however, that propaganda designed in its content for the villages found a sympathetic response only in the cities... assembling only the intelligentsia and some individual industrial workers”. (Leon Trotsky, The Young Lenin)

vivian s

A tribute to Vivian

Vivian Silver (1949-2023) was an Israeli peace activist and women’s rights activist. She spent much of her life campaigning for Palestinian freedom and an end to the occupation. She was killed during the Be’ere massacre by Hamas on October 7 2023. This tribute was first published on 14 November.

Samah Salaime is a Palestinian feminist and writer.

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.