News

Bayes

Turning the page on neoliberalism? To what?

On 19 March 2024, Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow chancellor, gave the Mais Lecture at the Bayes business school.

Some reports said Reeves was going to praise the policies of Margaret Thatcher. In fact she didn't. Reeves said of Thatcher’s policies “The outcome was an unprecedented surge in inequality between places and people which endures today [and] the decline or disappearance of whole industries, leaving enduring social and economic costs and hollowing out our industrial strength.”

RCP

Bombastic, “dogmatic instead of critical”

The last sixty years (though not the previous history of Marxist movements) have seen several precedents for the current frenzy of the Socialist Appeal group (about to rename itself Revolutionary Communist Party).

All those essays ended sorrily, but they were nearer realism than the “RCP” today.

Issue 4 (14 March) of The Communist has “theses” claiming that “capitalism is in terminal decline” and “the youth are completely open to radical, revolutionary, and especially communist ideas”.

failed

A strange sort of Big Bang

After privatisation of the railway in the mid-1990s, we were all expecting an almighty bang. That failed to materialise. Or, rather, it did not come in the way we expected.

First there was an almighty shake up of who was in charge day to day. Previously, each section of track work had its own line of management. Permanent Way would have supervisors and managers with a Permanent Way background, Signals and Telecommunications likewise, and so on.

ST

What is Standing Together?

We are a relatively new organisation, but we’re proud of how we organise Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel to influence and change our society.

This is the political context in which we operate — Israeli society is the one we aim to transform. Our activism and grassroots organising is directed towards this goal: talking with people, gaining support for our positions, and activating people politically.

ucu

Defend right to bad posters

On 20 February security staff at Queen Mary University in London, acting under instruction from the management, broke into the offices of the University of College Union (UCU) to remove two posters. One, produced by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, highlighted the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. The other, produced by the UCU, called for a Gaza ceasefire.

green scarfs

Lessons from Mexico

Verónica Cruz Sánchez is the founder of Las Libres, an organisation based in Guanajuato, Mexico, which campaigns for universal access to free, safe and legal abortion. Since 2021, and the repeal of Roe v Wade, Las Libres have been supporting women in the US to access abortions as well.

Verónica spoke to Camila Vergara.

What is Las Libres?

banner

Vote Steve for NUS VPHE

Workers’ Liberty activist Steve Chapman is standing for Vice President Higher Education (VPHE) in the National Union of Students (NUS). Steve’s campaign is an attempt to unite the student left around central demands, to return democracy and action to the NUS, and to connect the student and workers’ movements in the UK, particularly in Higher Education.

Free Education, No Cuts, No Debt

ceasefire

End the war! Peace! Two states!

On the evening of Tuesday 12 March, Israeli snipers shot and killed Rami al-Halhuli, a 13-year-old Palestinian resident of occupied East Jerusalem. The military alleges al-Halhuli had shot fireworks at them. Responding to the killing, far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said: “I salute the fighter who killed the terrorist.”

At least three others, including another minor, were also killed in Israeli military raids.

capital

Our demands and a workers' government

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has responded to Jeremy Hunt’s 6 March budget by saying that things will be difficult under a Labour government and she may “have to” cut public spending.

Hunt made some tax cuts — 2% off national insurance — scooped Labour’s plan to end the “non-domiciled” tax exemption for rich people, and squared it all with the “fiscal rules” by projecting public spending cuts in years ahead. Reeves makes dogma of no tax rises on the rich other than ending a few loopholes. So, “do the math”, as they say...

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.

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