Solidarity 524, 6 November 2019

Rail union RMT has called strikes on Virgin Trains, West Midlands Trains, and South Western Railway (SWR). On the latter, the union has named a calendar of strikes throughout November and December, which will see walkouts on 16, 23, and 30 November, and 7, 14, 21, and 28 December. West Midlands Trains is the latest Train Operating Company to see its workers plan industrial action over the imposition of Driver Only Operation (DOO). On Virgin Trains, train managers, a grade of customer-facing train crew, on the West Coast franchise will strike on 19 November to demand the reinstatement of an...

PCS members at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will strike again on 7, 8, 11, and 12 November. These are members working in facilities management, employed by outsourced contractor Interserve. We want Interserve to meet certain demands, including recognising the union; guaranteeing company sick pay; and reversing cuts in hours, but ultimately we want these workers to be employed directly on the same terms and conditions as all other civil servants. We are also working closely with the United Voices of the World union, which has members in the Ministry of Justice and Royal Parks, which are...

The word “socialism” has been used by all sorts of people to mean all sorts of things. Like “democracy”. That’s really because (like democracy) socialism is such a good idea that all sorts of political tricksters and frauds have wanted to lay claim to it. William Morris was famous as a designer, but also an active socialist. Over 130 years ago, at the time when socialism was first becoming a stable and organised movement, he summed up how he understood it. “What I mean by socialism is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor servant, neither...