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NUT unanimously backs pension strike in March

Statistics watchdog raps Tories over immigration spin

'Who got the power? We got the power!' say strikers at Montgomery school

A year on from the Egyptian Revolution: Socialist Worker editor reports from Tahrir Square

Egypt's Revolutionary Socialists: We want to expose the lies of the elites

Preparing for the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt

Topics

Egypt

Stephen Lawrence

N30 strikes

Occupy movement

Greece

Full topic list

<span class='black'> (Pic: <a href='http://www.timonline.info'>Tim Sanders</a>)</span>

Stories by union

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Current issue: 2287 dated: 28 January 2012

Bankers are the real scroungers

David Cameron is trying to steal hundreds of millions of pounds from people who receive benefits—but he doesn’t mind giving handouts to his banker pals

Highlights

A year on from the Egyptian Revolution: Socialist Worker editor reports from Tahrir Square online only

Socialist Worker editor Judith Orr reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo a year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak

Ahdaf Soueif interview: ‘Bread, freedom and dignity’

Ahdaf talked to Judith Orr about the struggles in Egypt, the subject of her new book, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution

Pensions dispute - deadlock broken as more action called

Important shifts in the battle against Tory attacks on public sector pensions took place last week

Union heads slam Miliband and Balls

The leaders of Britain’s three largest unions last week denounced Labour’s Ed Miliband and Ed Balls for supporting the Tory austerity agenda

Unions join forces for Unilever strike

Workers at factories and offices across England and Wales have been walking out this week against attacks on their pensions from consumer goods giant Unilever

London N30 march and speeches

50,000 strikers and their supporters march through central London, to rally addressed by Mark Serwotka, Len McLuskey and others

Remaking history - understanding the revolutionary wave of 2011

On the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution, Alex Callinicos looks at how to understand the revolutionary wave—and the potential for it to go much further

Full contents

News

Pensions dispute - deadlock broken as more action called

Important shifts in the battle against Tory attacks on public sector pensions took place last week

UCU names next strike day

The UCU union’s national executive committee (NEC) met last Friday

Union heads slam Miliband and Balls

The leaders of Britain’s three largest unions last week denounced Labour’s Ed Miliband and Ed Balls for supporting the Tory austerity agenda

Tories to plunge thousands of children into poverty...

The Tories suffered another setback to their brutal Welfare Reform Bill this Monday

Unions join forces for Unilever strike

Workers at factories and offices across England and Wales have been walking out this week against attacks on their pensions from consumer goods giant Unilever

Setback for Gove over forced academy plans

Schools minister Michael Gove has retreated on plans to force a north London primary school to become a privatised academy

Tory hard right hatchet men target trade union reps

A cabal of hard right Tories is at the centre of attempts to witch‑hunt trade union reps for doing their job

NHS workers ordered to leave their homes

Hundreds of low paid NHS workers at Guy’s and St Thomas’s trust in London have been told to leave their subsidised accommodation with just three months’ notice

Opposition grows to NHS privatisation plans

Government plans to outsource NHS commissioning hit obstacles on Tuesday of this week

Cops knew Milly’s phone was hacked

Surrey Police knew for nine years that the News of the World hacked the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler

Blow dealt to internet censorship plan

Attempts by US lawmakers to restrict internet freedom have been postponed after high profile opposition

Refugees’ last minute reprieve

Campaigners won a last minute stay of deportation for two Cameroonian asylum seekers last week

Dale Farm faces further threats

Tory-run Basildon council has stepped up its campaign against Travellers at the Dale Farm site in Essex

Higher education attacks in doubt

The government is planning a major climb down in its assault on higher education, according to reports circulating as Socialist Worker went to press

Bristol activists call meetings to build the fight

Union activists in Bristol are busy building a public meeting on the pensions dispute

What's wrong with academies?

Academies transfer huge amounts of wealth from the public to private sector

'Equitable' Unilever boss rakes it in

Unilever’s chief executive Paul Polman likes to present himself as a champion of “equitable capitalism”

Public sector solidarity for Unilever strikers

There was a warm reception for the public sector workers who visited the Colman’s mustard picket lines in Norwich on Tuesday

Unilever - a turn to targeted tactics

Union tactics at Unilever have changed since the December national strike

Victory as Wandsworth council folds over riot eviction threat

Tory-run Wandsworth council in south London has backed off from its plans to evict a family from their council home over the riots

National Gallery workers walk out in dispute over staffing levels

Workers at the National Gallery in London walked out for two hours today (Thursday) to demand that the gallery hires more staff

Death in custody campaigns unite to launch petition for justice

Campaigns demanding justice for those who have died in police custody join forces today to launch a petition calling for major changes in the criminal justice system

Protesters celebrate as Nadine Dorries withdraws abstinence bill

A 100-strong protest at parliament turned into a celebration this morning, Friday, after Tory MP Nadine Dorries withdrew her abstinence bill

Employment tribunal rules against rights for blacklisted agency workers

The multinational construction company Carillion won an employment tribunal (ET) today, Friday, against a blacklisted worker

Egypt's Revolutionary Socialists: We want to expose the lies of the elites online only

Mohammed, the editor of the Revolutionary Socialists' weekly paper, talks to Judith Orr in Cairo

A year on from the Egyptian Revolution: Socialist Worker editor reports from Tahrir Square online only

Socialist Worker editor Judith Orr reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo a year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak

'Who got the power? We got the power!' say strikers at Montgomery school online only

Around 100 people joined a picket line at Montgomery Primary School in Birmingham today, Wednesday

Statistics watchdog raps Tories over immigration spin online only

The government’s statistics watchdog has attacked ministers for releasing lurid figures last week suggesting some 370,000 migrants are claiming benefits

NUT unanimously backs pension strike in March online only

The NUT teachers’ union has agreed to push for a coordinated, national public sector strike in March

Editorial

Tories relish the attacks on the poor: Bankers are the real scroungers

David Cameron is trying to steal hundreds of millions of pounds from people who receive benefits—but he doesn’t mind giving handouts to his banker pals

Racist myths are attempt to shift blame from real con artists

Usually we hear that immigrants are taking all our jobs

Who says?

Who says?

our round-up of the week's quotes

Cartoons

Tim: Dysfunctional family

Tim's view

International

Workers protests rattle European leaders

Governments across Europe are set on imposing cuts that will wreck lives, slash jobs and destroy services

Greece: a new wave of fightback

Workers in Greece’s Attica region, which includes Athens, are fighting austerity

Brutal slum eviction in Brazil

More than 2,000 police forcibly evicted residents of the Pinheirinho slum district of Sao Jose dos Campos near Sao Paulo, Brazil, early last Sunday morning

Ethnic division in Nigeria can be overcome by spirit of solidarity shown during strikes

The West African state of Nigeria was shaken by a series of bomb explosions on Friday of last week

Civil servants strike in Zimbabwe

Civil service workers across Zimbabwe began a five-day strike on Monday, demanding a doubling of wages

No to West’s threats to Iran

The European Union (EU) implemented a ban on all new oil contacts with Iran this week, and ruled that any existing ones will be terminated in July

Arab League's Syria mission crisis

A deadlock is developing in Syria as the Gulf Cooperation Council and Saudi Arabia withdrew their observers from the Arab League mission to the country

US marine pleads guilty over Haditha killings - faces three months imprisonment

A US marine has pled guilty to a charge of “dereliction of duty” in relation to the massacre in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005

Comment

Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: Was 2011 the year of Revolution 2.0?

Paul Mason’s new book misreads the impact of technology on political struggle, writes Simon Basketter

Don't leave Unison: stay and fight to get the action put back on

The fallout from the unions’ response to the government’s “heads of agreement” on pensions is still being felt

Labour’s betrayal is nothing new

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have said that Labour must prove itself as a “responsible opposition” by accepting wage freezes and pay cuts

Preparing for the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt online only

Socialist Worker editor Judith Orr returned to Cairo for the anniversary celebrations

Features

Ahdaf Soueif interview: ‘Bread, freedom and dignity’

Ahdaf talked to Judith Orr about the struggles in Egypt, the subject of her new book, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution

Timeline of the Egyptian Recolution

The Egyptian Revolution did not come out of thin air

Remaking history - understanding the revolutionary wave of 2011

On the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution, Alex Callinicos looks at how to understand the revolutionary wave—and the potential for it to go much further

Letters

Letters

Benefit process makes disabled people sick | US did not win in Iraq | The rich are waging war with US piracy act | Socialists unite for Scottish independence | Press ignored Nigeria strike | Bread and Roses strike was inspiring | Killing royals no joke | Capitalism can’t be moral | Labour won’t get my money | We can make a revolution | Our tradition of anti-racism | Our tradition of anti-racism

Reviews

Coriolanus: Shakespeare tragedy puts masses on stage

War, class arrogance and popular discontent are at the core of Coriolanus, writes Gareth Jenkins

Alienation: A small book that makes a big idea simple to grasp

This short book is a welcome addition to the reading list for those, like me, who are relatively new to the socialist tradition

Big Society!

Comedian Phill Jupitus has joined left wing theatre company Red Ladder for a timely attack on David Cameron’s “big society”

Robin Hood: People’s Outlaw and Forest Hero

Why does a mythical hero from 14th century England still inspire Hollywood movies, BBC dramas and even financial transaction taxes?

Massobs—Project One

This website provides “mass observations” of everyday life filmed by groups of postgraduate students from Coventry University

News & Reports

Mark Campbell: My vision for a fighting UCU union

We interview Mark Campbell, the left candidate in the election for UCU general secretary

Build for a national electricians’ walkout

Electricians protested in Glasgow, Manchester and London last week

Week of strikes by oil tanker drivers

Around 70 oil tanker drivers and their supporters rallied outside the Immingham oil terminal on Tuesday morning

BBC Birmingham workers strike against job cuts

Around 100 angry BBC workers at Mailbox Birmingham began a 24-hour strike on Wednesday of last week

Special conference to discuss USS pensions

Lecturers in the UCU union were set to gather in London for a special delegate conference this coming Tuesday to discuss their pensions dispute

Barnsley drivers’ mass meeting calls more strikes

Bus drivers in South Yorkshire held a mass meeting last Sunday to discuss the next steps in their pay dispute with their employer Stagecoach

Still striking over pay in Southampton

Southampton council workers are planning to strike again—more than a year after the start of their battle over imposed pay cuts

Privatisation plan beaten in Edinburgh

A special meeting of councillors in Edinburgh last Thursday voted by 31 to 23 to end plans to privatise a swathe of council services

On strike against forced academies

Three unions were set to strike together on Wednesday of this week at Birmingham’s Montgomery primary school

Unanimous vote to end dispute at Fujitsu

Unite union members at the Manchester site of IT giant Fujitsu have unanimously voted to accept an offer to settle their long-running dispute

Leicester unites against racist EDL

People from across Leicester joined a public meeting to organise opposition to the English Defence League (EDL) last Saturday

Protest at Wandsworth prison

The Defend the Right to Protest campaign has called a demonstration outside Wandsworth prison in solidarity with those inside

A new trades council launched for Fenlands

Over 70 people attended a public meeting to relaunch Fenlands trades council in Cambridgeshire last Saturday

RMT suspends Glasgow action

The RMT union has suspended strikes by rail signalling workers in Glasgow in advance of talks with the Acas conciliation service

Pay and conditions under attack at Stoke council

Unison union members in Stoke-on-Trent held two mass meetings last week over the council’s plans to cut their weekend pay and mileage allowances

Lobby against cuts to adult social care in Norfolk

The Unison union lobbied Norfolk council together with anti-cuts campaigners on Monday against plans to slash adult social care services

Occupy London and the courts online only

Occupy London activists are currently involved in two ongoing legal processes

Strike ballot on Heathrow Express over victimisation

The RMT is balloting for strikes on the Heathrow Express train service over the unfair dismissal of driver Zahid Majid and the victimisation of RMT rep Liaqat Ali

PCS executive meets to discuss strikes

The PCS executive met last Thursday and reiterated the need for more coordinated national strikes before the end of March

Meetings and events

Meetings and events

SWP public meetings | SWP branch meetings | Movement events

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