Articles by Roger Thomas, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)

Millions of Americans have benefited from the student loan freeze implemented during the start of the pandemic, and many rightfully demand forgiveness for all student loans. Higher education should be a right, but it’s prohibitively […]

Between Wednesday 27 July and Monday 1st, August national strike action took place in Britain for four days, organised by three trade unions (RMT, Aslef, and CWU) – in defence of their members’ living standards […]

With a 12.9% pay increase and Coventry council agreeing that the bogus charges against Unite the Union’s senior shop steward Pete Randle would not be pursued, Coventry’s HGV drivers have achieved a significant win. This […]

Across the United States, many Americans are increasingly concerned about affordable housing availability within their local communities. According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2021, roughly 50 percent of Americans have said that affordable […]

The 21st century has not brought prosperity and security to the vast majority of people on planet earth. Capitalism, fuelled by the profit motive has led to an ever-spiralling wealth gap between mega-rich multi-billionaires and […]

This summer marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first instalment of what would become Friedrich Engels’ famous pamphlet, The Housing Question. Niall Mulholland looks at this ground-breaking work and explains its relevance […]

In Norway, we see three trade union conflicts that show what happens when workers are treated badly. Two years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw every political party in Norway, including the […]

On Tuesday, July 26, 2022, there was a huge turnout of workers and other protesters in the state capitals across Nigeria for a nationwide protest called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the continued […]

This summer has seen the scandal-ridden Boris Johnson regime collapse. A Tory party leadership contest is seeing the long Tory civil continue to boil over. However, the Tory fratricide is over what weapons to use to brutally […]

Capitalism, the system we live under today, is unequal and undemocratic. It is a class society, based on the exploitation of the working class by a ruling class – the capitalists, a small minority of […]

The heavy military moved into protest areas in Colombo last night and during early Friday morning, clearing out the area of demonstrators. The day before, arrest warrants were issued for student protest leaders. The new […]

Record-breaking temperatures have affected much of Europe and most of the UK, with temperatures exceeding the highest previous temperature by several degrees in Wales and touching 40 degrees in England. Despite health advisers and the […]

Latin America is convulsed in political turmoil and crisis. Throughout the continent, the effects of the Covid pandemic, which compounded the economic and social crisis, have not been overcome. Economic growth and employment have failed […]

Given that the proposal for a new constitution does not mean that we will see substantive changes to the current economic system, and the fundamental problems that the Chilean working class has, this makes adopting […]

The following statement by the International Secretariat (IS) of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), looks at the main trends in the world today – economic, political, environmental, geopolitical and class relations – as […]

The annual Gala has been a feature in Durham almost every year since 1871 – a chance to witness union organisations march for a celebration of workers’ pride. Labour leader Keir Starmer didn’t speak. A […]

The shock waves from the assassination of Abe Shinzo are still resonating across the globe. Members of the political class, both from the most liberal to the most conservative, are singing eulogies to the career […]

Just a day after polls showed that Finland’s public, resigned to but unenthusiastic about NATO membership, overwhelmingly rejected any concessions to Turkey as the price of joining, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö announced an agreement making […]

Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish National Party (SNP)/Scottish Green government recently announced their intention to hold a second independence referendum on 19 October 2023. Socialist Party Scotland (CWI) supports the right to indyref2 and advocates […]

Shock waves from the Ukraine war are being felt across the world. Its impact on food supplies and tourism is shaking the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, all of which had huge problems […]

The 19 June second round of elections to France’s National Assembly – its parliament – marked a new stage in the political situation that shook establishment circles to their core. Just two months after retaining […]

In a major blow to the rich oligarchs and the ruling class in Colombia, the left-wing candidate, Gustavo Petro, won the presidential election, taking 50.5% of the vote to 47.3% for the maverick, right-wing populist, […]

The Trump hearings in Washington reveal devastating details of his attempt to cling to power and carry through what amounted to a coup to overturn the US presidential elections in 2021. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, […]

Tens of thousands will take to the streets of  London on Saturday 18 June as part of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) demonstration on the cost-of-living crisis; the first mass trade union demonstration for many […]

The first round of the legislative elections saw good votes for the left alliance NUPES [New Ecological and Social People’s Union, headed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon] and reaffirmed the support for Mélenchon in last April’s presidential […]

The note of optimism and determination of the declaration issued at the end of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) Second Congress in May will be greeted with a sense both of relief […]

Iran has not been at rest since the beginning of 2022. Amongst the protesters were teachers who, under the leadership of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, led a campaign of protests and […]

There is currently a generation of young workers in Spain who have no idea what “prosperity” means. Those who acquired a consciousness of their surroundings after the 2008 financial crash, which in the Spanish State […]

 In modern society, the term ‘state’ is used in many contexts. People might think of the ‘welfare state’ – the NHS, pensions, benefits, etc. Or they may be familiar with references to ‘state intervention’, for […]

The problems of the airline industry predate the pandemic and stretch back to privatisation in the 1980s. In the post-war period, governments invested billions in the creation of the worldwide airline industry. This investment was […]

The Scottish National Party/Scottish Green government’s spending review for the next five years has set in stone a regime of brutal cuts to jobs and public services. It is also a declaration of war on […]

In the absence of a genuine mass workers’ political alternative, it is now beyond doubt that the 2023 general elections in Nigeria will be dominated by two old, virulently anti-worker, anti-poor, and incurably corrupt presidential […]

One hundred and forty-eight Tory MPs have finally moved against UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. It is not growing poverty, soaring energy bills, or Johnson’s endless parties and lies that have pushed them to act: […]

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) condemns the tragic attack on St. Francis Catholic Church Owo, Ondo State by yet-to-be-identified gunmen on Sunday 5 June 2022. We join Nigerians to mourn the scores who died while […]

The temperature of the class struggle is rising. 2022 has already seen a whole number of strikes in mining, metal, manufacturing, on farms, and in the public sector. Some have been brief skirmishes as workers […]

The Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) was established in 1968 in Britain. At its inception it was a secret unit of undercover police officers created to infiltrate, monitor and record the activities of the Vietnam Solidarity […]

According to the Roman poet Juvenal, the ancient Roman emperors aimed to placate their subjects with “bread and circuses”. It would seem that the capitalist class in Britain is hoping for a similar effect with […]

Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak’s screeching windfall tax U-turn was a vain attempt to cut across growing anger at falling living standards, and the mass protests that could result. As even the right-wing Sunday Times pointed […]

The world has changed since the war in Ukraine began. Like the coronavirus – which not only shut down the world but also accelerated profound changes in economic, political and social relations – the war […]

More food is being produced than ever before, yet world hunger has been rising since 2015 and is now back to its 2005 level of 811 million malnourished people. Nobody should go hungry. But capitalism […]

Following a prolonged illness, comrade Segun Sango died on the evening of Monday 23rd May 2022, at the age of 64, leaving behind a wife, children, and an aged mother, among other family members. Born […]

The backdrop of the Australian Federal Elections were two issues; climate change and falling living standards. Australia has had a continued growth rate for the past 30 years, mainly on the back of mineral exports […]

Workers organized in Finnish unions OAJ and JHL, and several smaller unions, concluded a nationwide rolling strike action with a week-long strike that closed schools and disrupted municipal services across the country from 3 to […]

In a landslide victory, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., better known as Bong Bong Marcos or simply BBM, is to become the new president of the Philippines in late May. The son and namesake of the infamous […]

On 15th May, Lebanese voters went to the polls in one of the strangest elections in recent years. The unprecedented social collapse in Lebanon over the last few years was the background to this election. […]

The Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) congress took place from 14 to 16 May in London – the first since February 2020 because of Covid. Congress is the most important democratic decision-making body of […]

The Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) joins members of the public to condemn the brutal and gruesome killing on Thursday 12 May 2022 of Ms. Deborah Samuel, a second year student at Shehu Shagari College of […]

The results of the Northern Ireland Assembly election on May 5th mark a significant political turning point. For the first time since the partition of Ireland in 1921, a nationalist party has emerged with the […]