Britain

This year’s National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference takes place at a crucial stage, as Boris Johnson’s Tory government reels from one crisis to another. The RMT rail strike has acted as a lightning rod, […]

During the Covid crisis the combined wealth of the billionaires in the UK rose 21.7% to £597 billion. Yet the Tory government and capitalist media complain about workers on the railways fighting for an increase […]

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 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 […]

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: […]

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 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 […]

March 17th 2022 will now always be synonymous with P&O as far as trade union activists are concerned, with the vicious assault on the workers’ jobs and contracts carried out on that day. The company […]

£40 billion. That’s the eye-watering sum oil giants BP and Shell are set to make this year alone. A year that has seen a dire cost-of-living crisis hit the working class so significantly that over […]

On local elections day, 5 May, none of the main parties offered any escape from the escalating, unrelenting cost-of-living crisis. No surprise then that the turnout was low. Those who did vote gave a snapshot […]

Two weeks ago, the editorial of the Socialist commented on the fines given to Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and other MPs for breaking their own Covid rules, and on the blatant tax avoidance of Sunak’s family. We […]

The Socialist Party (C WI England & Wales) is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), an anti-austerity electoral alliance, including the RMT transport union. TUSC will be standing hundreds of candidates in […]

Two months ago, there was a rising pile of ‘no-confidence’ letters in Prime Minister Boris Johnson from Tory MPs. Shaken by the Downing Street ‘partygate’ revelations, those MPs felt they had to echo public disgust […]

This year, 2022, is predicted to see the biggest fall in living standards in the UK since 1956. Inflation, according to the Retail Price Index, is already at 8.2% and is expected to rise further […]

Just as Gate Gourmet workers were dismissed by megaphone 17 years ago, the cold brutality of the bosses was shown by P&O ferry company last Thursday when they sacked 800 of their employees by Zoom. […]

The London tube strike in London got off to a solid start on 1 March as workers in the The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) on the Underground in all grades […]

The National Union of Students (NUS) in Britain has called a national student strike on 2 March in response to growing anger at our rotten university system – one in which students are exploited as […]

While bad weather batters Britain, another storm is raging. A growing number of workers are taking action as the cost of living squeeze tightens. This is the most significant strike wave for over a decade. […]

The strike wave that has developed in Britain during the last few months of 2021 is growing in 2022. It has claimed significant victories for workers. The stored-up anger that has developed through the Covid […]

Every day Boris Johnson and his government are more and more mired in scandal. As we go to press the findings of the inquiry into ‘Partygate’ revelations have not yet been made public and are […]

The Covid pandemic and its effects have deepened an already existing social crisis. Ravaged by years of cuts and privatisation, public services have been unable to meet the needs of working-class communities. In a period […]

Transport union RMT members working for London Underground have voted overwhelmingly for strike action to defend jobs, conditions, and our pensions. RMT balloted over 10,000 members on London Underground, getting a 94% yes vote for […]

The future of Boris Johnson’s prime ministership appears to be hanging by a thinner and thinner thread. The revelations of Downing Street parties in 2020 as millions suffered during the pandemic – against a backdrop […]

On New Year’s Eve, Buckingham Palace announced that former Labour prime minister Tony Blair would be rewarded with the Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter by the Queen. Should we be […]

Tony Blair has joined current British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in being knighted – rewarded for his services to the bosses’ establishment. The former Labour prime minister, who was in office between 1997 and […]

“One more strike and he’s out”, declared longstanding Tory MP Roger Gale in the wake of the kicking his party got from voters in the Shropshire North byelection, previously held by the Tories for almost […]

The decision of the British High Court to grant the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States criminalises journalism and is a blow to human rights. The Court granted a US government appeal against […]

As local authorities begin discussing their spending plans for 2022-2023, which they will finally agree on at budget-setting meetings in February or March, we can already see the scale of cuts that are being prepared. […]

The proportion of voters, 63%, who think that capitalist politicians “are just in it for themselves” is at its highest since the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009. No wonder. The money-grubbing approach of many MPs […]

Socialism 2021, a weekend event of debates and discussion in London organised by the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales), brimmed with determination. Determination to overcome the obstacles of time, resources, technical hitches, and the […]

The victory of Sharon Graham as general secretary of Unite, amongst the biggest trade unions in the UK and Ireland and undoubtedly the most influential industrially and politically, has struck the labour movement as a […]

A combination of the rising cost of living, low pay, tax increases, and fuel and food shortages has led some commentators in the British establishment media to talk about the possibility of a new ‘winter […]

In September, the Tory government in Britain briefly dipped below Labour in opinion polls, as workers faced a winter of Tory rule featuring pay restraint, soaring prices, tax hikes and shortages. Boris Johnson’s Tory Party […]

“The decision taken by delegates who predominantly live in what’s regarded as Labour red wall seats shows how far the Labour Party has travelled away from the aims and hopes of working-class organisations like ours”. […]

The person who said New Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” is now intensely happy about the results of this year’s Labour Party conference. Architect of Blairism, Lord Peter Mandelson, is “just […]

In addressing TUC Congress, Sir Keir Starmer claimed that “Labour will always stand with the unions”, standing “shoulder to shoulder” with them over vicious attacks such as ‘fire and rehire’. But the reality is very […]

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) rallies and lobbies of the TUC Congress have been an annual fixture since the first in 2010. They have become the most important pre-Congress event, reflecting the demands of […]

On 11 September 2001 the infamous 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on US soil prompted the then US president George W Bush and British PM Tony Blair to instigate a Western military invasion and occupation of […]

CHRISTINE THOMAS reviews a recent book by FT journalist Philip Stephens charting the post-war demise of British capitalism – and the despair of the class he represents at its prospects post-Brexit, in a crisis-ridden international […]

Sharon Graham has won the Unite general secretary election. Her success is being celebrated by many members who saw her left candidature as the most likely to build and organise the union industrially as workers […]

The nationality and borders bill has had its second reading in the UK’s parliament. Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said that this bill will give British people control back over borders and that the Tories’ priorities […]

The news that Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) has proscribed, aka expelled, a number of left-leaning groups that have clung desperately onto the Labour Party came as little surprise. Since the resignation of Corbyn, and […]

Paul Heron looks at the recent victory in the battle for justice for the Shrewsbury pickets. This was a landmark case from the 1970s in Britain – of political policing against the working class movement.  […]

Labour managed to narrowly hold onto to Batley and Spen in the parliamentary by-election on 1 July, scraping in by 323 votes. The Labour leadership is sighing with relief. In reality, however, this result is […]

The NHS protests around the country on 3 July should be the start of building a mass campaign for decent pay and to save the NHS. Well over a million people work in the NHS. […]

In April of this year, the Ministry of Justice released a report responding to the ‘growing mental health crisis’ for women in prison. It revealed that there was a 13% rise in the number of […]

Up to 200 striking workers, trade union reps, campaigners and socialists met virtually on 20 June as the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) held its 2021 summer conference. The NSSN conference is the biggest annual […]