Rail strikes stopped travel in the Finnish capital area on 18-19 March and again on 9 April, as conductors stopped work in separate protests over potential job cuts and imposition of worse working conditions. Tero […]
Images of young people rioting in Belfast and elsewhere, countered by police using water cannon, conjured up scenes from the period of the ‘Troubles’. From the point of view of international audiences, Northern Ireland appears […]
Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, launched the party’s campaign for the May local and mayoral elections in England on March 11 by majoring on Boris Johnson’s plan for a 1% rise-but-real-terms-pay-cut for nurses and other […]
April 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the riots in Brixton, south London, against police racism, unemployment, and poverty. Today, the report from the Tory government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities dismisses systemic racism […]
The report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has concluded that claims of institutional racism are “not borne out” and that the UK should be seen as “a model for other white-majority countries”. […]
The recent Revolutionary Internationalist Socialist and Environmentalist (RISE) and People Before Profit (PBP) merger in Ireland attracted media attention. People Before Profit now has four TDs [members of Dail – the Irish parliament], one Member […]
On 27 and 28 March, the Socialist Party’s national committee met to discuss political developments in Britain and the tasks of the Socialist Party in the coming months. While the Covid pandemic continues to ravage […]
On 23 March, the Court of Appeal exonerated my clients Ricky Tomlinson, Arthur Murray and the ‘Shrewsbury 24.’ They were trade unionists arrested for their involvement in the 1972 national builders’ strike. In 1973, Ricky […]
It took a vote in Westminster in 2019, initiated by right-wing backbench Labour MP Stella Creasy and backed by virtually all the right-wing parties in that chamber, to vindicate the rights of women in Northern […]
The launch of a new pro-independence political party – Alba – by former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Alex Salmond has dominated the news agenda over the last few days. It comes in the immediate […]
The coming Scottish Parliament elections are poised to open up a new crisis for the Tory Boris Johnson government at Westminster, with the break-up of the United Kingdom a possible ultimate outcome. In edited extracts […]
The British Tory government’s ‘factsheet’ on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill explains that it will “strengthen police powers to tackle non-violent protests that have a significant disruptive effect on the public or on […]
The challenge to the London Metropolitan Police’s ban on a vigil in the memory of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and murdered last week, was rejected in the high court on Friday 12 March. The […]
Grief, shock and an outpouring of anger have been unleashed by the appalling abduction and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, earlier this week. Her killing has shone a spotlight on the extent of violence, […]
The first UK death from Covid-19 was recorded on 2 March 2020. Twelve months and over 120,000 deaths later, most people have been through greater upheavals than since the second world war. The UK has […]
Weeks of protests against the jailing of rapper Pablo Hasél have rocked Catalonia and other parts of the Spanish state, becoming a lightning rod for the anger of a generation whose lives have hit a […]
The Scotland National Party’s (SNP) internal warfare has dominated the political and press agenda in Scotland over recent days. A parliamentary committee of enquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against former […]
Two members of the Socialist Organisation Solidarity (CWI Germany) and two other left activists are on trial in Lemgo, Germany. They are facing accusations by State Security (the police department for “fighting against politically motivated […]
Finland’s government made the surprise announcement of a new lockdown on 25 February in response to spiking rates of COVID infections in the capital region and the dominance in that part of the country of […]
On Saturday 20 February, the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) conference agreed on an election manifesto for the Scottish elections, set to be held in May 2021. More than 40 attendees from around […]
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s speech, supposedly setting out his vision for Britain, did nothing to counter the criticism that he is dull. It contained virtually no policy proposals. Nonetheless, it played another role, more […]
On 14 February, the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) hosted its fifth online meeting of workplace trade union reps and workers during the pandemic. NSSN chair Rob Williams introduced the meeting explaining: “This is a […]
The impending explosive struggle over the right to indyref2 [a second referendum on independence for Scotland] is dominating the outlook of all classes and political tendencies in society. There are widening divisions, both inside the […]
This Land – The Story of a Movement, by Owen Jones, is an important account of the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn, his army of supporters, and his colossal effect on the labour movement. […]
The government’s inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in London, on June 2017, in which 72 people died, has resumed. The inquiry has been agonising for the survivors and bereaved. Fire safety problems are […]
Over 550 attended the online conference of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) on 7 February in preparation for the local elections in May. Dave Nellist, TUSC national spokesperson, was in the chair. He […]
The Covid-19 pandemic ripping out of control was the background to Portugal’s Presidential elections on 24th January. The winner was right-wing incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as the far-right gained and the left was punished […]
Young people in Germany have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the unfolding economic crisis. For young socialists, these are key issues around which to organise resistance against the various shortcomings of the […]
The Tories have made yet another U-turn. This time over their proposed review of employment laws and regulations post-Brexit. The 12 Labour Party-affiliated unions had issued a statement on ‘the Tory threat to our workplace […]
The European Commission has been forced into a humiliating climb-down following its attempts to control exports of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which threatened a ‘vaccine hard border’ in Ireland. The EU’s threat to stop vaccines […]
On 20 August, last year, seasoned anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny became seriously ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, quickly falling into a coma. The plane made an emergency landing and four days later […]
The Scottish National Party (SNP)-led government’s latest ‘road map’ towards a second independence referendum for Scotland has been unveiled. Boris Johnson’s Westminster government has also launched a five-step plan to save the union. Battle lines […]
Northern Ireland is the only region in the UK where the water service has not yet been privatised. That fact largely reflects the strong campaign fought by the trade union movement, in many cases led […]
With Trump gone, capitalist governments worldwide are queuing up to establish friendly relations with Joe Biden, the new US president. While it is a bit awkward for Boris Johnson, who was once described by Biden […]
Mass anti-government demonstrations across Russia last Saturday, 23 January, saw tens of thousands of protesters on the streets, confronting the brutal forces of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial regime. There were mass protests in at least 65 […]
The government of Mark Rutte has collapsed in shame and scandal as anger has risen against its persecution of the poor and immigrants. Economic affairs and climate minister, Eric Wiebes, resigned, as has the leader […]
The resignation of the nominally left Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard will, in all likelihood, result in the Blairites winning back the leadership of the party in Scotland. Anas Sarwar, the right-wing MSP and millionaire […]
Finland has, for the third year in a row, been declared the happiest country in the world in the “World Happiness Report.” Strong unions and a strong welfare state contribute to this ranking, but these […]
As 2020 came to a close, the Swedish health care system reached a point many feared. Nurses in Sweden’s hospitals, strained from months of 13-hour shifts and with no end in sight to the rampant […]
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, won a partial victory in his long battle to avoid extradition from Britain to the US. District Judge Baraister, at the Old Bailey court, ruled earlier this week against Assange’s […]
George Nkencho, a 27-year-old Black man, was killed by the Gardaí (Irish police) outside his home in Blanchardstown, a suburb of Dublin, on 30 December 2020. The shooting followed an altercation at a local shop […]
We can’t believe a word this Tory government says. We can’t trust a thing it does. Going into lockdown 3, working-class people can only rely on our own strength and organisation. This is the lesson […]
Eighteen months after the Scottish National Party government declared a public health emergency to tackle shocking drug deaths in Scotland, new figures for 2019, released at the end of 2020, show record levels of people […]
The world was united in misery in 2020. Too many deaths from the pandemic, job losses, pay cuts and poverty were the experience in virtually every country on the planet. Britain, as the year ends, […]
Earlier this year, publishers Pluto Press released a new book looking back at the defeat of Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax – ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: The Fight to Stop the Poll Tax’ by Simon Hannah. […]
Almost six years after it was set up, the first phase of the Undercover Policing Inquiry – the Mitting Inquiry – finally took place for fourteen days from 2 November 2020. An opening statement to […]
In any battle, the tactical details and their timing always have an element of the accidental and unexpected in them. Keir Starmer’s suspension of Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party on October 29 and – […]
The trade union of former Debenhams workers in Ireland, Mandate, has been engaged in extensive talks with the liquidator, KPMG, and the Irish government, over the last number of weeks. The same day as the […]
The recent bloody war between Azerbaijan and Armenia has taken a savage toll in terms of lives, homes and livelihoods. The latest round of brutal fighting between these former republics of the USSR has seen […]
It is surely the bitterest of ironies that a mere ten years after the arrival of the Troika in Ireland on 28 November 2010, Irish society faces yet another profound economic crisis. While it remains […]
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