Poverty and inequality

Let the super-paid managers "flee". Fellow-workers, elected by and accountable to their workmates, can do the managing and organising work better, and at workers' wages.

In one of the first moves in his post, Luxembourg’s new Interior Minister Leon Gloden overturned his predecessor’s refusal and stamped his approval on outlawing begging: The law criminalises begging between 7am and 10pm in major shopping streets, common areas, and parks in the capital. Bordering France, Belgium, and Germany, the small country’s status as a wealthy tax haven often overshadows its societal problems such as housing. The law cracks down not only on undefined “aggressive or organised” begging, but extends to “all forms of begging”. Penalties range from 25 euros to 250 euros fines...

“The deathblow to money fetishism”, wrote Trotsky, “will be struck only upon that stage when the steady growth of social wealth has made us bipeds forget our miserly attitude toward every excess minute of labour, and our humiliating fear about the size of our ration. Having lost its ability to bring happiness or trample people in the dust, money will turn into mere bookkeeping receipts for the convenience of statisticians”. Then, he explained, “the distribution of life’s goods, existing in continual abundance, will not demand — as it does not now in any well-off family or ‘decent’ boarding...

Original A photograph from Beyazıt Square. Once you have seen this photo, you will never forget it. Gallows lined up behind each other, bodies in white shirts swinging from the rope with white placards hung about their necks. What the black and white photograph doesn’t show are the lush green trees in the background, and the revolutionaries who met death with sang-froid, sacrificing their lives for the cause they believed in. The date was June 15 1915. The history of 1915 has a lot to teach those who study history: of pain, hunger, exile, and massacres, especially in these lands. April 24 1915...

On 16 and 17 January, the Tories could lose Commons votes on their Bill trying to save their “send them to Rwanda” asylum policy. Even if they win, they have a battle to work the bIll, which tries to instruct courts Rwanda must be reckoned safe even if it is not. From 30 January, train drivers are striking. As yet, the government and the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) hesitate about deploying the new Minimum Service Law, which allows for the TOCs to issue “work notices” instructing drivers to turn up sufficiently for 40% service, and to get the whole strike ruled unlawful unless the union...

At 1pm on 4 January, CEOs of the FTSE 100 top firms had already pocketed more than the middling (median) UK wage for the whole year. According to the High Pay Centre those CEOs are now on an average of £3.81 million a year, and their year-on-year rise at 9.5%, while the middling wage has gone up 6%. Broadening out to bosses at smaller firms, and near-top managers at big firms, the top 1% of UK full-timers are on £145,000 or upwards, and will have overtaken the annual pay of the median full-time worker by 29 March. This inequality is increasing, despite sizeable recent increases in the minimum...

Tens of thousands of women and non-binary people in Iceland took part in the “kvennafrí”, a 24 hour women’s strike over the gender pay gap and gender-based violence on 24 October. The day was the first full-day women’s strike since 1975. Strike organiser called for protection for migrant workers. Around 22% of the female workforce is foreign-born, according to Statistics Iceland, and they work disproportionately more hours for lower pay Iceland has been ranked the best country in the world for gender equality by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for 14 years. Gender inequality still exists, with...

About 3.8 million people, around 1.8 million households, in the UK were “destitute” in the UK at some point in 2022, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. They included a million children. Children in destitution increased 2.5 times between 2017 and 2022; households, doubled. The report’s definitions aim to identify the “destitute” as “people who cannot afford what they need to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed”, and so skip meals or rely on food banks and charities. The latest figures include more households with children, but the...

Activists from Workers' Liberty and supporters of Solidarity will be at Labour Party conference and women's conference, 7-11 October in Liverpool. We'll be there to help the efforts of Free Our Unions, the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, India Labour Solidarity, and other campaigns; to sell literature, seek discussions and contacts. There will be demonstrations for the NHS and for abortion rights on Saturday, for free education on Sunday. And agitation for a block on new North Sea oil and gas fields, following the Tories' decision to "max out" licences in...

£30 billion each year of extra social spending could be covered just by taxing unearned income at the same rates as wages