Solidarity 414, 31 August 2016

47% of 2015 graduates were, by February-March 2016, back living with their parents. A survey by the National Union of Students of the first generation of students to pay £9,000 fees showed that only 52% were in full-time jobs. Of those who had jobs, full or part time, only 58% were on permanent contracts. 3% were working as unpaid interns or volunteers. Students in medicine and education almost all had jobs, but among creative-arts graduates, only 42% had full-time jobs. Three times as many full-time working men as women graduates were earning over £30,000 and twice as many women as men were...

As we goes to press we await the announcement of further industrial action by junior doctors. Throughout the last year they have at the forefront of exposing the Government’s desire to asset strip the NHS. Now leaked documents from the Department of Health have vindicated their fight; these documents show how disastrous the government’s plans for the NHS really are. During a year long campaign and eight days of industrial action junior doctors shouted loudly that the plan for a seven-day NHS was not safe or even unachiveable. These Department of Health documents say there has been lack of...

Chemical weapons have been used by both Daesh and (on a much bigger scale) the Assad government in the Syrian civil war. The verdict is from a final report by the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) of the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Syrian government promised in 2013 to give up its chemical weapons under a deal negotiated by the Russian government, but has continued to use them. The committee recorded four uses of VX nerve gas, 13 uses of sarin, 12 of mustard gas, 41 of chlorine and 61 of other chemical agents, and named Daesh as having...

70,000 households will face a rent rise of over £1,000 a year from next April, imposed by the government. The Housing Act, passed into law last year, forces councils to levy 15p extra rent for every £1 a household’s income is above £31,000, or £40,000 in London. It defines every household with two earners on £15,500, or £20,000 in London, as “high income”. That affects 9.3% of all council households in the south-east. According to research commissioned by the local authorities’ umbrella group, the LGA, average monthly rent rises will be £72 outside London and £132 inside. Councils are already...

On 26 August, the Supreme Court of France ruled against bans on the “burkini” by some south-of-France municipalities. The ruling was greeted with relief by women, by Muslims (including those opposed to religiously-imposed dress rules for women), and for the millions of women and men outraged by seeing four armed policemen on the beach of Nice publicly humiliate a Muslim woman in a burkini. The Court concluded that the ban is a “serious and illegal violation of basic freedoms”, and that local authorities may take such measures only if the burkini is a “proven risk to public order”. The “burkini...

It appears I've been expelled from the Labour Party... again. I first joined the party in 2006, and was a member continuously until almost exactly a year ago when I was summarily expelled. I was formally reinstated a few months later, and have been active member ever since. Until now. Like the last time, I wasn't directly informed of my expulsion. I only found out when, beginning to wonder about the whereabouts of my ballot papers for the leadership election, I rang the party and was informed that my membership had been "cancelled", and that a letter would be on its way to me at some point. As...

Christine Shawcroft, who was recently re-elected to Labour's National Executive Committee, spoke to Solidarity in a personal capacity. What difference will the victory for the left slate for Labour's National Executive make? When we won the decision to put Jeremy Corbyn on the leadership ballot paper the left won by four votes. The election makes a difference of two votes, and so some decisions will now not be so tight. What are your priorities on the NEC? We need to take a good look at the Party’s democratic structures – candidate selection procedures, the political vetting that has taken...

Ronnie Draper, General Secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, has been suspended from the Labour Party. He spoke to Solidarity (forthcoming issue). Official statements also printed below. Do you think the Labour Party machine might have bitten off more than it can chew by suspending you? Well I’m not looking to be treated any better, or any differently to anyone else. But I have been a Labour Party member for more than 40 years and when I discovered that I have been suspended, yesterday (25 August), I was amazed. I still haven’t been told why I have been suspended. I’ve been...

The press and media are in full flow, backing the right-wing Labour MPs telling us Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable. And yet Corbyn’s core support in the Party turns out in thousands to cheer him on. Why is Corbyn so popular? Labour is a growing force – thousands are joining - because Corbyn’s message appeals to a broad section of society, people who have been excluded from the system, people who feel disenfranchised. Corbyn seems to be speaking out for us. We want an economy that works for all of us. We have agency work, Zero Hours contracts and low pay. We need a Labour government which will...