Solidarity 190, 26 January 2011

The conference of the National Shop Stewards' Network in London on 22 January, voted 305 to 89 for a Socialist Party motion to set up a third national anti-cuts coordination to compete with Coalition of Resistance and Right to Work. The new coordination will be a Socialist Party affair. After the conference, all the non-SP members of the NSSN committee resigned. That includes the majority of NSSN officers. As far as I could tell, all of the 20-odd speakers for the SP-backed motion were SP members bar one, Steve Hedley, London Transport regional organiser of the RMT rail union. Alex Gordon...

The Ruby Kid, aka Daniel Randall, is a political activist and hip-hop artist. He has been a member of Workers' Liberty since 2002 and has been recording and performing music since 2007. Here, in an article originally published on his MySpace blog , he responds to an ongoing debate around the meaning of "protest music" in 2010, and whether the new youth and student movement needs "a soundtrack". For more info on The Ruby Kid, visit his website . Things are kicking off a bit these days. You’ve probably noticed. Comparisons to the Thatcher era abound and, while the workers’ movement isn’t as...