Solidarity 314
Click here to download the paper as a pdf. Click here to read articles online.
Click here to download the paper as a pdf. Click here to read articles online.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) have threatened to refuse to mark essays or exam papers from 28 April unless Higher Education bosses make concessions on pay. The threat has already secured the promise of new talks ahead of the scheduled pay negotiations for 2014/2015. A marking boycott is considered to be lecturersâ ânuclear optionâ, and widely seen as a more effective and impacting form of industrial action than striking. Higher Education workers have already struck several times against a 1% pay offer for 2013/2014. Some UCUâmembers were disappointed that their union held...
Local government workersâ unions have told the Local Government employersâ body that they consider themselves to be in formal dispute, after bosses failed to make a pay offer for 2014/2015. Bosses also insisted that any offer they did make would be âpeggedâ to the national minimum wage, thereby rejecting unionsâ demand that all local government employers pay at least the Living Wage (ÂŁ8.80 in London and ÂŁ7.65 elsewhere). Heather Wakefield, head of Local Government at Unison, the biggest public sector union, said:ââOur members are now beginning to say that theyâd rather lose a few daysâ pay and...
The upcoming National Union of Teachers (NUT) strike against the governmentâs attacks on teachers pay, terms, and conditions on March 26 is a positive development, and the strike should be built for across the country. There needs to be serious discussion about what to do on the day and, most importantly, what should follow on from this strike. These discussion must involve the members at every level of the union. NUT activists must link up with other workers fighting across the public sector. One glaring issue that stands out in the latest strike announcement is that we appear to have another...
In an era of wars and revolutions â a new book from Workersâ Liberty â features American socialist cartoons spanning the middle of the 20th century. This era saw Stalinism at the height of its prestige and power, as well as some of its most notorious atrocities. In the late 1920s, the bureaucracy of the Soviet Union, under the political leadership of Joseph Stalin, wrested the last vestiges of power from the working-class, and unleashed a wave of expulsions and exiles to purge the Bolshevik party of those who resisted and held fast to their revolutionary socialist principles. Stalin...
If you want proof that the Tory government does not care whether people die, look at last yearâs ÂŁ100 million cut to the national floods budget. Thatâs all too clear where I live in Egham. Egham is situated on the western part of the Thames, a river which stretches from the outskirts of London, through Surrey and Berkshire, up to Oxford, and across Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. Here ÂŁ1.8 million was cut from the Arklyn Kennels scheme, which involved building up concrete and earth bank defences. ÂŁ1 million of the funding for the project wonât be available for another four years. West Drayton...
In his four years or so as Education Secretary, Michael Gove has accelerated the pace at which English state educational provision has been fragmented. New Labour proved itself just as hostile to democratic comprehensive education (as an ideal and where it existed) as the Tories and the Coalition. But by adding to the plethora of school types, and enabling more and more individual schools to be acquired by edu-management trusts, academy chains, charities, faith groups and social entrepreneurs, Gove is deepening the damage. Local accountability for, and local involvement in, the running of...
âIt is difficult to decide which camp in the Scottish independence debate makes the stronger case for voting the opposite way,â were the sensible opening words in the 21 February editorial in the Morning Star. In recent weeks, the editorial pointed out, âsome dire weakness in the SNP-led Yes campaign have been ruthlessly exposed.â The SNP claims that the pound would be the currency in an independent Scotland and that Scotland would be part of a âcurrency unionâ with the RUK (remainder of the UK). But all three Westminster parties have rejected such a âcurrency unionâ; an independent Scotland...
On 22 February, three months of protest in Ukraine culminated with the parliament unseating president Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych fled from the capital, Kiev, and from his luxury estate nearby. Parliament installed a member of the opposition as acting president and called for new elections soon. On 24 February the new government issued a warrant of Yanukovychâs arrest on charges of responsibility for the killing of protesters. Joy at the fall of the corrupt and authoritarian Yanukovych may sour very soon, though. Our solidarity should be with left-wing and working-class forces in Ukraine...
Atos, the French firm which runs the governmentâs Work Capability Assessments for Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance claimants, is seeking an early exit from the contract. They claim threats to its staff have been made, online and in person. We donât believe for a moment that these heartless bastards care a jot about their staff. More likely is that the campaign against Atos has damaged the companyâs reputation so badly that it is desperately seeking a pretext to cut and run. The company, which profits from cutting already meagre benefits from vulnerable people, earns...
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