Hizb ut Tahrir and the far left
The comments box on the post below has somehow been taken over by a slanging match on the attitude the revolutionary left should adopt towards the Iraqi resistance. That’s a valid debate, although it has been running for the last three years, and positions are fairly entrenched by now.
But here’s something along the same lines [...]
CWU: postal workers to vote on strike
The industrial relations picture at privatisation-threatened Royal Mail has been fraught for some time, and now matters have come to a head:
‘Up to 136,000 postal workers are to be balloted on strike action after pay negotiations broke down.
‘The Communication Workers Union made the decision after it failed to reach an agreement with the Royal Mail. [...]
Poll: public support for public ownership
Several previous posts on this blog have lamented the way in which the case for social ownership is simply no longer being made in sectors as varied as the railways, water and the car industry.
Obviously, the New Labour leadership actually believes in the inherent superior of the private sector in all areas of economic activity. [...]
One day is fine, the next is Black
The possibility of an spell behind bars has moved another step closer for Conrad Black, the Tory peer and former owner of the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and many other leading newspapers around the world.
Thatcher’s Canadian buddy – pictured left – faces trial in the US next year on fraud charges, with claims that he [...]
Water privatisation and the case for social ownership
Water privatisation has had disastrous consequences in many third world countries. It has hardly been a roaring success in Britain, either.
In March, this blog looked at the case of Severn Trent – Britain’s largest water company – which was ordered to reimburse overcharged customers to the tune of £42m, after deliberately supplying false information to [...]
RMT suspends signals strike
Press release from RMT:
‘Strike action by 5,000 Network Rail signalling and operational staff scheduled for Sunday June 25 has been suspended as the RMT executive put the company’s latest pay and conditions offer out to a referendum.
‘The result of the referendum will be known on Thursday June 29, and if the offer is rejected the [...]
Campaign Group: Gordon Brown wrong on Trident
Press release from the Socialist Campaign Group on our prime minister in waiting’s enthusiasm for nuclear weapons:
‘Labour MPs from across the Party have reacted angrily to the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech last night, in which he announced he would go ahead with replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons.
‘Jeremy Corbyn MP, Campaign Group MP and National [...]
Swedish finance minister downplays red menace
I had been under the impression that Trotskyism was doing moderately well in Sweden. I mean, I accept that the country is probably not going to be the epicentre of the world revolution.
But Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna – Swedish section of the Committee for a Workers’ International, the international tendency centred on Peter Taaffe’s Socialist Party in [...]
Iain Dale on what’s wrong with leftwing blogging
Widely-read Tory blogger Iain Dale – a sometime sparring partner of mine since the National Dock Labour Scheme strike of 1989, but that’s another story – has some telling observations on the impact of British leftwing bloggers in this week’s Tribune:
‘But as the right is on the ascendant on the internet, the left seems somewhat [...]
Alan Simpson MP: Blairites target leftwinger
Nottingham South MP Alan Simpson – pictured left, and probably the sharpest and most articulate member of the Campaign Group – is in for a serious ticking off today, pour encourager les autres.
‘Officially, he is being disciplined for comparing Downing Street under Mr Blair to Franco’s Fascist regime and dismissing his replacement by Mr Brown [...]
