With the general election less than two weeks away, BARRY WINTER provides a snapshot of the appalling state of our society after 10 years of Conservative cuts. It’s time for change....
GMB Slams Tory ‘Right to Buy’ Plans
The GMB union has slammed the Conservative Party’s plans to extend the ‘right to buy’ to housing association tenants as creating a “rich harvest” for private landlords at the expense of the nation’s social housing stock....
Condition Critical
The Socialist Health Association has highlighted five ways the government’s health reforms have failed to improve patient care, the criteria used by former health secretary Andrew Lansley to defend his policies against a damning King’s Fund report last month. The King’s Fund health think tank described Lansley’s reforms as “damaging and distracting” for introducing even...
Resisting Austerity, Edinburgh Style
MIKE CORMACK, of Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, describes some of the direct action being taken in the Scottish capital to resist the coalition’s attacks on welfare. In Edinburgh claimants and low-paid workers are organising through Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty to support each other and take action to resist workfare, benefit cuts and austerity attacks....
Unions at the Heart of the Welfare State
GERRY LAVERY, JOE ROLLIN and CALLUM STANLAND report from ‘Unions at the heart of the welfare state’, a national conference called by the TUC National Consultative Committee for Unemployed Workers’ Centres....
Unbalanced Britain: Nearly 700,000 on Zero-Hours Contracts
The GMB has pointed out that nearly 700,000 workers are on zero-hours contracts despite working on average 25 hours per week, and called on the Labour Party “to deal with exploitation and harassment of workers which it has ignored for too long”. ...
Don’t Let Them Drown
The South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group is calling for people to join them on a demonstration in Sheffield against government policy on refugees and asylum seekers....
People’s NHS March Arrives in London
The People’s March for the NHS will arrive at its destination in London this Saturday, 6 September, when campaigners will be joined by thousands of demonstrators for the final leg from Red Lion Square to Westminster....
Unbalanced Britain: Corporate Power and our Me-Based Culture
Over the past 30 years the New Right, aided and abetted in some respects by New Labour, has introduced changes that have profoundly damaged, not only our economy, but British culture and politics. The result, says BARRY WINTER, is a seriously unbalanced society. We live in an era of what the American philosopher, Michael Sandel,...
Axing the ILF will be ‘Catastrophic’ for Disabled People
The government’s decision to axe the Independent Living Fund will have ‘catastrophic’ consequences for disabled people, according to the Unite union....
Welfare Cuts ‘Leading to Suicide Threats’
Government welfare cuts are driving people to the edge of suicide, claimed the Unite union this week before an MPs’ debate on the impact of welfare reforms on disabled people....
Government ‘Turning a Blind Eye’ to Bedroom Tax Suffering
The Unite union this week accused the government of turning a blind eye to the suffering being caused by the ‘bedroom tax’, as new figures reveal up to 50,000 households have been charged in error. ...