Ukraine: Provocation in the Kerch Strait

On 25 November three Ukrainian Navy ships entered the Russian territorial waters of the Kerch Straits, the narrow body of water that separates Russia from Crimea, travelling from the Black Sea in the direction of the Azov Sea. Because of the volume of shipping that passes along what is quite a tricky stretch to navigate, … [Read more…]

France fights on against austerity, despite concessions

French President Macron has found himself in the international news quite a bit this year, mainly as his ‘hard-man’ of French bourgeois politics act has blown up in his face, thanks to the resistance of various workers and students, and he continues to stumble from one crisis to another. There were a couple of good … [Read more…]

Interserve – dead men walking?

The collapse of Carillion in January 2018 sent a shock wave through the whole outsourcing industry, calling into question the sanity of entrusting vast swathes of the public sector into the hands of giant capitalist monopolies like Kier, Capita, Mitie and Interserve. The last mentioned, once Carillion’s biggest rival, is now in deep trouble, and … [Read more…]

Cammell Laird strike suspended for now

The four-week delay in implementing redundancies at Cammell Laird, matched by Unite and GMB with a four-week suspension of strike action, is not the end of the struggle to save jobs at the yard, although it has saved the 291 workers expected to be made redundant from receiving redundancy notices just in time for Christmas! … [Read more…]

The lengthy Marriott Hotel strike wins significant concessions

Marriott International is the biggest hotel chain in the world, with around 6,700 franchised hotels operating under 30 brand names in 130 countries. In 2017 Marriott raked in net profits of $1.37bn. These glittering rewards are not however reflected in the pay and working conditions of the housekeepers, catering workers, dishwashers, janitors, doormen and bar … [Read more…]

Microchipping

As King Midas was condemned to turn everything he touched into gold, so capitalist social production relations work to turn all human relations into monetary transactions and all workers into mere machines for the production of surplus value for the capitalist. Given this deep alienation at the heart of capitalist society, it was only a … [Read more…]

World War I in the Middle East and its aftermath

Presentation made to the Stalin Society, London, by Ella Rule on 18 November 2018 Examining the situation at the end of WW1, one cannot help but remark on the truth of Mao Zedong’s observation that imperialists are paper tigers, with far greater impact on people’s minds than their actual physical strength warrants. During the war, … [Read more…]

WH Smith gobbles up another 74 post offices

Five years ago the government privatised the Royal Mail delivery service, and ever since the vultures have been circling the remaining Crown post office counter services too. The recent announcement that another 74 post offices are to be franchised out to high street monopoly WH Smith, in addition to over 100 earlier franchises already run … [Read more…]