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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…]

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…]

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…]

Anyone who has access to a computer, a television, a radio or a newspaper has doubtless heard the news of the vast caravan of Central American peoples that was heading through Mexico, at the time leading up to the US mid-term elections. The participants were attributed with having the expressed intention of invading the USA … [Read more…]

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…]

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…]

(presentation made by Paul Cannon at a public meeting of the Stalin Society, London, on 16 December 2018) “Forty years in the literary career of a great writer will always cover a large area on the ever-growing map of world culture. It is only at a distance that such a mountain range can be evaluated … [Read more…]

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…]

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…]

Staff at ASDA in Queslett, Great Barr, are fed up with the imposition of ‘scan and go’ machines, taking the place of the usual checkout tills. Where once there were 31 manned tills, there are now only 20, and workers fear that up to a dozen jobs may go by February next year. As well … [Read more…]