On the 16 August, South African Police fired live ammunition at striking miners at Lonmin’s Marikana mine, killing 34 and injuring 78. Many were shot at close range while trying to surrender. The Marikana miners were demanding a tripling of their salary to R12,500 (£950 or €1100) per month. In the following days, 270 of...
Articles
‘Plebs’ on the march
The self-declared ‘plebs’ were out in force on Saturday at the TUC’s march against austerity in London, while thousands more were on the streets of Glasgow and Belfast to voice their anger at the coalition government. ‘Plebs Unite’ read one placard. ‘Proud Loud Educated Broke’ said another. ‘I’d rather be a pleb than a toff’...
A Labour Movement Alternative
As the Scottish independence debate heats up, PAULINE BRYAN argues that the status quo, devo max, devo plus and the SNP version of independence are each built on a neo-liberal model of economics. In their own ways, she says, they prevent even a classical social democratic approach to fiscal policy and the stimulation of economic...
Co-op weekend to focus on next generation
The new Co-operative Party general secretary, Karin Christiansen, will be guest speaker at the party’s north of England and Scotland weekend school at the end of November....
Radical Regionalism or a Retreat to the Heartlands?
DAVID CONNOLLY is unconvinced by the central argument of Paul Salveson’s Socialism with a Northern Accent....
There has to be a better way
Andrew Gamble and Jon Cruddas are two of the speakers who will feature in the Sheffield-based School of Democratic Socialism’s new lecture series called ‘There has to be a better way’....
A Future that Works
The TUC is calling for people from across the country to join its national demonstration against the coalition government’s cuts and austerity programme in London on Saturday 20 October. The march, called ‘A Future that Works’, will follow the same route as last year’s March for the Alternative which attracted a quarter of a million...
Jon Cruddas talks to James Purnell
Jon Cruddas MP, the man in charge of Labour policy review, was interviewed by James Purnell of the Institute of Public Policy Research during a fringe meeting at Labour Party conference in Manchester....
Labour of Love: The Robert Smillie Story
DAVID HOPPER, General Secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association, looks back at the remarkable life of Robert ‘Bob’ Smillie as he reviews a new book on the Labour movement pioneer....
Is a better capitalism possible?
Will Hutton has been delivering a series of well-attended lectures on developing a ‘good capitalism’ out of the crisis of ‘bad capitalism’. BARRY WINTER summarises a lecture Hutton gave in Manchester, and comments on what Hutton is saying....
A Tale of Two Cities
MAURICE GLASMAN traces the history of the City and asks, 'Whatever happened to London?' For the first 1500 years of its civic life, London conformed to the European pattern of urban development as a self-governing city, free from feudal Lordship and hospitable to the civic virtues of legality, trade, democratic self-government and professional association....
The Battle for Social Housing
The Leeds-based Ford-Maguire Society is hosting a meeting on social housing next month which will look back at early campaigns for public housing and ask what lessons there are for housing policy today. ...